{"id":531,"date":"2016-06-22T20:53:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T00:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agooddish.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2016-06-22T20:53:38","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T00:53:38","slug":"raffettos-110-years-of-fresh-pasta-and-still-innovating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.agooddish.com\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Raffetto’s: 110 Years of Fresh Pasta and Still Innovating"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Entrance on Houston Street<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite widespread gentrification and demolition, New York still has many old, unique food shops specializing in everything from cake-decorating supplies to Spanish imports. One of my favorites is Raffetto’s, a more than 100-year old Italian market on Houston Street near 6th Avenue. A charming, old-world type store with wood cabinetry and shelves stocked with all kinds of locally produced and imported Italian foods and ingredients. It is a place you need to visit for a taste of non-sarcastic “artisanal” food. Their pasta is simply delicious.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I first stumbled upon Raffetto’s in the mid-80s, when I was an art advisor and used to spend a lot of time combing the galleries of Soho (before they morphed into expensive boutiques and chain stores). Walking north across Houston Street, I would pass Raffetto’s on the way to get a coffee or hear music in the Village. When I finally stopped in, I was amazed at the other world behind its front door – a wall of different colors and shapes of dried pasta on one side and shelves full of grains, beans, soup mixes, oils, vinegars, a refrigerated case with fresh sauces, cheeses and more on the other. In the back, several women in white lab coats were packaging sauces and filled pasta in an open kitchen and were cutting\u00a0fresh pasta to order, something I hadn’t seen before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kitchen
Kitchen and packing area in the back of the store<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to their website, and from the looks of it, Raffetto’s<\/a> is still using the same pasta-rolling machine that their patriarch\/founder bought when he opened the store in 1906. And the pasta “guillotine”, on which you have your fresh pasta cut to your choice of widths, dates from 1916. Don’t you wish more equipment was still made and maintained that well now?\u00a0Three generations of the Raffetto family are working in and running the business, making the pasta and sauces and staffing the shop. But I’m getting lost in history: the real story is the food they produce.<\/span><\/p>\n