The creation and serving of Long Beach pasta in-house by new and old restaurants is having a handmade renaissance.
Seasonal menus are overriding sterile, never-gonna-change menus. Shapes are going beyond spaghetti and penne and into the sopressini and paccheri. Style and sauces are moving beyond your nonna’s marinara and into the downright SoCal grasp of worldly palates.
Here are the Long Beach restaurants doing it by hand and at the highest level of execution.
Nonna Mercato
3772 Atlantic Ave.
The underrated-ness of Nonna Mercato still astounds me—especially given Chef Cameron Slaugh’s masterful take on the art of pasta.
Take, for example, his hand-rolled chittara. Yes, it is not made with a machine but rolled by Chef Cameron himself. I’ve had three iterations. One, from his debut lunch and brunch menu, where layers of Dungeness crab, guanciale, and hefty chunks of fresh basil made it one of the most down-able summer dishes. Another one where cockles are layered with sourdough bread crumbs and charred olive oil; an umami-meets-earthy wonder.
And now, with the subtle introduction of dinner service, you can experience it even more.
Michael’s on Naples
5620 E. 2nd St
Chef Eric Samaniego’s seemingly endless iterations of the mighty world of pasta are, subsequent to Chef Cameron Slaugh’s take on the carby wonder, the city’s most underrated. Since taking the helm for the majority of the restaurant’s renaissance, his pastas have showcased the breadth of interpretation in Italian cuisine, homing in on and introducing regions of Italy that would have otherwise remained in the motherland.
There are few enjoyments in life than something that feels simultaneously casual yet cultivated, leveling pretense but also lacking pedestrian qualities. This is sitting at Michael on Naple’s rooftop bar, where things like master mixologist Jocelyn Jolly navigate you through amaros. Or offer what she sincerely describes as a “porch pounder” of a cocktail. Or General Manager and overall wine king Massimo Arrone will direct you to a Vermentino that pairs perfectly with the pasta plate you decided to order when you said you would just be having a drink.
It’s a beautiful space, and the ability to do just that—order some pasta under the open roof, sip on a cocktail or glass of wine—is worth every damn penny.
Vino e Cucina
4501 E. Carson St. in Suite 105
I am indeed the first to admit that I do not visit Vino e Cucina nearly enough as I should—if not for owner Lorenzo Mottola’s pure Milan-centric love of hospitality alone, then certainly the space’s pasta.
Take Vino e Cucina’s cacio e pepe, the core Roman pasta dish—there are four pillar Roman pasta dishes: carbonara, amatriciana, pasta alla gricia, and cacio e pepe—famed for being nothing but four ingredients: spaghetti (or bucatini in some places), Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly cracked and toasted black peppercorns, and pasta water.
The result is a cacio e pepe unrivaled in the city, where this is not an ounce of dairy but a perfectly creamy plate of handmade spaghetti, drenched in the saltiness of the Pecorino and the herbal kick of good ol’ black pepper. Other plays on subtlety create beautiful dishes, like a paccheri special where the massive tubes—think rigatoni on steroids—become containers for a saffron cream sauce that is light on the cream and heavy on the flavor, the ocean-ness of the shrimp meeting the saffron.
Simply put, it’s a beautiful dish.
La Parolaccia
2945 E. Broadway
While pizzaiolo Chef Michael Procaccini may more than often take the limelight for La Parolaccia with his masterful pizzas, sandwiches, and bread, one must take advantage of the pasta. This is no-fuss pasta made by hand daily, like its cousin Vino e Cucina. It sticks to the traditions of Italy, especially that of Roma, where the Procaccini family hails from and still regularly visits.
And it’s a place where tradition is respected to such an extent that, when a customer asked for shrimp on their carbonara, Chef Stefano Procaccini said, “Sure,” and gave it to them on a side plate next to the pasta. It was the most direct but silent way of telling someone Stefano’s hands would not commit such a moment of blasphemy.
Since day one, Michael and Stefano—along with the front-of-house leader, sister, and daughter, Francesca—have explicitly honored Roman food. That meant honoring the Roman mother pasta like amatriciana, carbonara, and cacao e pepe. Those staples remain to this day, along with squid-ink fettuccine dripping in seafood and tomatoes or ribbons of pappardelle lined with oxtail ragú.
Ellie’s | Ginger’s
204 Orange Ave.
Gnocchi—spectacularly pillowy chunks of potatoes gone to heaven in a steam bath—slathered with a classic vodka sauce and shaved black truffle. Ricotta and stracciatella-stuffed tortellini with pork and beef bolognese. Mandrill is the “silk handkerchiefs” of pasta layered with pesto and lamb neck. Garganelli all’Amatriciana.
These are just a tiny sampling of the pasta that Chef Jason Witzl has created during his tenure at Ellie’s, a space that reinvigorated Long Beach’s food scene in a way that few have. His 12-seater private dining space directly next to Ellie’s only further emphasizes this. The leveling up of Chef Pedro Quintero as their culinary director only further emphasizes this. And though, like all restaurants—especially the ones that last—it has had its ups and downs, as of late, there are no terrible orders at Ellie’s.
Even more, we need to remind ourselves that the bright and shiny new objects are pretty—I will highlight one right after this—but we shouldn’t forget staples like Ellie’s.
