Author: Ricardo_Bamboo

There are a number of recipes for success in the food industry. Many routes lead to culinary & financial achievement but most include the recognition, it seems to me, that one has to do one thing mainly & do it well. I had had this...kind of conversation with a few chef friends over the years but it really struck home when this proposition was put to me by one of the legendary pizza chefs of the mid 90s, who had people driving from Seattle for his wonderful pizza. His business recipe was to make pizza & to make them very well. Italian-born, he built a pizzeria, which made great pizzas — much as they would be made in Italy — & viola, people would come from far-and wide. Lucais Syme seems to abide by that truth. He makes pasta dishes & he makes them very well. Food reviews have said that when it comes to making pasta dishes, Lucais Syme not only knows his stuff but is right out there in this city when it comes to producing this Italian favourite. Syme has spoken about his love of pasta. At his relatively new restaurant, Autostrada, which he co-owns with wine expert, Dustin Dockendorf, his focus remains on pasta, the dish he has long had a passion for & which he makes so very well. The philosophy at Autostrada is to keep it simple. Make the pasta well & then let the good quality ingredients, which accompany the pasta, shine. The 30-seater which Syme & Dockendorf have built on Main @ 32nd has people coming, attracting those in the industry, which is always a good sign. There is a second location downtown. Both are now offering food-to-go, both meals to be eaten that day & those to be eaten later after refrigeration or freezing. Along with the Autostrada’s pasta staples, the to-go menu offers various antipasto dishes, including a delicious chicken liver dish, a Pugliese burrata with Parma dish, as well as well sourced olives. Its to-go beer & wine prices also seem reasonable, I first met Syme when he & his then co-owner, Adam Pegg, were getting ready to open La Quercia in 2008. I liked him immediately as a person, & then as a chef immediately I had the first bite of my food. I want all the good places I have written about recently on TripAdvisor to survive the crisis & this will happen if we support our great eateries online now. While waiting for an order, I was social distance away from a woman, also waiting for an order, who happened to be a Dasher. We got taking & she told me they were doing nicely, making 200$ on average a day. Online order so both restaurant & food deliverers can pay their bills. Posted by S FullerMore