Many Tufts students may recognize the exterior facade of Dave's Fresh Pasta through the window of the Joey as it hurtles from Davis Square through Teele Square. However, many have yet to step beyond the bold Comic Sans font-adorned awning and Christmas lights-bordered store front window into the crowded shop, which sells 29 different sandwiches and 19 varieties of fresh-cut pasta.
The man behind the 10-year-old business and its well-known namesake, Dave Jick, has had a soft spot for pasta ever since he started making it by hand during his youth.
"I decided to work in the food business during high school, through college and then after college," Jick told the Daily. "And back then, I got interested in pasta and then making my own pasta, so I decided to give it a try."
After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in economics, Jick opted out of going into finance to follow his passion. He ventured into the restaurant business by working as a waiter and a line cook. He soon realized, however, that working in a restaurant was not his cup of tea.
"The hours were long and [the kitchen] was always so hectic," he said. "I didn't really want to work in restaurants for someone else for the rest of my life."
So Jick put his academic business skills, coupled with his enthusiasm for making pasta, to better use.
"I sort of had this idea that I could [sell] wholesale pasta back in the 1980s — and this was before the beginning of the whole gourmet-pasta craze," he said. "So I started a wholesale pasta business 25 years ago in the basement of my house."
At just the right time, he said, popular demand for quality pasta increased drastically, and Jick recognized the need for a bigger space. So he moved shop to a cheap rental corner space in Arlington. The wholesale business soon expanded to a retail business, and when Jick made a large enough profit, he turned back to the restaurant business in 1995 — this time opening his own: Noodles in Cambridge, Mass.
Although the business was fairly successful, Jick confessed that restaurant life was, once again, a constant source of stress.
"I would never consider myself a chef, and I realized I couldn't run a restaurant," Jick said.
Five years later, he opened Dave's Fresh Pasta in Davis Square and has never looked back. Jick has recently added certain new products to sell in the shop — like a fillet of arctic char, iberico ham and five different types of organic peanut butter — but Dave's is most famous for its pasta and sandwich dishes, and its sauces, made from scratch.
Many customers are devoted fans of Dave's ravioli, which comes in 38 varieties, Jick said. He combines ingredients such as crab, sweet red pepper, shrimp, roasted fennel and Pansotti — a mix of Swiss chard, mustard greens and ravioli — to produce pouplar and unusual creations.
Jick attributes the shop's more unconventional offerings to some of the restaurants and businesses with which he has been in contact.
"It was sort of an eclectic inspiration," he said. "I taught myself and was inspired by flavors from restaurants. That's what all chefs do: steal ideas and recipes."
When it comes to his own taste buds, though, Jick embraces a more minimalist ideology — at least according to his definition of minimalism.
"I'm sort of a purist. I bring home a plain old egg fettuccine and I usually make a quick sauce at home based on olive oil, garlic and variations of a marinara sauce," he said. "My favorite things with pasta are usually greens, like broccoli and Swiss chard."
Jick uses the same simple mindset when making his famous pasta. "There is nothing to it but good ingredients and no shortcuts," he said.
Although kneading and laying out a handmade pasta's dough does require a certain level of skill, mastering the art of pasta-making is really just a matter of practice, Jick explained. This is why he has begun to offer public classes and workshops on a regular basis. Hoping to draw in more culinary students, Jick uses a hands-on approach in his "classroom" and allows cooks-in-training to feast on their own pasta creations after his lessons.
Jick added that the relaxed atmosphere of the classes usually attracts a fairly large number of Tufts students but also appeals to experienced cooks who wish to improve their pasta-making skills. He hopes that the classes inspire some of his more serious students to break into the food business but, in the end, believes that the food business is really only a good fit for those with an active passion for the culinary arts.
"You've got to get into it in a hands-on way and really love it," he said.
For the occasional cook, though, Jick offered a personal favorite recipe of his that's not too difficult to prepare and that will appeal to any fan of Dave's Fresh Pasta.
