Category: Belmont Voice

  • Belmont Eateries Are a Family Affair

    As children living above their father’s hair salon on Leonard Street in Belmont Center in the 1980s, the deMagistris brothers often played soccer and tag in the street.

    Today, those three brothers — Dante, Damian, and Filippo — run The Wellington, a casual eatery with creative American cuisine they opened on that same block in 2018.

    Dante is the chef, and Damian and Filippo are both directors of operations. They also co-own il Casale, an Italian restaurant with locations in Belmont and Lexington.

    The deMagistris family is a throwback to previous generations — one family occupying significant business space on the same block over generations.

    Their father, Leon, who still owns the hair salon Leon and Co., is grateful that his sons work so close to him. He sees them every day, he said.

    “And when I’m hungry, I go across the street, and they feed me,” Leon joked.

    Leon noticed that Dante had the knack for cooking from a young age. As early as middle school, Dante remembers watching his grandmother in the kitchen.

    When that started, Dante said, it became something he did every day. He quickly realized that he would rather be cooking than playing video games or doing homework.

    “Somebody had to cook dinners for the family,” Dante said. “They would just eat cereal if I didn’t cook something.”

    He knew he wanted to pursue a career in food. After high school, Dante moved to Italy, where he gained valuable experience working in restaurants in Bologna, Florence and Naples.

    With family scattered around Italy, Dante lodged for free as he moved around for work. When he returned home, he opted against culinary school and decided to continue working in kitchens.

    One stop on his journey was as a line cook at Pignoli, a restaurant in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. Dante worked under Daniele Baliani, who helped open it in 1994.

    Baliani’s first impression of Dante, 19 at the time, was that he was shy, but Baliani knew Dante had the talent needed to succeed. It was just a matter of getting him out of his shell. Baliani vividly remembers the moment he succeeded.

    At Pignoli, they had five minutes to get risotto from the kitchen to the table. In Italy, it’s a 20-minute ordeal, where it’s made entirely from scratch. That wasn’t the case at Pignoli, Baliani said. Dante was taking too long.

    “I got pissed off at him,” he said. “I think that kind of woke him up.”

    As Dante honed his craft, Damian was on his own journey. While attending Fordham University, he began working in restaurants, but in the front of the house. He attended the French Culinary Institute to gain more knowledge about the management and finance side of the business.

    In 2009, they opened il Casale’s Belmont location — also on Leonard Street — and the Lexington location in 2014. The Wellington followed in 2018.

    They wanted to open their restaurant in Belmont because the quiet town had a stigma of being “sleepy,” Damian said.

    When the town sold the old firehouse on Leonard Street, the brothers saw an opportunity to bring more energy to the town center where they grew up.

    “It was critical that we had a nice, warm restaurant that spoke to some of our values,” Damian said. “A center where people could gather and have birthday parties and celebrate things or just catch up over a drink. And the town never had a bar until we showed up.”

    Diane Gordon and her husband end up at The Wellington on occasion. The couple enjoys the free “yummy rolls” and the fried chicken, a $28 dish served with shaved cucumber and radish salad and hot chili oil.

    “The food is always good,” Gordon said. “It’s a place where you can go and chat, but it’s more classy while still being accessible.”

    Damian remembers the “crazy” energy of the first month The Wellington opened. Priests and teachers from their childhood showed up to support.

    “I’ve never seen them in a place having that much fun and just kind of celebrating life,” he said.

    This story is part of a partnership between the Belmont Voice and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Belmont Clothing Designer Charts a New Creative Course

    The machine groaned as John d’Arbeloff turned the crank, pressing silver through cardboard and cheesecloth until the metal emerged with an imprint of woven texture.

    After 30 years in the clothing business, the 65-year-old founder of RailRiders adventure wear has launched a new venture. The Belmont resident said his handcrafted jewelry line fuses his passion for artistic design with his love of the ocean.

    “I love birthing things,” said d’Arbeloff. “I love designing and seeing it come to fruition. I look at something raw, and then a light bulb goes off, and I know exactly what I’m going to do.”

