Boston’s Fish House

Innovative Dishes with an Inspiring Story

BY ELAINE HARRIS AND SCOTT HARRIS

Boston’s Fish House is casting its line to new customers in Tivoli Village, Las Vegas. Opening a restaurant anytime is challenging but opening a new venue during a pandemic is like steering a ship in a hurricane. Owners Brian and Nicolas Sord, Chicago restauranteurs, were doing just that when they decided to open several restaurants in Las Vegas amid pandemic protocols. New to the Las Vegas restaurant market, their Sunny Side Up restaurant opened just pre-pandemic, and pleasing the breakfast and lunch crowds, gave the brothers reason to persevere with a fresh seafood concept, Boston’s Fish House. Then the unthinkable happened, but like stalwart seasoned restauranteurs, they persevered and brought on Tara Nicosia. With a brilliant 20-year career as an international food and beverage consultant and restaurateur, Nicosia plans to stay at the helm of this new restaurant “ship.”

Nicosia has a remarkable dossier of culinary excellence in New York and Miami. In New York City, “I had garbage guys from DPW sit at the counter next to ladies in their Lululemons,” said Nicosia. With massive success alongside her husband, celebrity Chef Alfredo Alvarez, her best friend, and business partner, the dynamic husband and wife team found great success opening numerous restaurants, notably Giacosa in Coral Gables and Seaspice on the River. Their most recent project was the opening of M House by Giacosa, a resurgence of the original restaurant. At the very height of their success, tragedy stuck when Alvarez passed away suddenly in 2018. His wife and partner became utterly devastated as her world drastically altered forever. Shortly after, she posted on her social media accounts, “This is going to be our year, baby. We are starting from scratch but coming soon, the grand opening of your restaurant. And it’s only up from here. I love you. Tara.” Nicosia went on to add, “I’m in the most terrible agony. My world truly has been taken away. Alfredo was my partner in every sense. My love for him was deeper than the ocean. We were inseparable, and I will never love another. He has helped so many people and was one of the most genuine souls I ever encountered.”

Boston’s Fish House interior photo by Ann Parenti

Taking some time for herself, Nicosia, still in Miami, received a call from father and son, Brian and Nicolas Sord. They needed help in Las Vegas opening a new seafood concept and needed her years of experience to head up both the front and back of the house. Nicosia needed a change. Her passion for the industry was more vital than ever before, and she arrived in Las Vegas, opening yet another chapter in her life.

“We wanted to open a seafood restaurant focusing on the locals and the local community,” said Tara. “I would never have thought that this would happen in my 20 years as an owner-operator in the restaurant industry. We pay competitive wages, but we have great challenges right now. I look at this as a profession where the touch of service from the moment a guest comes in the door is what we strive to bring to our venues. It is not just about making a few dollars and moving on. We are trying to adapt and innovate,” continued Nicosia. “We consider critiques. We tell servers to come to me if a guest has a special request, and I will try to make it happen.”

Photo of Lobster by Scott Harris

Innovations such as weekly live music and a Tuesday-Friday happy hour hope to bring guests in the doors along with an inviting private dining space for business or more intimate gatherings available upon request. Plans for brunch and a daily happy hour are in the making. “We do our best to bring the very freshest ingredients as our famous Honey glazed Salmon and Cioppino reflect. Our raw bar is very popular with specials on fresh oysters.”

Sicilian and Hungarian-born Nicosia takes her heritage of being raised in a true farm-to-table home where her mother grew her vegetables from their three-acre property. At the same time, her dad had a business partner in the meatpacking industry to procure the best cuts of meats.

Photo by Scott Harris

From her humble beginnings, she traveled internationally and learned the restaurant business from the school of hard work. At age 29, Nicosia opened her first restaurant, leading to an extraordinary career in the restaurant industry. With the skills and passion in place and the drive to succeed, Nicosia believes she and the staff of Boston’s Fish House will steer into a prosperous harbor within the Las Vegas market.

“I love food, but I also love it to be clean. I want to use organic, when possible, as well as the source from local farms to create special menu items,” she said. Under Nicosia, Boston’s Fish House has imaginative dishes and provides service standards that only this veteran restaurateur can provide.

Boston’s Fish House interior photo by Ann Parenti

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