Fairfax District/Mid-Wilshire
Will these restaurant ideas survive?
I admire people who take the risk to run a restaurant. I hear it is a really tough business and most don’t make it. So when I see a new place (it may not really be that new but I just didn’t notice them until recently) I often like to give it a try just to see what its all about.
I tried Pastagina at the Beverly Center Food Court.
The idea is to give something above fast-food pasta without the sit-down restaurant time and cost. I placed my order and the chef whom you can watch through the glass window, puts the pre-made sauce in the pan and brings it up to a bubbly hot and tasty. Behind him is some hot water pots for the pastas. I’m guessing the pasta is partly cooked so it doesn’t take too long to heat up.
Will this idea work? Would you invest in such a restaurant?
While I was in the trying out new restaurant mode, I tried Holy Cow Indian Express.
The funny name caught my eye. The menu items fusing Indian with other cuisines I thought was creative. I noticed on the menu that they claim to NOT use Ghee and instead say everything is cooked in vegetable oil. They appear to want to catch some of that fast-food vegan demographic in Southern California who want something in accord with their food ethics but yet with a little ethnic flair.
Will this idea work? Would you encourage or discourage a friend from trying to run a restaurant concept like that?
My reactions:
Pastagina is, I think, paddling upstream. As a storefront fast food place in a food court, people are looking for something they can take away pretty quickly and it is a bit too slow for that. The pasta is perhaps a notch better than something that has been sitting under the heat lamps but it is still something less than a sit-down quality pasta lunch.
Holy Cow Indian Express probably works well for the fast food vegans. But as someone who ordered a dish with meat in it, was it my imagination or did the food seem not as tasty as something you would get at an Indian place that does uses ghee?
Pastagina
Beverly Center
8500 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Holy Cow Indian Express
8474 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 852-8900
By Rene (see more of his posts). You can find more of Rene's writing at his own website Rene's Ramblings
Discussion
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I actually like the idea of Pastagina. I hate food-court food, and any step up from it is a step in the right direction, in my opinion. I haven’t seen it there yet, but I am interested in checking it out. Yay, and excuse to go shopping!
am i the only one who shudders when i read the name “Pastagina”?? im sure it’s supposed to be like pasta + Gina (a person’s name), but i can’t shake the other pronunciation of “gina”. you know, as in “va…”
sorry to be crass, but i was recently at that same food court and the name alone made me turn heel and walk away from the restaurant.
When I was in high school, my favorite fast food place was a place called “Pasta Pronto.” They had several different types of pastas and several different types of sauce. You would pick whatever pasta/sauce combo you wanted and they would cook it and throw it in a to-go box with a piece of garlic bread.
I guess it worked, because there’s still one by my parent’s house. So I think Pastagina has a fighting chance.
holy cow is one of my fave places! it’s owned by the same fella that runs surya, the yummy sit-down Indian place at 3rd + c. heights. so similar menu, same chefs, etc. I just had it for lunch today, the lunch specials are a great deal.