    He started RailRiders in his 20s after deciding sailors deserved better sports gear. His first product—padded foul-weather shorts—helped racers “ride the rail” along a sailboat’s edges.

    As his company matured, d’Arbeloff began imagining his next business.

    “Pottery was too messy,” he said. “I ended up looking like a little chocolate muffin.”

    Years of seaside walks with his daughter Margaux sparked the idea for the jewelry business.

    “I always envisioned what we picked up, sea glass or shells, as jewelry,” he said. “And I said to myself, ‘I’m just gonna do this.’ ”

    He enrolled in a beginner’s jewelry-making class in Waltham. Within weeks, he had found a new obsession, and soon, a new studio.

    “John’s constantly pulling from nature,” said Jill d’Arbeloff, his sister-in-law. “Just like the outdoor gear, you see it in the leaves, the sea glass, the gemstones.”

    His jewelry often begins at the beach. He and Margaux, a skilled sailor and artist herself, collect pieces of sea glass worn smooth by the tide. He wraps them in silver wire, drills delicate holes underwater to reduce the risk of breakage, and weaves them into jewelry that shimmers with coastal light.

    He experiments restlessly in his home studio. Some nights he hammers copper into new patterns; other days he melts and recasts silver ingots.

    “The thing about art is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” he said, laughing. “You just redo it, and it becomes something else.”

    During a recent visit to his studio, light spilled over two long tables crowded with grinders, tumblers, and trays of tiny hammers and pliers. Shelves lined the walls, stacked with labeled boxes of silver wire and copper sheets.

    “By the middle of the second class, this blossomed,” d’Arbeloff said. “Seven thousand dollars later, I have my own studio.”

    It’s a far cry from RailRiders, which made $3 million in sales annually, but the enterprise is rooted in the same love of nature that shaped his clothing line. According to d’Arbeloff, his latest venture draws on his instincts for design, from outfitting sailors to crafting jewelry inspired by the sea.

    The pieces, sold on his RailRiders website under the Adventure Jewelry section, carry the same sense of motion that helped him build his outdoor clothing business.

    “The ocean is an adventure,” he said. “That’s where this all started. Walking the beach with my daughter, seeing what we could do with it.”

    Those who know d’Arbeloff describe him as endlessly curious, yet very much a family man at heart.

    “He’s a devoted dad,” said longtime friend David Cella, who met him when their daughters were in kindergarten. “He likes to share his interests with his daughter and spend time with her, and that’s what I’ve seen consistently.”

    Jill d’Arbeloff echoed a similar sentiment.

    “He’s incredibly loving and always willing to help,” she said. “He’s the one who’ll show up with tools if someone needs a hand.”

    D’Arbeloff still coaches his creativity like he once coached soccer.

    “You learn from doing,” he said. “Sometimes you bleed a lot in this pool, but you get better each time.”

    He credits his drive to a lifelong refusal to stand still. He grew up in Cambridge during the 1960s, studied art, and spent years sailing the Caribbean.

    “A body in motion stays in motion,” he said. “You gotta exercise your muscles, your brain, your creativity.”

    That philosophy has carried him from design sketches to soldering benches, from the open sea to the quiet hum of his basement studio. Friends say the shift is another outlet for the curiosity that’s always kept him moving.

    “He’s energized by it,” Cella said. “At our age, you don’t often see someone dive into something completely new, but he’s doing it with full curiosity and joy.”

    D’Arbeloff’s next goal is to learn casting, a process of melting silver into molds. He said he doesn’t measure success by sales or followers.

    “It’s not about mass-producing,” he said. “Every piece is unique. It’s about creating something that feels alive.”

    Back at the studio, a bracelet glints under the light. The former sailor turns it over in his hands, the way he might inspect a line or a sail.

    “I don’t know where it’s going,” he said, smiling, “but I know I’m having a hell of a time getting there.”

