Richard Boccato was born in Florence, Italy and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He cut his teeth behind the bar at Little Branch and Milk & Honey in New York City from 2005-2009 under the tutelage of Sasha Petraske. On May 1, 2009 Boccato and Petraske swung the doors of Dutch Kills; a cocktail bar in Long Island City Queens where crystal-clear block ice has been hand-cut behind the bar to fit any variety of mixed drink since day one. Dutch Kills was named “Best International Bar” at the annual Bartenders’ Choice Awards in Stockholm in 2013 (it was nominated for the same award again in 2015). In December 2021, Dutch Kills won "Best Bar" In Time Out New York's Best of the City Awards.

In May 2010 Boccato opened Painkiller (aka "PKNY") on Manhattan's Lower East Side, playing a pivotal role in the global revival of the tropical drinks genre. It was THE FIRST establishment of its kind in the modern era to utilize precise methodology along with crystal-clear block ice to conjure exotically-inspired cocktails behind the bar.
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In December 2010, Boccato opened Weather Up Tribeca in Downtown Manhattan; which under his purview became THE FIRST cocktail bar in the world to feature in-house large format ice production with a Clinebell CB300X2D carving block ice making machine. On the heels of their business partnership at Dutch Kills and Painkiller, Boccato and Ian Present brought forth Hundredweight Ice In March 2011, Operating in tandem with Dutch Kills, Hundredweight is THE FIRST custom cocktail ice manufacturing and delivery service specifically tailored for bars, restaurants, and special events. In May 2012, Boccato spearheaded the cocktail and ice program at Weather Up Austin, bringing in-house block ice production to a Texan cocktail bar for THE FIRST time. In March 2016, Boccato opened Fresh Kills Bar in his native Brooklyn, establishing the very same cocktail and ice program that he pioneered at Dutch Kills. In January 2017, Boccato and Eric Alperin opened Bar Clacson, “an American local with a European accent” in Downtown Los Angeles. Clacson received a nod for Outstanding Bar Program from the James Beard Foundation in 2018. In May 2017, Boccato and Alperin unleashed The Slipper Clutch in the same locale as Bar Clacson, where classic highball cocktails have been reimagined to flow for THE FIRST time behind a bar from a soda gun.
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Boccato has undertaken consulting projects for bars and restaurants spanning the continental United States as well as throughout Europe and Australia. He has traveled the world to deliver lectures and seminars on the subject of cocktails and ice wherever bartenders and civilians alike have expressed their interest. Boccato’s name and professional exploits have been lauded in the pages of internationally renowned publications including Forbes, GQ, Esquire, Food & Wine, Saveur, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2013 he was featured in “Hey Bartender”, a widely acclaimed documentary film celebrating the revival of the cocktail.

Boccato wrote a chapter for the 2013 edition of Gaz Regan's Annual Manual for Bartenders, and he also provided some choice words to Eric Alperin's 2020 bar memoir "Unvarnished". In 2021 Boccato contributed multiple entries on several topics of expertise in the realm of drink-making to the highly anticipated Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum.

In the Spring of 2021, Boccato, his wife Paty, and the proprietors of Wm. Farmer & Sons in Hudson, New York debuted Little Gem Liquors, a fine wine and spirits shop on the shores of majestic Lake George. In the Summer of 2022 they expanded their brand with The Gem, an American Smokehouse and cocktail bar in the heart of the Adirondack North Country.