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About Our Company
David Bowen and Bill Curtis founded Pappardelle’s in Denver on May 14, 1984. Their vision? Exquisite, fresh pasta in an array of flavors never before experienced by Americans. At that time, pasta in the United States was generally limited to the one basic flavor: plain.
After extensive research they decided that the only way to ensure that their pasta creations would be of the highest quality was to recreate the traditional Italian pasta making methods: fresh, high quality ingredients and small batches. And, because they lacked production equipment of any size |
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the early batches were almost entirely made by hand. They started with these six flavors: egg, spinach, cracked pepper, garlic parsley, lemon pepper and tomato basil. They arrived for work each day at 3 a.m. to have time to create orders for fresh-flavored pastas to be delivered that day in Bill’s 1976 beat-up red Chevy Malibu.
This worked (it was also very tiring!) and the business started to grow. In 1986, Bill and David decided it was time to invest in their first “big” dough machine. And so off Bill went to Italy, with $10,000 cash in his briefcase. He returned with two 25 pound Pama Roma machines — tiny by even our small company standards today, but back then it was quite an advancement over rolling and cutting the pasta by hand. Like the finest pasta makers, David and Bill used bronze dies to form the pasta, which produces a coarser noodle that holds its sauce and feels luxurious on the palate. Pappardelle’s was adhering to “Slow Food” principles such as preserving traditional methods of food preparation and using only the highest quality ingredients, long before it was the in thing.
As more chefs realized they could get very high quality pasta in small batches and in flavors never before imagined, the company’s requests for more flavors expanded (and so, of course, did its recipe collection). The company quickly developed a strong local reputation for quality, innovation and customer service. Word spread quickly through the gourmet world and they soon started to hear from chefs across the country who were intrigued by this little Denver pasta purveyor with its unique pasta assortment.
Never Say No!
Part of the success of the company can certainly be attributed to the mantra employed by the founders, “Never say no!” This way of doing business increased sales and expanded the number of varieties of pasta exponentially.
An example of their can-do spirit is a wonderful story of how Pappardelle’s got started making ravioli. The chef at Cheyenne Mountain Inn near Colorado Springs asked if Pappardelle’s had a chocolate dessert ravioli. Without missing a beat, Bill said “Sure, how many and when do you want them?”
“It’s for a wedding next week,” the chef replied. “I’ll take 3,500 ravioli pieces.”
As one would imagine, David wanted to strangle Bill when he heard the request. They had never before made ravioli for any of their restaurants, had no chocolate dessert ravioli recipe and had no special equipment for making ravioli in that quantity. With the use of lots of rolling pins and hand held pastry fillers, the help of David’s mom and dad (who, by the way, had also provided Bill and David with their seed money to start their little deli and pasta business), and several sleepless nights, Bill proudly fulfilled their first ravioli order that next week. The chef and wedding guests were delighted and a new chapter began for Pappardelle’s. Soon after they decided to purchase Italian dough and ravioli machines and began creating other ravioli.
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The Art of Drying Pasta
In 1991, we began drying our fresh flavored pastas, preserving the traditional Italian methods of slow-drying pasta at temperatures well below mass-produced pastas. David learned the art of drying pasta from a friend who was selling a few of his own flavored dried pastas at a local farmers’ market in Cherry Creek, Denver, which at the time was a new and relatively small farmers’ market. Pappardelle’s started making dried pastas for this farmers’ market vendor, but he soon left the farmers’ market and stopped selling pasta altogether. Bill approached a local bread vendor at the market about picking up Pappardelle’s newer line of flavored dried pastas. They agreed, and so began Pappardelle’s entrée into its special farmers’ market
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niche. Today, Cherry Creek boasts daily Saturday crowds as high as 15,000 and is one of the best markets for Pappardelle’s products.
Places Pappardelle's Has Been Served
While we have grown to nearly 30 farmers’ markets this year, Pappardelle’s primary business still traces to its roots to “white tablecloth” restaurants and upscale hotels and resorts. For example, we have been offered across the country in well known places such as:
| The Breakers | Palm Beach, Florida |
| The Williamsburg Inn | Williamsburg, Virginia |
| Hotel Montelleone | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| The Biltmore | Phoenix, Arizona |
| The Brown Palace | Denver, Colorado |
| The BroAdmoor | Colorado Springs, Colorado |
| Beaver Creek Lodge | Beaver Creek, Colorado |
| Hotel Jerome | Aspen, Colorado |
| The Coronado | San Diego, California |
| The Lodge at Rancho Mirage | Rancho Mirage, California |
In addition, our lobster ravioli was served during a State Dinner at the White House in the early 1990’s. And we have been a “regular” on the table at the Colorado Governor’s Mansion.
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But it was probably in August 1993 that we were honored to have the most dignified person enjoy our pasta. One day at the new plant a black sedan drives up and out jumps four suited, sunglass bearing enforcer-looking gentlemen. They announced they were with the Secret Service and were there on behalf of the Archdiocese. They asked how our fresh pasta was made and insisted on inspecting the manufacturing area. We showed them around and apparently they were satisfied because they promptly ordered 20 pounds of fresh egg fettuccine. The agents selected the fresh roll of pasta, stationed themselves at
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strategic locations in our plant and personally accompanied the pasta as it was removed from the walk-in refrigerator, cut and placed in boxes. The recipient? The Pope. He was in town for Denver’s World Youth Day. He wanted fresh pasta and Pappardelle’s is where they came!
Upward and Onward
Fast forward to the present, after 18 years of building their little pasta idea into Pappardelle’s, David and Bill needed a change. And so did Pappardelle’s. It was time for a fresh perspective. Jim and Paula Steinberg bought Pappardelle’s in April, 2002. Coming off of 9/11, it was a tough business climate for Pappardelle’s as tourism, the economy and dining out came to what felt like a standstill.
But Jim and Paula believed so strongly in David’s myriad of creations and in Bill’s success in establishing a stellar reputation for Pappardelle’s that they had no doubt that the company would continue to succeed. Some of the things Jim has added include the following:
- Jim asked David to “put the icing on the cake” by creating a unique line of fresh-frozen gourmet sauces. David’s mission? To produce a line of sauces that are generally unavailable in typical grocery markets and which both complement the pastas and can be used in non-pasta culinary dishes. We now have over 15 exquisite sauces, pestos and bruschettas.
- We continue to innovate with our pastas, adding four to six new items every year.
- We have added more than 60 different dried pastas to our inventory base and created new recipes specific to each of these flavors.
- We have created a website to provide for internet purchases and to give people more information about us.
Where are we today and where are we going? After over five years at the helm, Jim's vision is first and foremost to keep satisfying our existing restaurant customers with the best pasta and sauces in the country, using our high quality ingredients, fantastic recipes and time tested production methods. Jim also has realized that consumers place such an incredibly high value on the “Pappardelle” experience through farmers’ markets, that he wants to expand our availability at other farmers’ markets around the country and provide a limited assortment of our products at smaller high-end specialty gourmet food stores. (Click here if you are interested in learning more about how you might be able to sell our pasta at farmers' markets.)
Jim, Paula and the Pappardelle's crew |
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This will keep our products as something very selectively available, which Jim believes will help to maintain Pappardelle’s allure and mystique. It will also allow Pappardelle’s to grow responsibly.
We started with a commitment to innovation and quality, and those remain our guiding principles. We are essentially a “Mom and Pop” company. We employ only a handful of people who work incredibly hard to produce some of the tastiest pasta in the country. Pappardelle’s mission is to continue to create high-quality pastas, sauces and pestos that challenge, tempt and tantalize the palate. We thank you for participating with us in this quest.
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