When The Pasta Runs Out
Austin fine dining restaurant Pasta|Bar closing for new concept
Pasta|Bar isn't just known for pasta.
Austinites only have a short month left to try one of Austin's most exclusive dining experiences before it closes. Pasta|Bar will be ending its current four-year tenure as its parent company, Scratch Restaurants, implements a new concept in its place. The final day of service will be February 28.
Pasta|Bar serves an Italian-inspired tasting menu in a chef's table format, where 10 guests sit at a counter and try about the same number of courses. The majority of courses are not pasta, but the standouts are. Reservations open at the beginning of each month.
The meal is notable in Austin partly because of how much it costs: $235 per person for food alone. Still, casual reviewers seem to have agreed that the price is worth it, landing the restaurant 4.6 stars on Google and 4.5 on Yelp. The California-born restaurant could be studied as a weather vane to find out how willing Austinites and tourists are to keep expensive fine dining afloat.
An Instagram post by chef-owner Phillip Frankland Lee acknowledges the upcoming change in concept but does not go into detail about what guests can expect next. All he says is that the "space itself isn’t going anywhere" and the team is "very excited."
"Over the last four years, we have been lucky enough to meet so many great guests, share so many wonderful memories, and build such a fantastic family of hospitality professionals," wrote Lee.
He also confirms in response to a comment that he does hope to bring staff along into the next venture. One commenter asked if the new restaurant will be open by April; Lee says that's the plan, but he does not mention a more specific target.
News of the closure was announced in an exclusive story in the Austin American-Statesman. Scratch Restaurants fans might suspect that the hospitality group's more casual new sushi restaurant, Shokunin, had something to do with the closure — and the Statesman reveals that they're right.
"Connecting with the general dining crowd has just felt so awesome since opening there," he told the newspaper, adding that he's been thinking about this new idea for a decade.
The hospitality group's other restaurants don't give much of a clue as to what could be coming next. Lee and his wife, pastry chef Margarita Kallas-Lee, also own and operate the similarly upscale omakase restaurant Sushi by Scratch and the no-modifications burger joint NADC Burger with pro skaterboarder Neen Williams. Scratch Restaurants also includes Wolf and Wheat, Kallas-Lee's bakery that supplies the restaurants but is no longer open to the public.
Reservations for Pasta|Bar are still available on Tock. The reservation requires a deposit of $25 per person, and there is a larger cancellation fee within 48 hours of the reservation.
