Crossroads Collective adds a handmade-pasta spot
The east side food hall Crossroads Collective is adding a restaurant — Egg & Flour Pasta Bar by chef Adam Pawlak — that’s a rare combination: handmade pasta in a fast-casual setting.
Egg & Flour will fill one of two remaining open spots in the hall at 2238 N. Farwell Ave., which opened in December. Egg & Flour is projected to open in mid-March at stall No. 1, at the windows near the main entrance.
Pawlak said the restaurant would fill a void in Milwaukee dining — handmade pasta at a quick counter-service restaurant, at prices lower than that of handmade pasta served in finer-dining restaurants.
Pawlak, 28, until last week was the chef at Black Sheep in Walker’s Point, where he had been for two years. He previously cooked at Sebastian’s in Caledonia and Bosley’s, among other restaurants.
He has Sicilian roots on both sides of his family and grew up with Italian food, helping cook at home from a young age and “cooking a lot of sauces with my mom. She’s an excellent cook,” he said.
“A lot of my cooking comes from those roots,” he said.
Egg & Flour will serve a changing lineup of pasta that’s made daily. The four or five daily options will include extruded pastas such as fusilli, shells and creste di gallo, a large elbow with ridges that would be tossed with pesto.
Pawlak has 12 shapes planned so far for the lineup, but up to 60 are available for the extruder.
Egg & Flour also will have a filled pasta daily, such as ravioli, tortellini and agnolotti.
“Every pasta will have its own distinct sauce to have with it,” Pawlak said. Some of the sauces might be herb pesto, white truffle cream or bolognese, the classic meat sauce. Another option would be freshly cooked pasta tossed in a hollowed-out wheel of Parmesan in customers’ view.
“That’s going to be a really, really fun one,” he said.
Besides Italian dishes, he’s planning to have mac and cheese daily that’s made with a three-cheese sauce, zucchini noodles for vegan diners and those eating gluten-free, and two kinds of entree salads.
Bread will be from Black Shoe, the bakery affiliated with Story Hill BKC, Blue’s Egg and Maxie’s.
Prices for pasta mostly will range from $10 to $14, Pawlak said. He expects all menu items will be $15 or less.
His partners in the restaurant are a cousin, Tony Goff of Goff Enterprise and This Time Tomorrow Foundation, and Randy Rhoades and Alex Anderson.
Pawlak plans to have pop-up previews of the restaurant for the public to attend before the opening. Word of those will be announced on Instagram, @eggandflourmke.
Egg & Flour will be the seventh food stand operating in Crossroads Collective. The others are Beerline Cafe, Falafel Guys, Frida, Heaven’s Table BBQ, the Laughing Taco and Scratch Ice Cream.
Cooking at the home show
The NARI Spring Home Improvement Show is this weekend at State Fair Park, and you can pick up some cooking tips at the Culinary Stage:
FRIDAY
Noon, 2, 4, 6 p.m. — Grill masters Mad Dog & Merrill share recipes and jokes.
SATURDAY
Noon, 6 p.m. — Mad Dog & Merrill. 2 p.m. — Chef Brian Taborski of Saz’s Hospitality Group demonstrates dishes.
4 p.m. — Shaun O’Neale, who won the “MasterChef ” reality-television competition in 2016, shares tips. SUNDAY
Noon, 4 p.m. — Mad Dog & Merrill. 2 p.m. — Former Green Bay Packers safety and cookbook author LeRoy Butler demonstrates some easy-to-prepare recipes.
Tickets at the door are $12 , $8 for adults 60 and older. Admission is free for children 17 and younger and for retired and active-duty military members with an ID. Parking is $6 at State Fair Park, but street parking is free.
The show takes place in the Wisconsin Exposition Center at State Fair Park, 8200 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis.