Pasta e Pani closed in Virginia Beach after 30 years — but you can still find the pasta and sauces

For 30 years, Pasta e Pani has been synonymous with authentic Italian food in Virginia Beach — first under chef Angelo Serpe and then under Naples-born Salvatore Robilotta.

But on March 13, Pasta e Pani served its final veal scallopini. Its owner, Robilotta, decided to close rather than renew his lease — though it wasn’t, he said, for lack of customers.

“I was busy every night,” he said, “full every night. Some nights I had people waiting outside. But at the same time, there’s a limit.”

The limit, of course, was the number of people he could fit in his dining room while still observing safety precautions during the pandemic. And without a patio to expand his seating, he said, he couldn’t make the finances work out for the amount of time he was putting into the restaurant. He also didn’t want to worry about bringing the virus home to his family.

“It is not worth the aggravation,” he said. He worries that diners will take a long time getting comfortable even as vaccines wend their way across the country, and about the safety of restaurant service if the COVID-19 virus mutates further.

But that doesn’t mean that this is the end for Pasta e Pani. Instead, Robilotta will come to you.

Already during the pandemic, he had brought his fresh-made sauces and pastas to farmers markets in the area.

Now, he plans to do so on a much larger basis, making 60-pound batches of fresh pappardelle and ravioli and tortellini, as well as a selection of sauces: Bolognese, pomodoro, vodka and puttanesca. He’ll also sell fresh-pulled mozzarella, freshly baked bread and scratch-made Italian meatballs.

In Virginia Beach, he says, he’ll visit the farmers markets at King’s Grant Baptist Church and on 19th Street in front of Croc’s in the ViBe District, as well as the market at Lynnhaven Coffee Co.

In Norfolk, he’ll stop by the new Ghent farmers market at 730 Spotswood Ave. (Blair Middle School) every other Friday, as well as the farmers market at 7400 Hampton Blvd. (Church of the Good Shepherd) on Wednesdays, and the East Beach market at 9688 Shore Drive on Saturday afternoons.

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Most of these markets will ramp up in April or early May. Robilotta said he’ll honor gift cards for his restaurant at the markets for up to a year after purchase..

In addition to the markets, Robilotta will embark on a new career as a private home chef, making meals for families in their home and offering basic cooking tips — spending the one-on-one time with his customers in a way he couldn’t in a busy restaurant.

“I did a couple last week,” he said. “People coming from out of town, they found out about it, I went and did a bed and breakfast. I showed them menus, and they said, ‘I want this. I want that.’ I prepared it from scratch, took the time to teach them to use a knife, basic technique so they don’t cut their hand.”

He doesn’t rule out opening the restaurant again — and he’s hanging on to the Pasta e Pani name. But for now, he said, he considers this a “new adventure.”

“I say, ‘let’s try something new,’ ” he said. “Maybe eventually I’ll reopen a restaurant, but I will not open a restaurant again without an outside area. Maybe I will open a place with not as many people, so people feel comfortable. I hope there won’t be another COVID — but you’ve got to be ready. You have to accept it. But this is not defeat. There is no defeat.”

Chef Salvatore Robilotti will bring his goods to area farmers markets beginning in April. People looking for private dining can contact him at pastaepanibysalvatore@gmail.com or through his Facebook page at facebook.com/PastaEPaniRestaurant.

Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com