Pasta Fresca, 3405 Forest Drive: 5 May 2012 (moved) 14 comments
Pasta Fresca has been tucked away in this little building, once a barber shop, next to the Forest Drive Kroger for many years (though I have the vague feeling they may have started in another location).
I have eaten there a number of times, and it's always been quite good. I especially like the garlic bread and the ravioli stuffed with something that includes walnuts if I recall correctly.
As of Tuesday 15 May 2012, they have relocated to larger quarters in the old San Jose building at 4722 Forest Drive, which they have extensively remodeled. I talked briefly to the owner, and he indicated that the menu will be basically the same, but that some new items will be added.
UPDATE 21 January 2014 -- As mentioned by commenter Mike, this building is refitting to become
Soak nail spa:
14 Responses to 'Pasta Fresca, 3405 Forest Drive: 5 May 2012 (moved)'
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Mike
16 May 12 at 6:38 am
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Wasn't Pets-A-Rama located in this building at some point in time?
CJBM
16 May 12 at 10:25 am
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I'm thinking it was called "Menagerie," but it might have been something else before that. Pasta Fresca has been there since @1994, and I think "Menagerie" moved farther up Forest after that. But it still might ahve been called "Pets-A-Rama" at some point.
badger
16 May 12 at 10:36 am
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Pet-O-Rama was at Richland Mall well into the 70's or maybe the 80's before the old Mall was torn down.
Saturday's child
16 May 12 at 2:47 pm
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One of the highlights of any visit to Columbia when I was young was a stop at Richland Mall to visit Pet-o-rama to look at the fish and a stop at Mr. Poppers for some caramel popcorn.
Mike
16 May 12 at 9:04 pm
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The first thing I remember being in this building was a men's hairstyling place. Was it Mayfield's? I know Mayfield's was on Devine St. but maybe there were two?
It was a pet store in the 80s and maybe some 90s, and they were the same folks who opened further down Forest Drive later. It was called Dee's Wild Things right before it closed but I'm pretty sure it was Menagerie first.
Pasta Fresca was a retirement project begun by Ralph Gregory -- the Gregory of the ad agency Newman, Saylor Gregory. He sold it years ago, tho.
Dennis
16 May 12 at 9:37 pm
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Now that badger has brought it up, I recall a lot of things about The Menagerie. It was a well stocked locally owned pet shop. The nice lady that owned it had a whole variety of the large, colorful birds and they were always noisy. Add to that the bubbling of the filter systems in all the aquariums and it was like an event to walk thru the shop.
A place like this in the Vista today might get away with charging admission.
Terry
17 May 12 at 4:27 am
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In the 1960s it was a restaurant, though I do not recall the name. In the 1970s it was a Codgil Salem Carpets, then a hair styling place.
Tom
17 May 12 at 6:20 am
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Tom - Richland County says the building was not there until 1970.
Dennis
17 May 12 at 8:21 pm
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This is apprently going to be "Soak"--a nail care service. There's one currently located at Trenholm Plaza near the post office which may be moving.
Mike
6 Dec 13 at 5:32 pm
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Not sure if it's the same Pasta Fresca but they now have a location 4722 Forest Dr. Their food is pretty good but on the pricier side.
KKoala
17 Dec 17 at 12:15 am
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I think the sign for this establishment was still up a while after this location closed and the new one opened. I remember seeing it almost every time I came to Columbia while in college (2009-2013). Is that sort of thing common?
Paul
8 Sep 19 at 9:08 am
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I'm aware of several cases where store signage has remained up for quite a while after a closing. Several years ago Carolina Wings closed some of their locations as part of a bankruptcy filing and the signage stayed up for a couple of years after the fact (though it has since come down)...
Display Center kept their signage up for the longest time at their former 655 St. Andrews Road location after closing up shop and it didn't come down until well into the overhaul for the CHEF'STORE that is there now was beginning.
Most places try to have the signage down shortly after the closure process completes but sadly there are cases where that doesn't happen (there are other examples I'm sure but those are the main examples I can think of).
I once posed the question why and the response I got is that the businesses in that type of shape are in a situation where the sigange removal is likely to be an added expense so that's why it stayed up...
Andrew
8 Sep 19 at 3:53 pm
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My gues (and it's just that) is that chains which are still in business don't want their brand on a vacant (and decaying) store while companies that are entirely out of business don't make taking down signs a priority in the shutdown payout process..
ted
8 Sep 19 at 10:07 pm
IIRC this was also a pet grooming business at one time.