It’s not Italian, but this Wynwood restaurant serves some of the best pasta in Miami

Like restaurant owners the world over, Peruvian chefs Juan Manuel Umbert and Janice Buraschi were blindsided by the 2020 pandemic.

The strict rules in Lima shut down Pasta, their tiny, fledgling restaurant, which had only been open since July 2019. It was closed for a couple of months, a wrenching turn of events for the young couple, who had just decided to expand the space to accommodate the growing lines that formed outside every night.

Eventually, restaurants were allowed to open again, just in time to face a rise in the country’s political turmoil, as conflict intensified between the Congress and then-president Martín Vizcarra, whom Congress voted to remove after corruption allegations. Massive protests erupted, and later the new president Manuel Merino was forced to resign, splintering the country further. At one point the country had three presidents sworn in during one week.

The economic future of Pasta, of any restaurant in the culinary-rich Lima, seemed uncertain.

Looking back, Umbert remembers the anxiety.

“We were young. It was our first restaurant,” he said, adding that his wife was just 22 at the time. “As soon as we were coming out of the pandemic and seeing like a light, finally, at the end of the tunnel, elections came in Peru. And that’s when our partners told us: ‘Guys, you built something beautiful here, but we have no idea what’s gonna happen. You survived the pandemic, and now please start looking to open somewhere else, because we cannot lose Pasta.’ ”

Spoiler alert: Pasta was not lost. The original remains open and thriving in Lima and, since late October, in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Umbert and Buraschi considered opening a location in Colombia and Chile. They decided against Mexico. Spain was in another time zone, too far to travel back and forth easily.

Then someone suggested Miami.

“I hadn’t been in Miami since I was 10,” Umbert says. “For me, Florida was Disney and shopping. That’s the idea for basically any South American: You go to Miami for shopping.”

But Miami had changed in the years after the pandemic, enjoying a sonic culinary boom that encouraged restaurateurs around the world to scramble for space here. The couple traveled to Miami at the end of 2021 and immediately liked Wynwood because it reminded them of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood.

“We felt like Wynwood was going to become the Williamsburg of Miami,” Umbert said. “We like the vibe. We like minimal stuff or rustic stuff and nothing too uptight or fancy.”

Pasta is anything but uptight or fancy. Its high ceilings give it a welcoming atmosphere, and its open kitchen encourages diners to watch what’s being made. The best seats in the house are at the chef’s counter, where you can watch the couple and the team cook the pasta handmade earlier that day and plate appetizers while sipping a cocktail or a glass of wine.

The name Pasta is simple but accurate: Aside from a few starters and desserts, pasta is the only thing on the menu.

Janice Buraschi says the name was the best way to explain the offerings.

“We didn’t want to be considered an Italian restaurant, because we don’t offer risotto, we don’t offer meat or fish or pizza. Just pasta,” she said. “And also our goal is to be the best pasta restaurant in every city we open in. So when someone asks, ‘Where can I eat the best pasta?’ You say ‘At Pasta.‘ ”

The menu is simple but serious: Six starters, including a homemade stracciatella served with sourdough and razor clams with nduja and salsa verde. Nine pastas, made in the window counter every morning, including a pici cacio e pepe that, judging from social media, is one of the most popular times (pici is thick, hand-rolled pasta).

But there are other standouts so fragrant and delicious ordering can be difficult, especially the agnolotti di funghi with butter and 36-month parmigiano reggiano or the pappardelle with 15-hour braised beef cheek ragú. Other dishes include fettuccine verdi with caramelized leeks, lemon and parmigiano reggiano and taglierini with anchovies, peperoncino, garlic and pangrattato.

Buraschi makes the restaurant’s desserts. Pasta offers four choices, including a pistachio torta and panna cotta al caffe, but ordering anything else after you’ve tried the tarta de quesos feels impossible. Buraschi leaned into the idea of creating an Italian-style cheesecake, using mascarpone and gorgonzola to create a firmer consistency. The result is not as sweet as a regular cheesecake but infinitely better.

“On my day off, that’s my breakfast,” Umbert says.

The first month of business was slow at the restaurant. Pasta is slightly off the main streets of Wynwood, although the neighborhood’s rapid growth should change that soon enough. Umbert says business has picked up considerably since the holidays, despite the nearby presence of Otto & Pepe, another Italian restaurant specializing in pasta right around the corner on 27th Avenue. Otto & Pepe is larger and a bit more upscale, with a two-counter bar, a retail wine shop and a huge outdoor patio.

And it’s not the only Italian restaurant nearby. The luxurious restaurant Sparrow Italia also opened around the same time just two blocks to the south, and the famous celebrity-magnet Italian spot Mother Wolf opened nearby in the Design District in October, too.

Umbert and Buraschi, who are living in Miami at the moment but plan to travel back and forth to Lima, believe the more modest (and affordable) Pasta is different enough to stand out. They’re confident enough about their brand to consider opening in other U.S. cities at some point.

“It was hard in the beginning, because of course people are going to try the famous ones first, like Mother Wolf and Sparrow,” Umbert says. “But it’s a good thing when they start comparing us. That’s when it’s convenient to have a lot of the same kind of restaurants in close proximity, because if you do things well, you’re going to separate from the rest and be recognized as better.”

Pasta

Where: 124 NW 28th St., Miami

Hours: 5:30-10 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 5:30-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 5-9:30 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday-Tuesday

Reservations: Resy

More information: pasta-restaurants.com