In Tribute: Nancy Brussat, founder of Convito Café and Market, brought a taste of Italy to Wilmette

Beloved entrepreneur and Wilmette food-scene pioneer, Nancy Brussat passed away on Jan. 19 after spending a holiday season filled with everything she loved: family, food, hosting and entertaining. 

Nancy is survived by her children Rob, and his wife Angie; Candace, and her husband Rob; sister Karen, and her husband Jea; grandchildren, Kingston, Neko, Kianna and Isis. 

A memorial for Nancy will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 28, 2025, at The Woman’s Club of Evanston, 1702 Chicago Ave. 

Born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Feb. 17, 1940, her son, Rob, describes her upbringing in the obituary he penned as the “quintessential one”: “She was a high school beauty queen who detasseled corn in the summers; a diligent student who flirted with boys at the local soda shop; a dreamer who would never have dared imagine how dazzling and successful her life would one day turn out to be.”

While she bounced around the Midwest, the year 1976 brought Brussat across the pond to England, where her husband, Bob Barocci, with whom she shared two children, Rob and Candace, had been transferred by Leo Burnett Advertising. 

During the four years in which she lived in England, and as she traveled throughout Europe, Brussat fell in love with Italy and Italian cuisine. She would take inspiration for the sauces she later brought back to the North Shore, for example, from recipes she made with the Italian mother of a Leo Burnett executive. 

In 1979, Brussat returned to America, specifically Glencoe, making the North Shore her homebase. By 1980, less than a year later, Brussat opened Convito Italiano, which is still a beloved local spot that is now known as Convito Café & Market in Wilmette.

“She came back (from England) — she was a stay-at-home mom at that time — and just decided, ‘I wanna do something,’ and this is what she wanted to do: Educate the North Shore and, later on, Chicago, (about) Italian food,” her daughter, Candace Barocci Warner, told The Record. “At that time, people didn’t really know what pesto was or what a sun-dried tomato was (and) Chianti was wine in a basket. … She ended up working with a lot of Italian food and wine importers. She didn’t import the items (herself) but she would end up finding them … and (brought) real Italian food into our area.”

Warner, who co-owned Convito Café & Market with Brussat as a mother-daughter team, is helping carry on her mother’s legacy. 

When Warner was 26 years old, Brussat asked if she’d want to join Convito as a general manager, and her daughter said yes. 

On working with her mother, Warner said, “We respected each other, and it was a great partnership, and I’m very sad that it’s done, but I also know she taught me so much and I taught her, in the end, some things. … We collaborated for many years, especially the past few years, to make sure I knew what she wanted, and I told her what I wanted. Unfortunately she had cancer, so she knew that her time was limited; we had a lot of time to discuss things, and that was really important to us.”

Wilmette’s Convito location was not Brussat’s only venture (though it is the one that remains operational today). In 1986, she opened a second Convito location in Chicago’s Gold Coast and, later, a third in The Merchandise Mart.

In 1992, she opened Bêtise, a bistro in memory of her friend and restaurateur Leslee Reis. The consolidation of Convito Italiano and the bistro forms the Convito Café & Market the Wilmette community and residents across the North Shore know and love today.

But food was not Brussat’s only passion and talent. When Brussat was younger, Warner said her mother wrote and self-published children’s books, illustrated by her sister, an artist.

In the past several years, Brussat pursued her writing further, even accidentally writing her autobiography, as both her children put it, through the blog series “My Italian Journeys.“ She and her son co-wrote 60 chapters over a 12-year period.

Just weeks prior to her passing, Brussat’s family gathered to enjoy her inviting, celebratory holiday festivities. Warner said her mother would wrap 10 or more gifts for each person and decorate the table opulently and gorgeously; sometimes there was a winter theme of angels or red and green colors.

“She was starting to really not feel well and still managed to have it all take place, and that was a testament to her and her wanting to be with her grandkids and have those moments,” Warner said. “I think sometimes that happens at people’s end of life, they make these goals, and then she did it.”

Spearheaded by her family, Brussat’s legacy in Wilmette will continue.

“I will keep (Convito) going, and I had many years alongside her, so I know how it’s supposed to be and how we both wanted it to be, and that’s the beauty of it,” Warner said.

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