Food that is fresh, fast, local and filling is becoming increasingly difficult to find. However, a recently opened restaurant right here in St. Charles has checked all four boxes and is working on checking more. In June 2024, the Alagna (uh-lawn-yah) brothers, Ben and Adam, along with their father Tom, opened Sauci Pasta.
“We make all the pasta up front in the shop in a 360 degree viewing prep area,” Ben Alagna said. “We offer six different shapes of pasta. lt’s all made right here in the shop.”
The interior of the shop is modern and detailed, offering customers a full view of the chefs as their dishes are prepared. Customers report that the process hardly ever takes more than 10 minutes, and even that time flies by as they watch the noodles magically unwind from the machines.
“The experience is very different,” Alagna said. “[The pasta] is going to be super fast, at other places that sell fresh pasta you would have to go and be seated and get your orders in and all of that. Here, it’s not the same.”
Another upside: it’s fairly priced.
“A lot of places, they have very teeny tiny cup sizes for upwards of $20,” returning customer Alayna Gillins said. “I was a little skeptical when my mom first took me here because I saw that a full bowl was at most $15. I thought, ‘oh gosh, this is going to be itty bitty’, but then they bring it out and it’s this huge salad-plate sized bowl of pasta. And it’s all just really good.”
Although the restaurant currently has great business, they’re still looking ahead and considering further expansion.
“We are in very, very early talks to hopefully expand,” Alagna said. “If we do expand, we would expand by opening another one, versus expanding the size of the shop. There’s also ideas for different, maybe seasonal pastas or dishes or different sauces.”
Alagna wants the shop to continue to be a comforting place where anyone can take a break, sit down, and have a hot meal.
“It’s best to have an emotional connection with a restaurant,” Alagna said. “When people leave our shop, I want them to know they’re not only going to get good food that’s fresh and the best you can get really, but that the experience overall is gonna be something that they’re gonna be able to remember days later.”
