What started as a pasta shop in a small Italy cellar has developed into a certified Toronto favorite, and 15 years later they still do what they do best.
Ask every pasta-afficionado in Toronto, where you can find the best in the city, and there is a chance that you will react strongly, Famiglia Baldassarre.
Famiglia Baldassarre, so -called founder Leandro Baldassarre, takes a modest place with 10 seats in the Geary Avenue, which only offers a modest place from 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesday to Friday.
However, it seems as if the humility has always been put into the concept when you consider that the business from a basement unit in a building that belongs to the former boss of Leandro, David Lee (Nota Ben, Planta).
Leandro is making fresh pasta in his Geary Avenue Workshop. Photo by Fareen Karim.
When Leandro returned to Toronto from a three -year stay in Italy, he said that Lee, under which Leandro had worked at nota Bene, offered the device as a space for Leandro to produce pasta.
“[David Lee is] How 'do you want to make me pasta? Could you use this room? 'I said:' Sure ', “says Leandro,” so I bought a small table and a small wooden board and so on. I have a refrigerator and have just tried to make pasta for it, and nota bene. “
He continued to make pasta for Lees Restaurant a few days a week and in what Leandro describes as a “slow snowball effect”, have been in months and months in years, and slowly but surely the message began to get out about Famiglia Baldassarre.
When former nota Bene chefs and workers moved to other restaurants, she called Leandro to deliver her pasta.
“And then it finally became a pretty decent little business,” says Leandro. “At least I could hardly support myself. It was good enough. And so it really started.”
About five years later, Leandro renovated the basement unit, branded his business and started his Instagram account. Six years later, he rented the Famiglia Baldassarre unit, which is currently calling home in Geary Avenue. So the metamorphosis started in the Baldsassarre we know today.
The Cosy Geary Avenue Shop is the current home of Famiglia Baldassarr. Photo by Fareen Karim.
When opening its doors, the business was still working exclusively in wholesale, but the new location, which was positioned for the first time at the street level, exhibited a completely new direction for Famiglia Baldassarre.
“There was the opportunity to open the doors to the public,” says Leandro. “Earlier, when I was in a basement, there was no other choice. But since I had a front door, I said: 'Wow, what if we open the front door here and turn the shop into a small shop where you only buy pasta?'”
This is exactly what he did and started a kind of member club for her lunch service, which is aimed at the other people who worked in the building.
However, this exclusive, only members club was pretty quick to around 200 members, and it was time to get her restaurant license and opening in a limited capacity to the general public.
Baldsarre received a family for Michelin recommendations in 2024. Photo by Farreen Karim.
It is enough to say that as a member of the above public, I am definitely glad that he did it. The critical masses also agree when Famiglia Baldsassarre received a high-profession of Michelin recommendation in 2024 after the committed fans of the pasta shop had complained about the organization for overlooking Baldassarre.
Leandro reflects in the past 15 years, not to mention respect and adoration that he deserves during this time, and tells me that it can be difficult to refuse and smell the roses, so to speak.
“It definitely takes a lot back to feel something, because since I am a small company, I am often really buried,” says Leandro.
“You are really somehow, you are at work with your eyeplers, in daily stress and only one business,” he adds, “but if there are moments, you can resign. […] There are little moments of recognition that you actually recognize that you and your team do something great and special, I mean, that was always the intention. “
Lunch in Famiglia Baldassarre is a hot ticket for pasta lovers in the city. Photo by Hector Vasquez.
Baldsassarre and Leandro's kitchen career in general have never been a casual thing for him, he tells me.
He works for his entire career in Fine Dining and was always motivated to create the best possible product, the best possible product and the best possible team to ensure that every detail is perfect. So it is no wonder why Famiglia Baldassarre always won the fanfare that it has, but, as Leandro tells me, it is still nice to recognize it.
“It is nice to see that this is recognized in small ways, but frankly it is public support that was the best,” he says. “It was so good.”
“There are people who, when you become popular, just rise and go once and take a few pictures, but there are some people who really appreciate it like us, the people who do it, and that's the growth that is really important,” he adds.
During the management of the business, admittedly is “constantly hard work”, the appreciation he sees from the community. From the people who are in pop-ups to an old Italian man who said that Leandros Pasta reminds him of how his wife always managed to do it.
The pasta production of Famiglia Baldassref will always be a small company, says Leandro. Photo by Fareen Karim.
“These are the moments when you like 'Okay, I never quit forever, do you know?'”
15 years in and Leandro tells me that the hopes he has for the future, both from Famiglia Baldassarre and his own career regardless of it, are limitless.
“It is impossible to say that there will be will -be in this place forever because it is Toronto,” he tells me, but “I think it will be a thing forever, in a way or form, but probably something more specific in which people can bring in their teeth.”
He also plans to bring Famiglia Baldassar Pasta into more shops so that people can eat it at home, but he assures that it will never be a kind of mass production.
“It will never be a big size. It is always handmade,” says Leandro, “it's always a lot of work behind it, so it will always be a small scale.”
Baldsarre family. Photo by Fareen Karim.
Famiglia Baldassarre is located in the 122 Geary Avenue.