What began as a side hustle spurred by the pandemic has expanded into a brick-and-mortar at Dundas and Brock Street where Jess Maiorana makes and sells ornate, handmade pasta along with other specialty grocery items and provisions.Â
Visitors to the former hair-salon-turned-pasta-paradise can snag a variety of handmade goodies, like ravioli filled with ricotta, mint and basil or house-made pestos, onion and butter sauce and spicy puttanesca. The branding of the business is cool, with a minimalist interior and a pasta making station in the back – where all the magic happens.
In early 2020, Jess was working at Italian restaurant on Palmerston, Woodlot. When it suddenly closed she managed to snag a few shifts at the Ossington strip wine bar, Paris Paris before she was laid off soon after when COVID-19 hit and the province went into lockdown.
Like many other newly out-of-work individuals in the service industry, she turned to a side hustle to keep busy, leveraging her years working in restaurants to launch Pasta Forever. For a year and a half she made pasta in her home, delivering orders on her bike and leaning on friends and family for socially distanced porch drop offs of ingredients when grocery stores were sold out.
The duo behind Dundas West wine bar and bottle shop Grape Witches caught wind of the venture and reached out to Jess, getting her to put together a menu that was then posted on the bar’s Instagram account. Jess received 20 orders the next day and slowly but surely, the business caught on. She began collaborating with more chefs and local businesses all over Toronto, and eventually hired delivery drivers and expanded the delivery zone. Â
Throughout the latest lockdown Jess has been selling pasta kits available for in-store pick-up and online ordering and delivery (Thursdays only). The kits rotate so you can always try something fresh and new, like next week’s kit, stacked with cheese tortellini drizzled in smoked squash butter, winter leaves and gremolata.
Jess has also been offering virtual pasta making classes over Zoom with plans to move them IRL, before the latest lockdown thwarted that idea, but Jess is no stranger to overcoming challenges posed by the pandemic thanks to nearly two years of navigating a small business as COVID-19 raged on.
Want to get your hands on a pasta kit? You can stop by the 1693 Dundas Street West spot Thursdays to Saturdays from 12 – 5:00 p.m. or order online.
The web shop drops happen every Tuesday at noon with delivery’s going out Thursdays between 12 – 5:00 p.m.
