Meet The Dave Behind Dave Makes Pasta

His love for pasta has led to a thriving small business

Food News is a regular feature looking at emerging places and interesting people in Ann Arbor and elsewhere. This post is for all CulinaryWoman subscribers, so enjoy.

If you shop in small groceries around Ann Arbor, you’ve come across brown bags and boxes of fresh made pasta. The shapes are intriguing, not the kind you normally find on the refrigerator shelf. The sauces are unique, too, and make you want to make a plate as soon as you get home.

Dave Makes Pasta is the brainchild of trained chef Dave Kwiatkowski. Working with his wife Alise, Dave has turned a restaurant side gig into a full time job.

His pastas and sauces are individually available in seven stores, and are sold directly to customers via his Instagram account, (@) dave_makes_pasta. It’s been so successful that Dave Makes Pasta has been his sole occupation for the past two years.

Dave has cooked for 19 years, starting at Steve & Rocky’s in suburban Novi, Mich., then in New York City. He worked at Cafe Grey, Tabla, Gramercy Tavern, and the North End Grill (it’s very likely Dave was cooking when I ate in one of those places during his six years in NYC).

In 2013, he moved back to Michigan, settling in Ann Arbor and taking a job as sous chef at Grange Kitchen and Bar. Grange, which sadly closed in 2021, was a well-regarded small restaurant that sourced 90 percent of its food locally, and focused on seasonal menus.

A pandemic move

Dave became Grange’s pasta expert. “Chef Brandon Johns, the owner of Grange, knew I loved to make pasta,” Dave told me. “So, he suggested I do a pasta special every Thursday night” in what became known as Pasta Thursdays.

“I took this as an opportunity to learn and practice new shapes and sauces.” When the pandemic hit in early 2020, forcing restaurants to curb indoor dining, “Brandon suggested we each start a business and sell packaged food out of the Grange kitchen, since there was no dining in the restaurant.”

That’s when he launched Dave Makes Pasta, selling pasta kits over Instagram. Argus Farm Stop, which features local produce and products, was the first to carry his items, and Dave Makes Pasta became a familiar sight around town.

His pastas are regularly on the menu at Bellflower in Ypsilanti, recently named a semi-finalist for the James Beard Award, where pasta customers including my brother and I go on Fridays and Saturdays to collect kits ordered from him.

Dave gets inspiration from a number of places. “I am always using the internet to research pasta shapes and sauces. I have a number of pasta cookbooks. The Pasta Grannies YouTube channel is a great place to learn about more obscure pastas. And, there is a great community of pasta makers from all over the world on Instagram.”

A variety of offerings

His lineup is constantly changing. “Each week is different. For the most part, I make what I want to eat,” he says. “Sometimes the market determines what I’m going to make. If ramps become available, I’ll make something with ramps. If zucchini show up at the farmer’s market, I’m making Spaghetti alla Nerano” made famous by Stanley Tucci. “Sometimes, I’ll make a sauce that I really enjoy making, like Napoletano.”

His Vodka sauce is probably the most popular sauce in the markets. “I do a few different pestos that are also quite popular” including conventional basil and arugula pesto. He regularly offers filled pastas, and also has ventured into pierogi and assembled dishes, such as baked rigatoni, which my brother made for me recently.

One frustration: “I’ve never been able to get beans to sell as well as I would like. I absolutely love pasta with beans, and I want to convert everyone to pasta and bean lovers.”

Future dreams

Dave says he’d like to have a brick and mortar pasta shop some day, but meanwhile, he’s like to supply more local shops and restaurants. His goal is to be featured in the Zingerman’s Mail Order catalog, and he has looked into GoldBelly.

Says Dave, “I’m constantly learning of new shapes and sauces from them, and many of them are willing to share recipes and techniques. I try my best to represent traditional Italian pastas, but would never claim authenticity, especially since I’m not Italian. I just want to share my passion for pasta with fellow pasta lovers.”

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