Woman's Boston side hustle inspired by her love of hosting dinner parties
BOSTON - In Boston's North End, a woman has turned her love of entertaining into a booming dinner party business.
Inspired by Italian upbringing
Aperitivo The Shop can be found on Prince Street and is full of splashes of Maria Colalancia's Italian upbringing.
"Every single Sunday, Sunday dinners, it was non-negotiable," said Colalancia. "No matter how busy we all were, we were always sitting down or at a table at least once a week. And that was just such a special part of my upbringing."
All the items in the shop are inspired by her love for good wine, good food and good company. Colalancia's mission to meet new friends when she moved to Boston from upstate New York a couple of years ago led to the start of her dinner party series.
"I put a TikTok together, put it out on my personal TikTok and it went viral," said Colalancia. "I had 700 people sign up for this supper club and we hosted the first dinner party a few weeks later. And then fast forward a year and a half later, I came across this space."
Aperitivo now helps customers planning their own dinner parties. Colalancia was just 27 years old when her journey of opening Aperitivo began and she continues to chronicle the ups and downs of building a small business on TikTok.
"There were certainly nerves but I think it was very much everything just felt like it was meant to be."
Started as side hustle
Aperitivo also happens to be Colalancia's side hustle. She works at Wayfair during the day and spends the rest of her time at the shop, greeting customers and sourcing new, unique items.
When asked for her advice for those who have a creative idea or passion project they want to get off the ground, Colalancia said, "I think something I've always had a hard time with is I want everything to be perfect and I want to have a plan and I want to think things through. And you do need to do all of those things but it also needs to be a healthy amount of just getting, like, pushed off the ledge and just do it."