Bar Becky
3860 Worsham Ave.
See, the thing with my first pasta dish from Chef Johnathan Benvenuti’s inaugural menu at Bar Becky? It wasn’t fair. Reminiscent of some beef stroganoff gone Italian, the beautifully photo-perfect, punctilious ribbons of pappardelle are melded with bits of succulent beef cheek, sour cream, and mushroom and tomato. Each somehow stands out—but the subtlety is that back-in-the-mind ode to a humble plate of stroganoff, which reeks of nostalgia for almost every American kid.
It was a damn near perfect plate of pasta—and it is something I still dream about to this day. And variations of pasta since have not disappointed. An agnolotti is stuffed with a creamy corn-combined-with-Calabrian chile concoction that isslightly browned in butter. A carrot-centric cavatelli has a loamy-meets-sweet quality that adds to its meatiness.
Bar Becky is certainly one of our best new restaurants, and Chef Johnathan’s pastas are the star of the show.
Marlena
5854 E. Naples Plaza.
Marlena hits all the right notes as a restaurant since its opening: Its front-of-house conductor, Debra Zelenka, manages the place like a well-oiled machine. Cocktail connoisseur and historian David Castillo manages to have one of the city’s best beverage programs. And Chef Michael Ryan, an apprentice of Chef Evan Funke for the first six years of his career, heads the kitchen.
And Chef Michael does it rather masterfully. Blistered pizzas sit next to Josper Grill-ed proteins, sure, but Marlena’s most deceptive underhand is Marlena’s pasta. Ricotta gnocchi with pesto greeted his inaugural menu when they opened up in the autumn of last year. A tortellini with prosciutto and black truffle. Pappardelle with pork sausage ragú has remained on the menu. A pappardelle carbonara that was wonderfully underrated but has since grown to a chitarra gone cacio e pepe and a sweet corn agnolotti that seems a popular choice this summer.
Italian Homemade Company
6460 Pacific Coast Hwy. #130
The Italian Homemade Company is the unknown one of the bunch to most, which is why I included it only Underrated Restaurants list last year. But approaching three years at the 2nd & PCH retail complex, they unquestionably deserve to be on this list.
Their approach, however, is what is excellent. Rather than telling you what pasta’n’sauce combos to order, you choose yourself. Pick your pasta. From their gorgeous papardelle to their variations of ravioli… And pick your sauce. From the simple but sumptuous brown butter-sage sauce to bolognese…
And then, the beautiful act of dolce farniente.
And Chef GianMarco Cosmi—the brother of Mattia Cosmi, who founded in the company in San Francisco in 2014—has been nothing but a steward for both 2nd & PCH and the fifth location of Italian Homemade itself, offering up stellar pasta and the city’s best versions of piadina—the yeast-less flatbread that creates some fantastic sandwiches—and cassone—the Northern Italian stuffed flatbread staple, which is like piadine but thinner on top of pasta. Go.
Wood & Salt
4262 Atlantic Ave.
When Chef Jordan Borlaza took over the kitchen last year, it is safe to say that he returned Wood & Salt to its roots.
And that very much included pasta.
He brought back the space’s rye gnocchi—a stellar dish if there ever was one. Aruzzi rye grown in the Tehachapi Mountains is mixed in with the potato, giving it a nutty quality that separates it from a more traditional potato gnocchi. Layered with Tuscan kale and ragú made from wood-fired smoked chicken, it is easily one of the city’s best pasta dishes.
And his use of paccheri—one of the most underrated pasta as well as one of the most beautiful—is solid with a heavy-handed pomodoro stacked with Calabrian chiles and mushrooms.
L’Opera
101 Pine Ave.
My food mission for this year—or, more precisely, a deeper focus within the intention of my food writing—is to remember and honor the staples that have been here for a while. Indeed, Long Beach is undergoing a food renaissance: We have James Beard-recognized chefs and spaces. We have Michelin-starred restaurants. Regionally recognized brands choose Long Beach as an extension of their presence. Local publications have attempted to focus on food better.
I, however, will not forget the old schoolers—or at least I will try. This includes L’Opera.
Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, owner Terry Antonelli and Chef Walter Cota have been there since day one. The latter? He has been churning out handmade pasta since, yes, 1989. While many things have changed since then, a good pasta is a good pasta. Punto.
This point stands with Chef Walter’s locally famous pumpkin squash ravioli layered with a simple, spicy red sauce and sage brown butter. Or his fruity di mare, where handmade spaghetti is combined with clams, mussels, and shrimp and topped with seared seabags. Or a creamy mushroom-meets-truffle concoction he hand tosses in a giant parmesan wheel.
It’s a Long Beach classic and deserves our patronage.
L’Antica da Michele
4621 E. 2nd St.
Most recognize the name from the Julia Roberts-led “Eat Pray Love” film based on the international bestseller, the L’Antica locations of the U.S. are a different beast. Yes, reflects that of the historic Napoli space but it is, deservedly, its own thing. And when it opened its Long Beach location, the focus was rightfully on pizza.
Yes, many know it for its famed pizza—which is also having its own renaissance in Long Beach—but its pasta should not be dismissed. Chef Shaki Castillo heads the program, having created staples like their recipe for cacio e pepe and pappardelle Genovese. This Oaxacan native—who started in the City of Angels as a dishwasher and literally worked his way up the hierarchal ladder—tends to keep the dishes straightforward, mimicking the offerings of the original L’Antica in Naples.
And instead of the traditional splash of pasta water, Chef Shaki has a bowl of water with parmesan rinds in it dubbed a “cheese broth” that is added as a binder to every plate of pasta.
