I don’t do Grubhub and I don’t do DoorDash and I don’t do Uber Eats. But I do order takeout food sometimes and I did order dinner from a local ghost kitchen, so don’t say I don’t keep up with the times.
What is a ghost kitchen? It’s a sort of virtual restaurant/food hub that offers pick-up or delivery only: no dining room, no bar, no reservations, no walk-ins. Orders are placed online, usually, or by phone. Delivery is sometimes available, but not always.
After following the Nothin’ But Noods account on Instagram and seeing the weekly menus, I was curious about this new food option. The pasta-to-go business is owned and operated by John D’Amore, a chef who has worked at a long list of Syracuse-area restaurants, including the former Genesee Grande Hotel and more recently Strada Mia. He’s gone solo and shares kitchen space on Brewerton Road in Mattydale with the owners of Phokouttahere (Vietnamese food and food truck) and Fat Brother, which specializes in Laotian and southeast Asian cuisine.
Each week, D’Amore posts a build-your-own pasta menu on Instagram and Facebook, which is also where he takes orders. Choose your style of pasta (from Rochester’s Flour City Pasta; everything from traditional linguine to squid ink linguine) then choose your homemade sauce (marinara, vodka sauce, puttanesca, pesto, creamy pesto, etc.) and any extras, like meatballs, garlic broccoli and brown butter mushrooms. D’Amore also offers an entree special each week.
I sent the chef a direct message on Instagram to ask him which sauce he would recommend with the garlic chive pappardelle (creamy pesto, he replied) and placed an order for that and a side of garlic broccoli. I requested a 4 p.m. Saturday pickup, pulled into the parking lot and called the phone number provided with my order confirmation. Out came the chef with my food. He handed me a bag and I handed him money.
In the bag was a plentiful serving of pasta in an aluminum container, a container of extra sauce, two slices of Italian bread, butter, and two small containers with Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper flakes. A separate container held the garlic broccoli. The pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente and could have easily served two. I removed half of it from the container when I was ready to eat and drizzled it with some extra sauce before reheating it. It was delicious – and nice to not have to cook.
Will I go back? Absolutely. I love that D’Amore is using Flour City Pasta (whose owner is a fixture on Saturdays at the Central New York Regional Market) and I want to try his vodka sauce. Next time I’ll probably skip the broccoli, which was too crisp for my taste.
The cost of this feast before tip was $18. That’s reasonable for a restaurant-quality meal-to-go.
Note: Nothin’ But Noods accepts cash only.
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