  • Belmont and Transylvanian Churches Celebrate 35-Year Bond

    Members of The First Church in Belmont Unitarian Universalist traveled to Romania this summer to celebrate the congregation’s 35-year partnership with its sister church in Transylvania, a relationship that began in the 1990s and has grown into decades of fellowship — meals, music and faith shared between two communities an ocean apart.

    Désfalva is a small village in the Transylvanian region of Romania, known for its deep Hungarian roots and centuries-old traditions. The Belmont church’s relationship with the Central European congregation began in 1990 through the denomination’s church partnership program, which connected churches after the fall of Communism.

    Every January, the congregations hold a joint worship service via livestream. Belmont projects Désfalva’s sanctuary onto a large screen so members can see one another in real time as they worship.

    “We’ll do a piece of music, and then they’ll do a piece of music, and then he’ll preach, and I’ll preach, live at the same time,” said the Rev. Chris Jablonski, senior minister at The First Church in Belmont.

    Among the most meaningful symbols of their relationship is the Kopjafa, a traditional, hand-carved wooden commemorative pillar that stands outside both churches. In Désfalva, villagers carve the columns to commemorate a community that was flooded during Romania’s Communist era, destroying the homes of Unitarian, Greek, and Jewish families. Artisans in Désfalva crafted a kopjafa and shipped it to Belmont in 2013 to honor Hans de Muinck Keizer, the first Belmont member to visit the village in 1990. This year, the Romanian congregation continued the tradition with a brass plaque honoring Sherry Jones, a Belmont community leader and founding supporter of the partnership, who died Nov. 15, 2024.

    “One of the really inspiring things that I’ve learned from them is the importance in trying times to keep people connected, grounded, hopeful, and remembering that they’re part of something larger,” said Jablonski.

    That sense of connection has deepened through decades of visits, projects, and friendships. Jeanne Mooney, a retired communications director at the Belmont church, first met visitors from Désfalva in 1997 when the church hosted the Transylvanian minister and his wife. In the intervening years, she said, cooking meals together, eating around tables, and going out to people’s homes has evolved into lasting friendships and connections.

    Jablonski joined members of his congregation on the visit to Désfalva this summer to dedicate a refurbished church organ, meet students who receive scholarships funded by the Belmont congregation, and enjoy traditional gatherings, including a horse-drawn wagon ride through the countryside.

    The 19th-century organ had been left in disrepair for decades after Romania’s Communist regime, when many church properties were seized and damaged.

    “Their organ basically looked like it was destroyed on purpose,” said Livia Racz, chair of the denomination’s partner church committee. “This person who rebuilt it really just wanted to right this wrong that had been done.”

    Racz said a craftsman charged the church 10,000 euros (about $11,600), which for a year of work and all new parts, was considered a bargain. The restoration typically would have cost 10 times more.

    The Belmont congregation helps fund scholarships for 12 to 15 students each year from Désfalva and the nearby village of Haranglab, according to Racz. The money allows students to attend Hungarian-language high schools, since local Romanian schools prohibit speaking Hungarian in class.

    “They could go to a Romanian school, but they’re not allowed to speak Hungarian,” Racz said. “If they want to keep their heritage, they have to travel really far. So, we have a scholarship fund that supports those who want to go to a Hungarian high school.”

    Jablonski said meeting the students was one of the most moving parts of his trip.

    “We heard from all of the current scholarship kids,” he said. “It’s been a very inspiring experience. Getting to know our friends in the village, hearing their stories of what they went through, and seeing the community still so connected.”

    Meals with host families were another highlight.

    “They had chickens and pigs and goats, and so I would milk the goats, and then we had that goat milk for breakfast,” Jablonski said. “Everything was there. The jam from berries and plums, bacon from their pigs, eggs from their chicken.”

    Mooney described the visit as an “intergenerational connection” between the two congregations, with families on both sides staying in touch for decades. Over the last quarter century, she said she has watched her Transylvanian friends’ children grow up and their church welcome a new generation of ministers.

    “It’s really a fun time to meet people after you’ve been [separated by] such a long, long distance,” Mooney said.

