Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura and Alejandro Rodriguez.
Laura and Alejandro, please share your story with us.
Our journey started over 6 years ago as a conceptual project while we were still living in Europe. Laura comes from a family of pasta makers who had a small pasta shop in the heart of Buenos Aires and over the years grew to a large pasta factory and a number of Italian restaurants throughout the city. Laura grew up around the business and worked with her family for many years developing a passion for the trade. Alejandro has always been passionate about food and cooking and was able to gain experience in the Spanish culinary market. We moved to San Diego and founded Pasta Design with a lot of expectations.
Our concept was to bring fresh quality pasta to people’s table very much like in Argentina and Italy where most neighborhoods have their own fresh pasta shop where people go and choose their pasta and shares it with family or friends.
We were operating in Farmers Markets in both San Diego and Orange County for over 4years when we started to look for a permanent location. It was then when we came across an article about a Public Market project in Point Loma and we fell in love with the concept and location immediately. It was the perfect fit for Pasta Design as it felt a lot like the markets in Europe, so we took a leap of faith and invested everything we had into it.
We put in a lot of time and effort to produce and cook all the food we offer. Our company produces everything from scratch with fresh ingredients, without preservatives, coloring or additives, only natural ingredients, never frozen.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to get to where we are was not as smooth as we thought. We are a highly energetic couple and are not afraid of challenges, however, we found that the transition from Spain to San Diego was very hard from a cultural and linguistic standpoint but also as a family as we had a very young baby when we arrived. Our beginnings were in the local farmer’s markets and having to do production in a commercial kitchen in Vista, load the entire stand in our van, unload and set up at the location and then pack everything again implied that we spent very long hours not only cooking and selling at the markets but also performing hard physical work. Now, looking back, we were very audacious to be doing eight markets a week!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about PASTA DESIGN – what should we know?
Our company produces fresh pasta, ravioli, and sauces from scratch daily. We try to recreate and bring the experience that some may have in Europe or Argentina, to San Diego. Customers who come to our store can choose from any of the fresh seasonal pasta or ravioli displayed on our deli and either cook it at home themselves, or we can cook it for them at the moment. Our pasta can be combined with a wide array of house-made sauces or premium olive oil. As we were explaining earlier, at Pasta Design, we source quality ingredients to prepare our pasta, ravioli fillings, sauces, and add-ons. Our meats are sources by Liberty Meat Shop, the butcher shop located in Liberty Public Market. All the ground beef used for our Bolognese sauce and our handmade meatballs is hormone free and grass-fed, and the chickens are free range and hormone free. Our tomatoes come from a family owned and operated farm in California, and our Extra Virgin Olive Oil is supplied by a small family owned and operated boutique company in Greece
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
One of the most important characteristics to our success is the experience that customers have of choosing a fresh made pasta or ravioli and combine them with a delicious house-made sauce made completely from scratch with fresh ingredients and having us cooking for you on the moment using high-quality ingredients.
We even granted the big wheels of Parmesan to guarantee that the experience is completely authentic from beginning to end.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2820 Historic Decatur Rd.
San Diego, CA 92106 - Website: www.pastadesign.com
- Phone: 619-906-0807
- Email: info@pastadesign.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/Pastadesignsd
- Facebook: facebook.com/pastadesign
Image Credit:
Bhadri Kubendran
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