Front Lines

FRONTLINES Kingsville Restaurateurs Purchase The Pasta House

After more than 30 years of serving the fresh pasta needs of Windsorites, The Pasta House is changing hands and moving from Erie Street East.

Sam and Pete Badreddine, owners of O’Sarracino Trattoria & Wine Bar — 31 Main Street West in Kingsville — have bought the long-established Little Italy mainstay from Pina and Carm Simone who have run the shop as a husband-and-wife team for over 30 years.

“When we first opened, there were some family members involved, but once the business became established after a few years, Carm and I started running it ourselves,” explains Pina. “It’s been a great business, but it’s time to step away and let someone else take it over.”

The Badreddine brothers took ownership on February 1, 2021 and are in the middle of a two month training and transition period in preparation for an eventual move in April, to 2950 Dougall Avenue.

New owners and new address means . . . new logo! Sam and Pete Badreddine, new owners of The Pasta House, pose with Carm and Pina Simone at the couple’s current location. The brothers are ready to discover the pastabilities with a big move in the works this spring. Photo by Rod Denis.

“Pete and I decided we wanted to expand the business, so we needed more space and the Dougall location is in a high traffic area with lots of parking,” says Sam in discussing the move.

The brothers plan to keep the same Pasta House recipes and mix in a few more from their own restaurant, while keeping the same staff in place and hope to add more when business picks up again (when COVID-19 restrictions relax more).

During the pandemic, the Simones shut the store down to concentrate on producing pasta for local restaurants and the large orders coming in from grocery stores (Silverstein’s Produce, Sobeys and Remark Fresh Markets) in the area, before re-opening one day a week, since September, to service retail customers.

“Trying to make sure our production area and retail shop were safe for staff and customers became a challenge, so we closed for a few months and concentrated on production rather than retail sales,” says Pina.

The Simones have been considering retirement for a few years, but with changes coming to the building at 465 Erie Street East and a granddaughter on the way, the timing seemed right.

“We had been using the second floor for storage, but our landlord is planning on using that floor for something else,” Pina states. “We’ve moved three times over the past three decades, always along Erie Street, and we didn’t feel like moving again.”

She adds: “We’re really excited about our first grandchild and I think it was the universe telling us now is the right time. The universe doesn’t always give you what you want, but often what you need.”

The Badreddines, who are of Lebanese descent, opened O’Sarracino nine years ago and have since watched Kingsville become a destination for Essex County foodies.

“We took a chance and it paid off,” comments Sam, who has more than 25 years experience in the hospitality sector. “We looked at the demographics in Kingsville and felt it was a good location for an Italian restaurant and now the town has a number of good places to eat and we’re happy with our decision.”

The Badreddines have been dealing with the Simones for more than 20 years, so they are fully aware of The Pasta House’s quality products.

Sam points out that O’Sarracino was open for curbside pickup throughout the pandemic lockdown and now can re-open for limited dining.

“It’s been tough on all of us,” he says. “We’ve tried to keep as many of our 16 staff working, but it’s been a challenge.”

The Badreddines, with Pete taking the lead role, plan to open five days a week at The Pasta House and add to the staff as required at the new location.

For more information, search “The Pasta House Windsor” on Facebook and refer to: OSarracino.ca. The Badreddines expect to have a revamped website at: ThePastaHouse.ca up and running by the end of March.

New Windsor PPE Company Does It All From Product Design To Production

A Windsor company has jumped into production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and is already shipping its newlydesigned face masks across Canada with its face shields soon to follow.

“We’ve launched a vertically-integrated PPE company right here in Windsor and we have some innovative new products that we’re introducing to help fill the demand for civilian-centric PPE,” explains Trevor Pare, Co-founder of ATMIS Protective Equipment along with Andrew and Dave Glover of Harbour Technologies.

Made in Windsor, the “Atmis Sphere” is a stylish alternative face covering for work and play. Photo courtesy of Atmis.

Products include a surgical mask (C-3) and a C-95 shield, which is a non-medical version of the N-95 masks used by medical personnel on the front lines of the pandemic.

ATMIS is currently producing about 10,000 Level 3 surgical masks daily. And the company is also finalizing its design of a plastic face shield, which it has dubbed the “Atmis Sphere”.

ATMIS was launched in March 2020 to meet the unprecedented demand for nonsurgical face masks and face shields, amid the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Pare points out that most of the PPE many people are wearing today, was initially intended for healthcare workers, so ATMIS created civilian-optimized products, which make more sense in the daily lives of most people who want to wear masks.

Founded by engineers, ATMIS does everything in-house, from product design to production and even builds its own production equipment.

“It’s all only possible through the involvement of the people at Harbour who pivoted quickly in the early months of the pandemic and are now producing groundbreaking new products to help make Canada more self-sufficient when it comes to PPE supplies,” says Pare. “We were able to do this so quickly because of Harbour’s expertise in production.” (See: Harbour-Tech.com)

He adds that because people may be wearing masks for the foreseeable future and for longer periods of time, the masks and shields had to be comfortable.

“Making them better than what was already on the market and making them more comfortable was our primary concern,” states Pare, who is also Co-founder with Gregory Edwards of DarkRoast, a graphic design company with clients across North America (refer to: DarkRoast.co).

The company’s 22,000 square foot plant in Oldcastle will be capable of turning out 22,000 Atmis C3 a day, 9,000 C-95s and as many as 2,000 Atmis Sphere shields, once production is fully underway.

Collaborating with Atmis on this project are a number of local tool and die companies, which have stepped in to complete work not undertaken by ATMIS. All of which keeps production virtually 100% local, from sourcing to production to final delivery.

All of the company’s products ship from a warehouse in Windsor and can be delivered across Canada within days.

Pare mentions that the clear face shields, made of polycarbonate plastic, are three times the thickness of the thinner varieties currently being used by most frontline workers. The C-3 mask is a three-layer disposable model.

ATMIS customers include companies and organizations in health care, hospitality, nuclear, agriculture, dental, education, government and retail sectors. For more information on ATMIS products and to place an order, visit: Atmis.ca.

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