Exploring Life & Business with Carmella Alvaro Reamer of Melina’s Fresh Pasta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carmella Alvaro Reamer. She shares her story with us below:

Carmella, Owner & Pasta Maker at Melina’s Fresh Pasta, grew up in a traditional Italian-American family in Syracuse, NY. The first to be born in the United States, she longed for a connection to the country every other member of her family was from. After years of watching her mother, Giuseppa, make homemade Italian food from what her father, Giuseppe, grew in his garden, she wanted to share the Italian tradition of food made from scratch with care and served with love to family and friends. While this has changed in the last 13 years, upon arrival in North Carolina in 2010, Carmella noted a need for authentic Italian food in the area. She traveled to Bologna, Italy, to supplement her mother’s Southern Italian cooking lessons and learn the Northern Italian tradition of fresh pasta making. Melina’s Fresh Pasta was started in 2010 at local farmers’ markets across the Triangle. Now in their 13th year, Melina’s has a storefront in Durham where you can watch the award-winning pasta being made.

You wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been smooth?
Owning a business is like that feeling you had as a kid in school when you tilted your chair back and, for one millisecond, lost your balance and thought you would tip over. A feeling of terror followed by relief. All the time. A typical week is far from what I had envisioned. I’m not peacefully rolling out dough with a light dusting of flour on my arms. It’s more like taking apart a stubborn machine and learning to read a wiring diagram in Italian—or sweeping & scrubbing, scooping out ricotta filling up to my elbows, more scrubbing, repairing tents for the farmers market, training employees, social media posting, heaving 50-pound bags of flour and sometimes considering alternate employment. A small business is a constant struggle – supply chain packaging is a major issue when you start because when you are small, it is difficult to get the larger food distributors to work with you. As we grew and started ordering 25000 pounds of ricotta a year, it was easier to get supplies. Finding labor is also a constant issue – we are unique, and only a few people have ever worked in a pasta shop, so we have to find a unique person willing to learn our processes to make fresh pasta. We have a great team in place right now bit are always looking for more help. The pandemic only exacerbated these issues – especially supply chain and labor. We use very few high-quality ingredients like durum wheat flour, ricotta, San Marzano-style plum tomatoes, and eggs. Without exception, each of those products has seen some shortage due to weather and the pandemic leading to price increases of almost 50%.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Melina’s Fresh Pasta?
Melina’s Fresh Pasta was founded to honor the traditions of Italian food – Fresh, Local, Seasonal – to make the most delicious pasta, offering a product that is easy and fast to prepare so our busy customers don’t have to sacrifice quality for convenience. After working in a cramped 400-square-foot converted garage for 7 years, we moved into a larger production facility with a storefront in 2017 right in the heart of Durham. We knocked down all the walls and created an open floor plan so customers can watch us make the pasta and enjoy the aroma of our sauces cooking when they come in to purchase their pasta. In 2022 we were proud and humbled to be named the Overall Winner of the Made in NC Awards from Our State Magazine for our Pimento Cheese Ravioli. This was always my favorite ravioli since it represented our brand so well – Italian traditions combined with southern flavors. It used to be a tough sell since people were skeptical about trying a Pimento Cheese ravioli, but now it is one of our best sellers. The business has come a long way, and I love knowing that on any given night, my food is on the table of so many people in the area.

Any big plans?
The last 3 years have been a challenge for everyone. We were able to grow during the pandemic since our product was made for at-home cooking at a time when people were stuck at home. In 2022, with the Made in NC award, we also saw an increase in new customers thanks to the Our State Magazine cover featuring our ravioli as the cover model. So I am not making plans until I have what I have been calling (and hoping for) a “normal” year in 2023 so I can have some stable data points to make future decisions. One change we were able to make immediately at the start of 2023 is to resume pasta-making classes after 3 years. We invite our customers to the shop, and they learn how to make pasta by hand. I get to teach them about Italian food and traditions and talk about how I grew up as a child of Italian immigrants. It is one of my favorite things to do, and I plan to put more focus on classes in the future. On that same note, I am part of a group of proud Italian Americans who help to plan Festa Italiana Raleigh. 2023 will be our 5th year of organizing an Italian Street festival in Raleigh to celebrate our heritage. It will be held on September 23, 2023.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.melinaspasta.com
• Instagram: @melinaspasta
• Facebook: facebook.com/melinaspasta