GRASSA HANDCRAFTED PASTA

There are five locations, but the one we found was

By Scott Alexander

“THERE’S A PLACE IN THE MALL, IT’S NO OLIVE GARDEN, BUT IT’S PRETTY GOOD” WAS THE PHRASE I HEARD COME OUT OF SOMEONE’S MOUTH WHEN I ASKED WHERE TO FIND A GOOD ITALIAN RESTAURANT 16 YEARS AGO, WHEN I HAD JUST MOVED TO THE MID-VALLEY.

Having been accustomed to San Francisco’s North Beach, and it’s “best in class” Italian restaurant scene, this was a blow that took some time to get over. The sad part was that the guy was right. No Italian eatery of note in sight.

Finally, Pastini opened in Corvallis, and it’s good. One might say it’s even BETTER than an Olive Garden. But we just discovered a fantastic pasta place in Vancouver, Grassa. Actually, there are five of them in the Portland Metro area – where have WE been?

Grassa is owned by Rick Gencarelli. Rick moved to Portland in 2009 and launched a food truck called “Lardo” referring to, as their website says, “a type of salume made by curing strips of fatback with rosemary and other herbs and spices, encased and cured with salt.” Plural: Salumi. Fun fact: the word salumi, “salted meat” derives from the Latin sal, “salt.”

Gencarelli is not your average Joe, who decided he could make a little dough, on food to go... by opening a food truck. He’s an accomplished chef with a history of culinary accomplishments. Think Culinary Institute of America (the CIA) in NYC, multiple culinary positions involving hops from the east coast to the west, to the east, and back – luckily for us. If you’re still not convinced, before the Lardo food truck, he opened “Olives” in the W Hotel in New York City. One does not simply open a restaurant in a chic hotel in NYC if one doesn’t know what one is doing.

We fell into Grassa purely by accident. Looking at Yelp in a hotel room, it was a tie between sushi somewhere, again, or pasta at Grassa. We were close to the Vancouver location, so what the heck, pasta it was. Fortunately, the Mrs. was with me. She always convinces me to do something better than I’d do myself for dinner. Running family joke: I’ve eaten Slim Jim’s from Chevron for dinner, more than once.

The cool thing about Grassa is it’s not a stuffy, white tablecloth, sit down kind of a deal. Gencarelli could certainly get away with that, given his history, and very clear skill in the kitchen, but thankfully no, he’s made it comfortable to drop in and have a casual, elevated meal. You walk in the door, and there’s the menu, on a giant blackboard on the wall. You order at the counter, take your number and have a seat. Food arrives quickly, delivered by a cheerful and enthusiastic server.

We had Pasta Carbonara and Wild Mushroom Alfredo, with a Caesar Salad and an Italian Chopped Salad to start. She had a coke, I (getting into the whole vibe) had a fizzy, Limonata Sanpellegrino water -“Mediterranean flavours for every moment,” as they say.

Portions were very generous. In fact two people could easily split a pasta OR a salad. The pasta was cooked perfectly, and our sauces were creamy and delicious. Our salads were great too; fresh ingredients with nice tangy Caesar dressing, and an authentic, very Italian, treatment applied to the chopped salad as well.

I’m looking forward to our next visit -soon!