  • ‘Packing With Purpose’ Provides Hygiene Supplies to Massachusetts Shelters

    Two Belmont High School students are leading a community organization that aspires to provide hygiene products to homeless shelters in Massachusetts.

    Senior Zulal Islamoglu was inspired to start Packing With Purpose this spring while working as a dental assistant at Worcester Pediatrics, a medical clinic in Worcester, Mass.

    “I realized how much I love dentistry, and I knew I wanted to do something to help the community,” she said. “I thought about making little packages.”

    In April, Islamoglu proposed the idea to junior Mariam Makarova one morning before school. “Originally, the idea was just having to do with dental supplies, like toothpaste and toothbrushes,” Makarova said. “I thought that was a good idea and she asked if I wanted to join and I said, ‘Yes’.”

    Both students were already involved in community service. Islamoglu said she has been preparing meals for homeless people since her freshman year through Community Cooks, a volunteer organization based in Somerville. Makarova said she began making cards last year for Cards for Hospitalized Kids, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that distributes cards to children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald houses.

    After researching local homeless shelters, the students learned the shelters’ needs far exceeded their original idea to provide only dental products.

    “We thought, ‘Why would we limit what we give them?’” Makarova said.

    Islamoglu and Makarova sent emails to about 15 shelters. Of those, The Psychological Center, a nonprofit organization in Lawrence, and South Middlesex Opportunity Council, a nonprofit organization in Framingham, were interested in partnering with them.

    The students asked both shelters for a list of their most-needed items. They then found quality products at affordable prices, usually on Amazon, and calculated an approximate cost to create each hygiene kit. They started a GoFundMe for each shelter.

    “I reached out to people that I think would be willing to donate,” Islamoglu said. “I reached out to people like co-workers, my mom’s friends, and I told the class president to promote it.”

    For The Psychological Center, which needs deodorant, body wash, ChapStick, sunscreen, feminine hygiene products, and toilet paper, the students’ goal is to create 55 kits at about $12 each. For The South Middlesex Opportunity Council, which needs shampoo, conditioner, razors, shaving cream, and sunscreen, their goal is 80 kits at about $9 each. So far, they’ve raised about $40.

    Brittany King, a guidance counselor at Belmont High School, remembers when Makarova told her about Packing With Purpose.

    “It was like, ‘I want to do this. How do we get this done?’” King said. “She’ll still email me from time to time, asking, ‘Can you post this?’ because we can post it to students. So, I’m happy to help.”

    The number of homeless people in Massachusetts increased about 53% between 2023 and 2024, from 19,141 to 29,360, according to the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.

    Massachusetts House Bill 2390 would establish a task force to study the feasibility of including hygiene products under the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

    Islamoglu and Makarova share information about the organization and instructions about how people can donate on their website, packingwithpurpose.org, and Instagram account, @packing_w_purpose.

    “Our goal is just to connect with people, help them and get their needs met,” Islamoglu said.

  • Belmont Alum Overcomes Brain Injury, Prepares for Prestigious Program

    After she suffered a traumatic brain injury playing soccer as a sophomore at Belmont High School, Anya Button’s parents worried their daughter would never be the same.

    She was forced to take a year off from school to recover.

    “We didn’t know what the end of it would be,” said her father, Don.

    Fast forward, and Button isn’t only a senior at Duke University — where she is a sociology student with a focus on markets and management — but she’s also heading to one of the world’s most prestigious graduate fellowship programs.

    Button was selected to join the 10th class of Schwarzman Scholars — a one-year, fully funded master’s degree program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The program is designed to prepare the next generation of global leaders. She is one of 150 incoming scholars from 38 countries selected from a pool of nearly 5,000 candidates.

    Wyatt Bruton, the associate director of admissions for Schwarzman Scholars, is part of the team that identifies and selects emerging leaders from around the world. Selecting Button was easy for Bruton and the rest of the admissions team, as “she’s an obvious leader.”

    “It was very obvious to us as a selection committee that Anya is on the path to impact, she’s on the path to leadership, and we need her to come join this mission that we’re working on because she’s going to make waves,” Bruton said.

