Kenny Blasi, the co-owner and proprietor of the popular Adams Village eatery Blasi's Kitchen and Bar, died on Wednesday, July 24 after suffering a heart attack.

The Dorchester native leaves behind his wife Maria and their four children, along with many other relatives and friends. He will be waked next Monday, July 29, 4-8 p.m. at John J. O’Connor & Son Funeral Home in Adams Village. His funeral is set for Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston.

Blasi’s Kitchen and Bar & the Fat Belly Deli reopened last summer after a six-year pause that was prompted by a 2017 fire and extended by the pandemic. In running the eatery, Kenny Blasi and his wife Maria have carried on a Blasi family tradition of doing business in Dorchester.

Blasi's father Michael A. Blasi ran Adams Hardware until his death in 1990. Kenny and his brother Joe took over the hardware business and ran it for about 10 years before covering the space into a restaurant and bar, which closed abruptly due to a fire in 2017.

The new, fully-renovated restaurant re-opened after many years of effort and has been a very popular destination ever since.

“I’m kind of baffled how we’ve persevered because it really has a been a turbulent time to do this,” Kenny told the Reporter in an interview last year. “A lot of people didn’t think I could do it. I don’t know if I thought I could do it, I’m just a regular dude. Opened one restaurant and somehow got another open.”