Cheese Wheel Pasta Goes Counter Service

Ethan Samuels

At many upscale Italian restaurants, cheese wheel pasta is a delicious bit of tableside theater. Made to order, hot pasta is tossed within a large wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano until it is thoroughly coated with the melting cheese. But the tableside prep convention didn’t deter the culinary team at Il Parco—a counter-style café and pizzeria that lacks tables entirely. They opted to lean into the “delicious” part of the equation and offer their own version, still encouraging customers to view the preparation in its open kitchen.

“It’s not something you expect to see in a counter-service café,” says Ethan Samuels, director, new ventures, at Buen Rallo Group, Il Parco’s parent. “Guests are always surprised at ‘the show.’” Il Parco partners with several Bay Area suppliers for such ingredients as cured meats, tomatoes and many cheeses, including the Parmigiano-Reggiano for its Cheese Wheel Pasta. Samuels notes that it took a few iterations to settle on the right combination of wheel size, flavor and melt characteristics. It is a decadent and filling spaghetti dish on its own, or it can be customized with toppings like mushrooms and bacon. “The nuttiness of the pasta really works well with the mushrooms, in my opinion,” says Samuels. “It gives a very earthy quality, which I love.”

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