If you’re around the same age as me and I asked you to make a list of some of the main staples of your diet growing up, I’d guess that some type of pasta would be one of the first things written down. It’s quick, cheap, easy for parents to make, and with a few weird exceptions (yes, I may be calling you weird) all kids enjoy a plate of spaghetti.
Now, if I asked you to make a list of some of the hardest foods to prepare in a dorm room using the tiny fridge and tiny microwave exclusively, I’d again expect pasta to come to mind pretty quickly. There’s just no easy way to boil noodles correctly in a microwave or heat up sauce without making a mess, so let’s do your roommates a favor and not bother trying out that experiment.
Instead, restaurateur (I hate that word) Lee Shadle has, with what would seem like a dumbfoundingly simple stroke of genius, decided to cook pasta for students. He calls this venture “Pesto Creative Italian Bistro”, and yes you’re allowed to be angry that you didn’t think of it first.
Last week Anne and Matt and Katie and I all went to check out Pesto for the first time. I had been meaning to go for quite awhile now, but I really don’t find myself making my way up to campus too often with the intention of hunting for food (and there’s a good reason for that). The time was finally upon us though, as we recently noticed a buy-one-get-one free entree coupon in our AP Book, so we decided to hump it up there and check this place out.
My first impression upon walking inside: an “Italian version of Chipotle”. The layout was very similar with the waiting-line down one side to the kitchen frontage, and a mix of tables, booths, and bar-style seating scattered throughout other side of the boldly-colored restaurant.
We wandered up to the counter and glanced at the simple instructions on the large-print menu hanging up on the wall. Pick from either three kinds of pasta (Penne, Fettuccini, or Spaghetti) or a pizza, and then choose one of the eight topping combos to go with it. Simple enough for anyone to figure out, no matter what your level of intoxication may be. Extras included soft drinks, a few bottled drinks, side salads, and gelato for dessert.
Anne, Matt & Katie all went with different pastas, while I opted for pizza. I chose the “L’Atomica” (which according to babelfish means “The Atomic One” in Italian) topping combination that includes Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, Green Bell Peppers, Onion, Crushed Red Pepper, Mozzarella and Provolone cheeses, and a meat sauce.
Unlike Chipotle, they can’t really make your food in front of you on a pasta assembly line (dang), so instead you just pay, grab your drinks, and sit to wait for your order to be called. We only had to wait roughly five minutes though, so it was still a very quick process.
I’m hardly a pizza snob, so as long as it’s cooked well and doesn’t have flies on it (yes, I have actually eaten pizza with flies on it before, but that’s a whole other story), it’s usually pretty good in my book. The pizza at Pesto was more of a flatbread-type dough that appeared to be oven fired. The toppings blended together pretty well and it was a little on the spicy side, but not quite as “atomic” as I expected. Overall, not a bad personal-size pizza for $6. I was satisfied nicely. If I were hungrier, I probably would have went back up for a gelato for dessert.
I took a bite of Anne’s penne and honestly thought the noodles were a little rubbery. I’m not sure if this was due to the fact that we were eating late at 8:30PM and they were pre-cooked much earlier, or if it was maybe just an off-day for the students manning the kitchen. Either way, I wasn’t impressed with that. I’ll let Anne & Katie & Matt fill in their comments on their dishes if they wish. They all seemed to be pretty pleased with it as far as I could tell.
So… having finally experienced Pesto firsthand, would I recommend it to others? Well, that really just depends on who you are.
If you’re an 18-year-old OSU student living in the dorms with a craving for your favorite type of childhood pasta dish without the means to make it easily in your dorm room, you should be getting up from your computer and running (not walking) towards Pesto right now.
If you’re almost 27-years-old, living in German Village with little desire to hang out on campus anymore, but have a craving for your favorite childhood pasta dish and do have an easy means of making it at home… you should probably just make it at home. Pasta takes like two minutes to make, and will set you back around a dollar for ingredients. Why drive somewhere else and pay more for the exact same product? Or, if you’re really itching to get out of your house for Italian food, why not just spend a few extra bucks and go to Due Amici instead?
When all is said and done, I see nothing but wild amounts of success for Pesto. They’ve got the perfect location for their target demographic, and I’d love nothing more than to see a new Columbus-based chain expand and open restaurants next to college campuses all over the country and beyond.
Pesto Website - http://www.pestobistro.com
Lee Shadle’s Pesto Blog - http://rawpesto.blogspot.com