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Robbie Felice discusses the success of wafu-Italian restaurant PastaRamen

The critically acclaimed chef says Italian and Japanese food go together naturally

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

February 20, 2024

Wafu-Italian is a cuisine that is starting to get more attention, thanks in no small part to Robbie Felice, the chef and partner of PastaRamen, which after a whirlwind tour of pop-ups across the country, put down roots a year ago in Montclair, N.J., in partnership with Montclair Hospitality Group.

The cuisine itself means “Japanese-style Italian,” and it has been available in Japan for decades as the locals put their own spin on Italian food, just as Americans were doing at the time developing the spaghetti-and-meatballs and other “red sauce Italian” dishes that are so-beloved in the Northeastern United States.

Felice discovered wafu-Italian during the pandemic, as he, like so many other chefs, adjusted to the constantly changing times and was trying to figure out what to do with his existing restaurants, Viaggio Ristorante in Wayne, N.J., and Osteria Crescendo in Westwood, N.J.

As restaurants started reopening after lockdown, Felice started doing high-end omakase pop-ups highlighting wafu-Italian, to great success. He took his show on the road, hosting dinners in Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, before opening his current location in partnership with his friend Luck Sarabhayavanija.

Felice grew up in his family’s Italian restaurants and also studied at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., before working in fine-dining restaurants including Babbo in New York City and B&B Ristorante in Las Vegas, where he ended up running the salumi program for all of that group’s Vegas restaurants.

He went on to cook at fine-dining restaurants in Europe and then joined the team at The Modern in New York City before opening Viaggio with his father in 2016. That restaurant and Crescendo have long been highly regarded restaurants in New Jersey, making multiple lists of the best restaurants in the state, and PastaRamen has been similarly honored.

Felice recently discussed PastaRamen and his plan for new restaurants in the near future.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage.

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN.

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2^nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends.

Bret Thorn’s Experience:

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
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