    Staying Involved

    Button was told she wouldn’t be able to play contact sports again after her injury, but wanted to stay involved, and she loved photography.

    She often attended Boston Breakers games, the city’s former professional women’s soccer team, as both a fan and a photographer. Attending so many games, she noticed something.

    “There was a significant gap in media,” said Button, 22. “There wasn’t a lot of coverage of women’s sports — there weren’t any formalized outlets.”

    Intrigued by the relationship between athletics and global economic development, and envisioning creating new sustainable business models that empower women globally through sports, Button founded Victress FC.

    Victress FC sells and licenses photos covering the top levels of women’s sports, particularly soccer, to media outlets that don’t have full-time staff photographers. It also provides mentorship opportunities for women looking to break into the sports industry.

    “Whether it’s shadowing or providing credentials for games, we provide that umbrella and get them their first step into the industry,” Button said.

    She worked with Football Australia in its bidding campaign to jointly host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup with New Zealand. Her photos were used in social media posts around Australia to garner support for the bid. She was also the national team’s photographer for its Tournament of Nations in 2018.

    “It was a really great introduction to what it looks like when women’s sports become mainstream,” she said. “Being a part of that around the world was really powerful.”

    Her experience doesn’t stop there. She has also had stints with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Serena Ventures — the Serena Williams-backed VC Fund.

    Schwarzman Scholars

    Button first heard about Schwarzman Scholars through her orientation leader at Duke. She was intrigued for two reasons. One, the program is tied to Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, an investment management company, and two, the opportunity to immerse herself in China and other parts of Asia.

    After submitting her application last September, Button went through a rigorous interview process. In the final five minutes of the interview, she was asked “random global affairs questions.” Every day in the lead-up to the interview, she would listen to the BBC’s daily global podcast and read The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.

    “It wasn’t questions about the state of American politics or the state of America, but it could be about Brazil and their approach to X or otherwise,” Button said.

    Initially, she didn’t tell her parents exactly what she was applying for.

    “She said, ‘I’m doing something. I want to try for something big, but I don’t want to jinx it by telling you what it is,’” her father said.

    Eventually, she told her parents, and they looked up the program, but they didn’t truly understand the magnitude of the opportunity until she was chosen.

    The yearlong program begins in August, and Button is excited for the academic experience, but also the conversations that await her. Since the program is free, the door is opened for a wide variety of people and backgrounds.

    “The college itself functions as a space for civil discourse,” she said. “You can really get a person to person perspective to a lot of the world conflicts and things going on.”

    This story is part of a partnership between the Belmont Voice and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Volunteer Group Tackles Invasive Species at Lone Tree Hill

    Leonard Katz would often walk the Coal Road Trail at the Lone Tree Hill nature preserve in Belmont, but not without being whacked by knotweed.

    “People might pick up ticks when they walk or bike,” Katz said.

    Along with Dean Hickman, Katz leads the Belmont Conservation Volunteers, a group that protects the town’s native plants and restores its natural spaces by controlling the spread of ecologically harmful invasive plants, like knotweed.

    Katz is a “semi-retired” academic philosopher who has a research appointment at Harvard University. He’s always loved to hike — that’s where his interest in controlling invasive species stemmed from.

    Hickman, meanwhile, is a scientist who works for a nonprofit organization looking to develop drugs for tuberculosis, who runs through the woods at Lone Tree Hill on occasion. He’s gained appreciation for the preserve over time.

    “Once you start appreciating the woods, you want to put a little effort in to help and organize other people to do the same,” he said.

    With permission from the town, Katz, Hickman, and other volunteers are permitted to work on land over which the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill, the Conservation Commission, and the Select Board have jurisdiction. But they are only allowed to use handheld tools to control specific species.

    One species the group is able to control is Akebia quinata, commonly known as chocolate vine. It’s an evergreen ground cover and climbing vine that kills native shrubs and taller canopy trees by twining and climbing, which results in a reduction of plant biodiversity and overall quality of natural communities.

