You might ask yourself, well...
how did we get here??
Great question... We honestly wonder ourselves sometimes! Here's what we do know... It all started about 20 years ago on a trip to the west coast. Chris (the founder) found this really cool, laid back restaurant with an open kitchen, and great food, and really warm, genuine hospitality. And he thought to himself, "Wow, this looks like a lot more fun than being a CPA." So he came home, quit his job as a CPA, and opened the first PB in November of 1996.
He hired a couple of cooks -- Lauro and Celso. And then Jay walked in one day and said "Hi, I'm an opera singer, and I want to work here." (he might have actually sang this, I am not sure...) So Chris was like, "OK, what can you do? " And Jay said, "Well, I've never worked in a restaurant before but this seems like a good place to start." So Chris said, "Cool, we'll figure it out."
Things were going great until the Landlord told Chris that if he didn't lease the other vacant space in the building he wouldn't renew his lease on the restaurant. So Chris decided to lease out the other space and open a bar. And Jay, and Lauro and Celso were like, "Do we know how to run a bar?" And Chris was like, "We'll figure it out."
Right around then Taylor came along and decided it was time to stop bartending at the local Deadhead hangout and get a real job. And Chris was like "Can you run a bar?" And Taylor said, "Yep, I think so." So they both said, "Cool, we'll figure it out."
Somewhere in there, we bought a bunch of catering trucks and now Jay's runs our entire catering division. Chris and Taylor are partners now. They opened our second location in 2015 and our third in 2018. And Lauro and Celso (both still part of the PB family) are a big part of why your Farfalle Pollo still tastes just like it did 20 years ago.
The Pasta Bowl family has grown a lot since the early days. And thanks to our success here, so have many of our own families. It has been truly rewarding to see the positive role that PB has played in the lives of our staff, and customers too. We've seen our cozy 2-tops host first dates that turned into engagements, that turned into 4-tops with highchairs and spaghetti everywhere! We've seen aspiring comedians and actors testing out material during their lunch shifts move on into to starring roles in Super Bowl commercials and successful acting careers.
So what the hell does any of this have to do with pasta?? Not much, I guess. I mean, pasta is huge for us. Its what we DO. But you asked who we ARE... And that is: A laid-back bunch of people who like to have fun, work hard, do things their own way, and treat each other like family.
There's nothing revolutionary about us. While the rest of our industry is off trying to figure out what all these #millennials #want and how to #create a new dining #experience for the 21st century we're perfectly content to keep cracking jokes, cranking out great pastas, and looking for new challenges and people to help us figure them out.
The best part of this whole story is that we've managed to earn the support and loyalty of enough people like you so that we can keep doing this instead of going back to boring jobs as CPAs, or worse... chain restaurants. And for that, we are all eternally grateful!
- PB