NASHVILLE, Tenn. (MIKE OSBORNE) -- Ryan and Danny Nicoletto are among the entrepreneurs taking advantage of Nashville’s red hot economy.
The brothers launched Nicoletto’s Pasta Company three years ago, and opened a restaurant in 2016.
Ryan handles the day to day operations at the pasta factory. To call him a pasta geek would be something of an understatement.
“All those little ridges and roughness of the past help hold on to whatever you put with it. Nice meat sauce or something lite like a pesto or that sort of thing that’ll just grab on to that.” (Mike – “You guys are thinking entirely too much about this!”) Oh, yeah! Totally. Totally. This, for better or worse, is our life.”
The Nicoletto family emigrated to the States from Northern Italy in 1912. Family life for the boys did not stereotypically revolve around food, but Ryan says that he and brother Danny were unusually entrepreneurial.
“A lemonade stand for us was selling anything we possibly could out of our kitchen, including lemonade and trying to make things work that way.”
Nicoletto’s pastas feed right into the current foodie trends of all-natural dishes made with locally sourced ingredients. They spent a year getting the pasta just right.
“We spent a lot of time going through drying cycles, only to have pasta crack up on us... How to get the great color, the nice cut, the perfect mouth feel when it’s cooked.”
That passion for fine detail is paying off. Nicoletto’s now employs about 20 Nashvillians making dozens of pastas by hand.
Here's a link to Nicoletto’s Pasta Company. The restaurant, Nicoletto's Kitchen, is located at 2905 Gallatin Pike in East Nashville.