Padova, Italy-born chef Paola Da Re and her family have accomplished a lot with Pasta Sisters since 2015. They started by offering mix-and-match, hand-made pastas and sauces from a tiny café in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. They expanded to a larger, higher profile space in the Helms Bakery complex, a patio-centric location that’s well-positioned to benefit from businesses like Amazon, Apple, and HBO that are flooding Culver City. The area’s booming, and everything’s within walking distance, but people have been working from home throughout the COVID-19 crisis. The family didn’t launch Pasta Sisters Truck in response to the pandemic, but going mobile should prove valuable for service and catering moving forward.
“After opening in Culver City we received many messages from customers around L.A. County and in other cities asking to open new locations,” says Giorgia Sinatra, who runs the restaurants and food truck with her mother Paola and brother Francesco. They initially considered franchising Pasta Sisters, but since the family is so hands-on, they refused to risk compromising quality control. Instead, they launched a food truck in October 2019 using the Culver City outpost as their commissary. “The idea was to bring our family recipes as far as we could and share our happiness for fresh pasta while maintaining the quality,” Sinatra says.
Pasta Sisters features mix-and-match pastas and sauces with add-ons like burrata.
The biggest challenge was perfectly mirroring their restaurant kitchen set-up. To find room for all of the equipment, the family had to go with a 30-foot-long truck instead of the standard 22 feet. To fit their pasta cooker, which is nearly as important to a pasta truck as the engine, they had to cut a hole into the truck and extend the side. I recently found the truck parked in Little Tokyo, branded with “family owned” on the colorful wrap, which depicts a tantalizing pasta plate.
The truck’s menu is pretty similar to what you’ll find at Pasta Sisters restaurants, featuring pasta like pappardelle and spaghetti made with imported Italian flour and organic eggs, pairable with sauces like pesto alla Genovese, porcini mushroom cream, and spicy tomato-based arrabbiata. They also serve secret menu items and seasonal specials. Only spaghetti with clams and salmon with cherry tomatoes are missing from the pasta menu. They also trimmed sandwiches, entrees, and cold plates from the brick-and-mortar restaurant menu to streamline the process and experience in the truck.
COVID-19 hit right when Pasta Sisters Truck was starting to become popular and the family was building strong relationships with “organizers,” gatekeepers who decide which trucks are welcome in particular areas. With businesspeople working remotely, foot traffic practically nonexistent, and catering no longer an option, truck business plummeted. “Right when the pandemic started the food truck had a long list of weddings, private parties and events already scheduled but everything was cancelled,” Sinatra says. “Lunch shifts died because the offices closed down and the few very busy night events like First Friday got cancelled as well.” Thanks to takeout and delivery earnings from the two restaurants, which never stopped operating, Pasta Sisters Truck managed to survive a hiatus from March–June 2020. Now they’re rebuilding business.
“It was a tough year, but we can finally say that we made it through!” Sinatra says. “Many dynamics changed: the residential areas are busier than the office areas and people like to grab a bite and eat outside.” Since people were home more often, grabbing food from Pasta Sisters Truck also became a way to socialize with neighbors. “Things are little by little reopening now and we are starting to book new events and weddings, and outdoor initiatives are getting popular again,” she says.
Pasta Sisters customers can once again enjoy outdoor dining on their spacious Culver City patio. They can also sit at a single table and lone counter in their minuscule Mid-City restaurant. Sinatra says, “It's not much, but it's a beginning!”