Popular NYC pasta bar finally reveals Miami Beach opening date

Popular NYC restaurant A Pasta Bar will open its first Florida location in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour on October 21 with handmade pasta.

Photo by Lorenzo Franco

After nearly two years of teasing Sunset Harbour residents with its signage, a popular New York City pasta bar has finally revealed its opening date. A Pasta Bar is finally opening its doors on Wednesday, October 21, inside the former Sushi Garage space on West Avenue.

The restaurant marks the first expansion of the New York City favorite since its SoHo debut nearly a decade ago.

The family owned eatery has built a following for its house made pasta and for the experience of watching chefs prepare it right before diners’ eyes. That same concept is coming to Miami, where a 4,700-square-foot space features a backlit marble pasta bar, a freestanding open kitchen, and a 17-seat chef’s counter offering a front-row seat to the action. It’s dinner and a show, with the chefs as the protagonists.

Using a technique called risottare, chefs complete the final minutes of cooking with the sauce in the wok, allowing the pasta’s starches to emulsify.

A Pasta Bar 2.0, made for Sunset Harbour

Bringing a pasta focused restaurant to Sunset Harbour presents an interesting challenge. After all, this is practically the land of Pilates studios, healthy cafés and people who live in workout clothes. Will the neighborhood’s wellness crowd embrace the carbs?

The owners are hoping so, but they’ve made some adjustments to cater to the locals.

“We did that on purpose,” co-owner Andrea Pedrazzoli tells New Times. “Here, the pasta will remain the star of the show, but it was very clear since day one that we needed to make the menu more complete if we wanted to address the crowd here in Sunset Harbour.”

The result is what Pedrazzoli calls “A Pasta Bar 2.0,” featuring more proteins, seafood and crudos, alongside protein-enriched, whole-wheat, vegan and gluten-free pasta options. The team spent six months developing the alternative pastas to ensure they could stand up to the originals.

“It’s easy to put a gluten-free pasta on the menu,” he says. “It’s very hard to make that gluten-free pasta as good as the regular pasta.”

Diners can expect signatures like tagliatelle with black truffle and beef-filled agnolotti

Handmade pasta and tableside theater

Pasta remains the main attraction, made in-house daily and finished in a wok instead of a traditional pan. Using a technique called risottare, chefs complete the final minutes of cooking with the sauce in the wok, allowing the pasta’s starches to emulsify with the other ingredients. The result is a silky sauce without necessarily having to add extra cream.

Diners can expect signatures like tagliatelle with black truffle and beef-filled agnolotti, alongside creative noodles coming from a pasta lab where chefs experiment with limited-run shapes and fillings, plus a five-course pasta tasting menu.

Pedrazzoli’s must-try dish, however, is a Miami-exclusive saffron tagliatelle with demi glace, finished tableside with bone marrow. “It’s a simple dish, but with a lot of flavor and something that really surprises you,” he says.

The expanded menu also includes crudos, whole sea bream, ribeye, and a cotoletta stuffed with Fontina and prosciutto that’s sliced tableside to reveal its melted cheese. There are a few nods to Spain, too, courtesy of the chef’s Spanish roots, including pizza pata negra topped with Spanish ham, and huevos rotos prepared with house made chips and topped with prawns.

Expect creative noodles coming from a pasta lab where chefs experiment with limited-run shapes and fillings

A little Milanese aperitivo culture in Miami Beach

Beyond the food, the family hopes to make A Pasta Bar a neighborhood hangout instead of a special-occasion destination. Inspired by Milan’s after-work bar culture, the restaurant will offer a daily aperitivo from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring Italian cocktails, spritzes and rotating tramezzini, small sandwiches with changing fillings.

It’s also a nod to Sushi Garage’s popular happy hour, which used to draw crowds every day for its drink and food specials, which Pedrazzoli hopes to recreate in spirit.

“We want A Pasta Bar to be a restaurant that you can come two, three times a week,” he says. Whether you’re embracing your carbs or watching them, A Pasta Bar is betting there’s room for everyone at the table.

A Pasta Bar. 1784 West Ave., Miami Beach; apastabar.com. Opening Wednesday, October 21. Hours are 5 to 11 p.m. daily, with aperitivo from 5 to 7 p.m.