Famiglia Baldassarre, best known to local diners for its much-sought after pasta lunches that attracted lineups around the block and helped transform Geary Avenue into “the coolest street in Toronto,” will shut its restaurant next month.
Owner Leandro Baldassarre announced this week that Aug. 14 will be the last day of lunch service — including takeout — at his small production kitchen at 122 Geary Ave. He told the Star he wants to focus on his wholesale fresh-pasta business for restaurants and grocers.
“Sometimes you have to stop a couple of things to reassess,” said Baldassarre, over the phone, while cutting out ravioli. “It’s been a really good run.”
Long before Baldassarre won accolades from Michelin — as well as the Star’s Top 100 Under $100 restaurant guide — he made fresh pasta out of a College Street basement for a handful of restaurants. In 2017, he moved operations to Geary Avenue, then largely an industrial area. Baldassarre started serving pasta lunches that catered to nearby office workers. Word got out, and soon, lines formed around the building.
Despite the short hours (just noon to 2 p.m., Tuesday to Friday), dozens of diners lined up, vying for one of the few tables indoors or to eat takeout at tables outside. Each week, Baldassarre posted the short menu of two to three pastas, featuring seasonal ingredients, including those harvested from the on-site garden. One week, it might be fusilli with pesto Genovese, potatoes and green beans. Another week, it would be bigoli with duck ragu or tortelli filled with wild leeks. Now, nearly a decade later, Geary Avenue has become a destination for some of the city’s top restaurants and bars, including Parallel Brothers, General Public, North of Brooklyn Pizzeria and Paradise Grapevine Winery.
“Toronto gifted me with an exuberant and open-hearted audience,” said Baldassarre. “It was a different way of serving food in Toronto, an eat-in factory with bare-bones services at good prices. It evolved very rapidly in terms of how busy it got, and there was no plan for that. I had to have a dedicated kitchen and pasta team.”
Baldassarre’s pasta will still be sold at stores across Ontario (the site has a stocklist), just not at the Geary location that will close to the public after the final lunch service in August.
As for whether Baldassarre will ever cook for the public again? He said he’s not walking away from it permanently, but for now, he’s focused on returning to the company’s roots.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said. “I didn’t expect people to share their stories about having their first date there and now they’re bringing their kids. That’s an entire childhood! I don’t like walking away from something I love especially when other people enjoy it, but we’ll be back.”
Expert tips for cooking with fresh pasta
Baldassarre shared a few tips about cooking with fresh pasta to replicate what he creates at the restaurant.
1. “Less is truly more,” he said “Cook it very little and treat it simply. Over-saucing can kill a fresh pasta because you’re dealing with a delicate texture.”
2. For a flour-and-water pasta like spaghettoni, Baldassarre recommends a simple combo of garlic, olive oil and a vegetable like broccoli, rapini, green onion or Swiss chard. “The pasta is like magic glue and 100 per cent creates a sauce on its own,” he explained, about the high starch content of the eggless pasta. “If you add cheese, it takes it to the next level. I learned it from my landlady in Italy who would use cauliflower, olive oil and garlic.”
3. For an eggy pasta like tagliatelle, a red sauce is a great pairing. “I (heat) my sauce, then the fresh pasta cooks in the water for 45 seconds. I take it out with tongs and it goes right into the sauce. You put in some cheese, flip it, and that’s it.”
