Maria and Zissis Klisiaris are a husband-and-wife team who know what it takes to run a restaurant. “Food is the center of our universe,” Maria said recently as a worker climbed a ladder to install speakers in the dining room ceiling of Agostino’s Italian Restaurant at 23 Washington St. It’s one of the finishing touches that must get done before Maria and Zissis take over Agostino’s, which has been closed since January after a burst pipe flooded parts of the restaurant.

Months of work have pointed toward Thursday, when Agostino’s reopens at 4 p.m. Only dinner will be served that evening, because Zissis and Maria will be busy earlier in the day at a real estate closing, when they officially take ownership of the restaurant from the Souliopoulos family. The kitchen took the brunt of the damage from the overnight flood. It was gutted, redesigned and is ready for action, including a sparkling, new range hood over the stove.