Restaurants that serve freshly made pasta tend to be expensive in America. Rony Stark believes it doesn’t have to be.
At least not if you keep things simple, base a menu on quality ingredients and not too many of them.
That’s essentially the idea behind PennePazze, the soon-to-be four-unit fast-casual pasta concept in Nashville he has developed with his wife Shir Nachman Stark.
Rony is Italian but was a former professional basketball player in Israel who later studied law. But he found he didn’t want to practice law, he said. “Culinary was in my heart.”
He came to the U.S. in 2019 with an idea. There seemed to be a hole in the U.S. for affordable fresh pasta. Nashville, where he had a cousin, seemed the ideal place to build the concept Rony had in mind.
So he signed a lease and created the first PennePazze. It was scheduled to open in March 2020.
They were open for two days before the world was shut down by Covid-19.
Like most in the industry, Rony pivoted to takeout and delivery. In retrospect, it ended up being a positive, because the restaurant was able to start slow and figure out what worked.
Once pandemic restrictions were lifted, Rony said he remembered hearing a podcast about Chipotle’s early days, and how a review from the New York Times skyrocketed brand awareness.
“I said I wish something like that would happen to us,” he said. “And maybe God heard my prayers.”
A few months later, an influencer stopped by. Rony was serving as chef at the time. The woman ordered, and he explained every dish while she recorded him. She asked if she could post it online, and he said, “Of course.”
A couple of days later, the line to get into the restaurant stretched around the building. “And we never looked back,” he said.
PennePazze also has Roman-style pizzas and paninis. | Photo courtesy of PennePazze
Now, Rony envisions 100 PennePazze locations across the country. And the two have launched a second concept called GelatoPazzo, specializing in freshly made gelato. The third and fourth locations of Penne Pazze have a GelatoPazzo right next door as a co-branded concept.
But Rony feels the gelato concept will also stand alone. They plan to launch franchising for both, with the dream of getting the gelato concept to 500 units. “It’s smaller and cheaper to copy and paste,” said Rony.
Shir contends the two concepts are meeting a moment.
“We’re seed-oil free. Everything is fresh, no preservatives. Clean ingredients,” she said. “We felt like a lot of people moved to Nashville from California and people have more awareness of what they eat and put into their body.”
@pennepazze A little look inside our new Germantown location. 🍝✨ We're excited to officially open our doors on Thursday, June 18 and welcome everyone to the newest PennePazze location. Stop by for fresh pasta, house-made gelato, and all your PennePazze favorites. We can't wait to see you next week!
♬ original sound - PennePazze
PennePazze does not use dried pasta. The pastas are made fresh from scratch in the restaurant, which allows for quick cooking to order.
There’s a classic Amatriciana, for example, with tomato sauce, pancetta, garlic and onion, topped with pecorino and olive oil. Gnocchi is swimming in a gorgonzola cream sauce. Conchiglie pasta is topped with meat sauce, porcini mushrooms and cream.
There’s lasagna, ravioli, and black squid ink tagliatelle with shrimp, confit garlic, kalamata olives and cream with tomato sauce. The menu also includes pinsa (Roman-style pizza), salads and desserts, like cannoli cones.
The average check is around $60 for two with dishes priced in the $20 range. About 25% of sales are off-premises.
The head chef and manager is Sicilian Riccardo Manzella, who Rony met in culinary school in Italy.
It’s high-end fast-casual, said Rony.
“You’re getting chef-quality food and environment. You have music. It’s vibey. You can see people cook for you,” said Rony. “But it’s something you can eat every day. It’s very accessible.”
PennePazze opened initially with an order-at-the-counter model. Now guests are seated by a host and they order via QR codes at the table. A food runner brings their order.
The two most recently opened units also have a full bar with Italian beer, wine and cocktails.
As the concept grows, Rony plans to build the restaurants around a central commissary, where the pastas, sauces and gelato liquid can be produced. (They’ll still make the gelato in units because it’s best when it’s fresh, they said.)
The fourth PennePazze, with the GelatoPazzo next door, are scheduled to open later this year. Rony and Shir said unit No. 5 will be franchised, but they’re still in the process of developing franchising materials.
“We already get a lot of requests for franchising. We’re telling them to wait until we’re ready,” said Shir.
Others are also attempting to scale an Italian fast-casual concept. The largest is Columbus, Ohio-based Piada Italian Street Food, with about 61 units, mostly in the Midwest. There’s Due Cucina growing out of the Pacific Northwest, and Pasta Sisters in Los Angeles. Out of St. Petersburg, Florida, the four-unit Dalmoros Fresh Italian recently announced plans to open in New York City, and in Walmart stores in Texas and Virginia.
The Starks feel they have cracked the code on making fresh pasta more of an everyday occasion.
“Fine dining is great, once a year, but not a lot of people can afford that to many times,” said Shir. “This is something you can eat every day.”