    “If we don’t keep up with it, then there will not be regeneration of the forest with young trees that are needed long term to replace the old trees that die,” Katz said.

    As the calendar turns to May and June, the focus will shift to Alliaria petiolata, commonly known as garlic mustard, which is also a threat to biodiversity. If the plant is not pulled, it drops “hundreds of seeds,” Hickman said, which further smothers native plants.

    “It’s very easy for volunteers to pull those kinds of things, so it’s a good introduction to something you can do that’s beneficial for the woods,” he added.

    The Belmont Conservation Volunteers also help lead activities at annual events sponsored by community organizations year-round such as the Belmont Citizens Forum Volunteer Day at Lone Tree Hill on April 26 and Belmont Serves on Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October.

    Anna Churchill, who works part-time in human resources and teaches women’s health education on the side, is an active volunteer. She’s interested in learning more about the environment and the plants around her.

    Churchill said she saw a post online calling for volunteers and thought it was a great way to “get outside, to meet people, and to spend some time volunteering.”

    “Going out and doing something like pulling garlic mustard – you’re not just doing that, you’re also learning about the other plants that are nearby,” Churchill said. “And you’re meeting people like Leonard, who is very knowledgeable about other plants that are growing around there. So I’ve learned a lot.”

    Arthur Kreiger, a retired environmental and land use lawyer, has become a certified Master Gardener. As his legal career has wound down, Kreiger has spent more time removing invasive species and planting native plants.

    He volunteers removing invasive species across greater Boston and spends time with the Belmont Conservation Volunteers because the town needs remediation.

    For Kreiger, Katz, and Hickman, this type of work is important because these invasive species are green, lush, and look harmless.

    “They’re destructive to the local environment,” Kreiger said. “It’s just as important as any other aspect of environment protection.”

  • Diverse Array of Issues Drive Belmont Voters

    Municipal elections are often decided by one of several key issues: For example, the financial health of the town, the character or livability of the community and the quality of the roads and sidewalks.

    This year, we asked Belmont voters the question, “What brought you out today?”

    Karen Bauerle, who lives on Hurd Road in Precinct 6, is passionate about housing and diversity in the school system.

    “I’m really looking forward to change in Belmont,” she said. “I want to see more than just white kids in our classrooms.”

    Terri Goldberg of Alma Avenue in Precinct 5 agreed with Bauerle, adding “the schools are always important,” even though her children are already through the system.

    But she also emphasized that Belmont is facing a number of significant challenges that will affect the town’s future, such as building more homes and maintaining the environment.

    Sarah Ellison, a Precinct 6 resident who lives on Stults Road, always votes because she feels it’s her civic duty, even if it’s a relatively calm election cycle.

    That’s not the case this year. She wants to support the town and people who want to make a change.

    “Many of the issues facing the town often aren’t contested,” Ellison said. “But this election is.”

    She wants to keep Belmont an accessible town on foot. Also of importance to Ellison are maintaining Belmont Center and building more housing.

    For Lydia Carthy Cornell of Hillcrest Road in Precinct 6, the new Library building is a “big focus.”

    “I loved going to the library as a kid,” Carthy Cornell said. “I have a one-year-old son who I want to have that same experience.”

    She’s patiently waiting for the new construction on Concord Avenue to wrap up. The project is aiming to be completed in early October, with a grand opening teased for early 2026.

    For Helen Bakeman of Lexington Street in Precinct 5, her trip to the ballot box is more out of worry for the future.

    “What’s going to happen in the next 10 years, physically and fiscally?” she said.

    Affordable housing is a major concern for Bakeman. Simply put, she just wants to see more of it.

    Lisa Pargoli, a Precinct 5 resident who lives on White Street, aligns with Bakeman’s concerns. Physically, it’s mainly the roads and maintaining buildings. Fiscally, it’s transparency.

    “Why is everything falling apart?” she said. “Where is the money going?”

    This story is part of a partnership between the Belmont Voice and the Boston University Department of Journalism.