Below the Grand Avenue Bridge, beneath the historic Silver Club Building, beyond the Italian Underground’s tables draped in red- and white-checkered cloth, blue flames roasted Ben Heyliger’s pasta skillet. A bottle of Pinot Grigio in hand, Ben’s 25-year-old brother, Web, relinquished the wine as a final ingredient for Ben’s pasta sauce.

“This is our mother’s meat sauce,” Ben, 29, said, containing more than a hint of excitement as he shuffled the skillet’s ingredients. “Well, it’s been in our family for generations, but it’s the one our mother always made us as kids.”