- Video shows Love, Pasta located on Horton Road in Jackson.
- Husband and wife, Ridge and Mariel, found love in Vegas and knew they wanted to open their handcrafted pasta restaurant in Jackson.
- With a troubling economy, they haven't let the cost of goods or inflation ruin their plans of opening Love, Pasta.
Opening a restaurant is hard enough. Juggling the cost of goods and inflation rates can be enough for anyone to put their dreams on hold. However, one Jackson couple, still decided now was the time to open an artisan Italian eatery.
"We talked about it for years and completely changed our lives," says co-owner, Ridge Frew. He and his wife, Mariel, thought they had the perfect recipe for a restaurant. Mariel explains, "Our focus has been, and was from the jump, always going to be handmade." That vision took them from where they met, in Las Vegas, to right here, in Jackson. "It just seemed like a great spot to raise our kids. We liked the size of the community. It just seemed like a place we wanted to be," she continues.
Ridge and Mariel spent four years searching for a location that had every ingredient they were looking for. "This space really seemed to check all the boxes," Mariel says. Love, Pasta opened on Horton Road last week.
How the Frews created an affordable menu with quality ingredients:
"The big base for most of our dishes are quality tomatoes and quality flour. The great thing is: handmade is way cheaper than buying boxed," says Ridge. The Frews say, when it comes to saving on the cost of goods, it comes down to the ingredients, and handmade pasta is the key to their restaurant's business model.
"There was definitely a mindfulness of cost of goods and what kind of products we would be able to present a menu with, that would be really high quality, but at a price point anyone could access. Pasta lends itself well to that," says Mariel. Love, Pasta keeps their pasta ingredients as simple as can be, which gives them room to splurge on ingredients they see necessary, like imported tomatoes from Europe.
When it comes to pasta, Ridge says there's almost zero waste when it comes to making your own, keeping costs well under control. Another secret ingredient the Frews share is to buy select products locally, to avoid common supply chain issues. "If this was a two-year ago concept, we'd be hitting a lot of hills and bumps with supply chain," says Ridge. To them, the four-year wait for the perfect location was almost a blessing in disguise. Now, Love, Pasta is a spot the Frews see as well worth the wait.
Love, Pasta currently has seven handcrafted pastas on the menu, alongside several salad and appetizer options and a lengthy list of craft cocktails.
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