Pasta la Vista

A first look at Figulina’s menu

Take everything you know about “traditional” pasta and throw it out the window. As you likely know, a refreshing new pasta concept is twirling into the former Humble Pie space in early 2024. Now, we have a first look at Figulina’s tasty menu and additional details on the restaurant, opening at the hands of former Poole’s Diner chef de cuisine David Ellis, along with his wife, Sam, and CDC Dylan Shook, who also worked with him at Poole’s.

While the menu will feature some of your classics—done really well, naturally—like a super-comforting Bolognese, the highlight of the menu will be less-common pasta types you may not have heard of. Think rotolo, in which the fillings are rolled up in pasta sheets and baked in the oven; and corzetti, which Ellis makes with a white wine-based dough flavored with pimentón (a type of paprika) and Old Bay—a nod to the South—that’s cut into circles and imprinted with different designs using a special stamp. 

Local ingredients will be prominent throughout the entire menu, which, in addition to six or seven pastas, will also include lighter fare like crudos, charcuterie and salads. Because, you know, balance. A large full-service bar will serve up wine, beer and simple cocktails incorporating local elements as well.

Having worked at Poole’s for four years, Ellis is well-versed in cooking with local ingredients, and pasta will serve as the ultimate vessel for showcasing the state’s harvest. Before that, the Stoke-on-Trent, England-born chef proprietor also honed his pasta-making skills working in kitchens across the world—from England to France to New Zealand and Australia. 

It wasn’t until the pandemic, however, that making pasta became a “new obsession,” says Ellis. And having always wanted to open a restaurant, going with a pasta concept just made sense at the time. “There is a small pasta scene in Raleigh, but I felt there was space for a fresh handmade pasta restaurant,” he adds. “There seems to be a little bit of a pasta buzz right now and we hope that people will be excited by what we bring to the table.”

But Figulina is guaranteed to stand out from the rest. In addition to an extraordinary menu, the restaurant will also feature an on-display pasta production room, where guests will be able to see the pasta being rolled and cut into shapes, and a provisions aspect that will start small and eventually grow to offer take-home pasta kits, dry and fresh pasta, sauces, and the like.

Additionally, Ellis and his team envision Figulina will grow and evolve as a whole over time. “We have so many ideas,” says Sam, who created the branding for the restaurant. “We look forward to growing into the space and bringing all those ideas to life.” In the meantime, prepare yourself for a world of new pasta-bilities (!). @figulina.raleigh

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