Rejoice, Los Gatos: The Pastaria is now open for lunch, serving from noon to 3pm Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Established in 1995 by Donna Novi, the pasta-focused eatery moved to the former Opa! space at the west end of North Santa Cruz Avenue in mid-December of 2019.
Novi, who grew up in San Francisco, started the restaurant as a strictly takeout enterprise for her fresh-made pastas and sauces, but demand for seating soon drove her to evolve the business model. Short of space and needing more cold storage, she spied the former Greek restaurant spot sitting empty. There was a huge walk-in fridge, and the wood-fired pizza oven presented all kinds of options.
Novi and son Devon Coen, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, who has worked for her since he was 15, set to work on an expanded menu. All was going well until the Covid shutdown.
Novi admits the last five years have been a blur of anxiety. Running a restaurant during the pandemic took a lot out of everyone in the hospitality space.
“I’m working harder than I ever have in my whole life!” she says. “Still recovering from the past five years: it’s been an uphill battle!”
During the pandemic, Novi pulled out all the stops to keep the business going, so she could support her staff and their families. She was a serious advocate for parklets and created one of the first with an enclosure to deal with the inclement weather, decorating it seasonally to keep all the holidays feeling as festive as possible.
She even added a frosé machine, which still sits outside, beckoning like an ice cream cart and serving a frozen mix of organic rosato swirled with guava.
Her husband, Paul Novi, says that earlier this summer, “Things just seemed to come together. Our staffing felt stable and we all just felt that it was time to start lunch service. The word is slowly getting out.”
Reopening for lunch is a milestone on the road to “normal,” whatever that word means anymore. Lunch features signature pastas as well as wood-fired pizzas, salads and panini. Thanks to the wood-fired oven, they can cook steaks, fish, vegetables, chicken and pork, along with bread and pies. Dinner recently featured wood-fired halibut with lemon butter cream sauce, kale and Brussels sprouts, topped with fried delicata squash.
Perfect for the chill of fall is the butternut squash soup with pepitas. Salads include a “normal” Caesar; an apple pecan salad with butter lettuce, baby kale, honey crisp apples, candied pecans, goat cheese champagne vinaigrette and fried delicata squash; and a righteous chopped Italian salad that tops romaine, arugula and kale with black olives, fresh mozzarella, salami rosa, sunflower seeds, chickpeas, shaved red onion and creamy Italian dressing. There’s also a kale and shaved fennel salad with cannellini beans, almonds, golden raisins, parmesan cheese and green goddess dressing. Add chicken or prawns and it won’t break the bank.
‘She’s like everybody’s mom’
—Paul Novi
Pasta items include Pastaria favorites like Mostaccioli Aurora, a hearty dish with creamy tomato sauce and Italian sliced sausage, as well as walnut pesto linguine and the popular Gnocchi Sardi with prawns, shallots, Calabrian chili sauce and breadcrumbs.
Among the pizzas are the margherita, the sausage with delicata squash and rosemary cream, and the burrata pie, which features mozzarella curd, spicy schiacciata salami, arugula, burrata, chile oil and a drizzle of local honey. There’s also an apple gorgonzola pizza sandwich with caramelized onions and arugula.
“Everything is made fresh here,” Paul emphasizes. “I mean everything from our three-day fermented dough to all the pastas and sauces. We have two CIA-trained chefs on our staff. People ask where we get our tiramisu. We make that, too!”
Paul says Donna has created a big following beyond her sizable Los Gatos base. They now see lots of tourists traveling by on Santa Cruz Avenue. While that’s certainly gratifying, even more so is the way she inspires others to pursue hospitality as a career.
“She’s like everybody’s mom,” Paul says. “So many women who have worked for her in the past now have daughters working here. It’s great to see that continuity. We are one big family.”
The Pastaria & Market is located at 27 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos.
