A-ha!  Google Street View comes to the rescue!  The Italian restaurant 
I was thinking of is Trattoria Volare, 561 Columbus Ave (at Union 
Street) in North Beach.  From the website, it looks like exactly the 
sort of over the top faux-Italian tourist trap that I steer people 
away from when they're looking for a place to eat in Boston's North 
End, but there was just something about the place that gave me a hunch 
that it was worthwhile.  I seem to recall that I also had the linguine 
with clams and mussels and the rabbit.  Actually, it might have been 
the fact that they had rabbit that tipped my hand: it's not something 
you see on the menu at your average red-sauce place.

S