Gluten-free specialist Settantatré Pasta opens a new shop on the Main Line, and the tomato pie is flying out the door
When chef and pasta specialist Matt Gentile learned that his wife had celiac disease, he set out to make a better gluten-free pasta. Now, the Delco business has moved to a larger location in Berwyn.
Settantatré, Matt Gentile and Genna Curcio’s pasta shop specializing in gluten-free noodles, has moved from Delaware County to the Main Line with new ambition.
It’s serving espresso, coffee, and pastries starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and shifts to panini and other savory items (think spicy vodka tomato pie and spring onion- and clam-topped focaccia, with or without gluten) for lunch. It will mark its grand opening on Sunday.
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With the move from Milmont Park to the former Candelario’s Pizzeria at 802 Lancaster Ave. in Berwyn, Gentile has added a dedicated gluten-free pasta facility nearby. (In the kitchen of the previous Settantatré location, he alternated which days he made regular and gluten-free foods, using separate equipment after deep cleaning.) He’s constantly refining recipes and thinks he’s closing in on one that will allow him to machine-produce gluten-free ravioli.
So far, Settantatré’s gluten-free tomato pie has been the bestseller, as have the topped focaccias (both conventional and gluten-free). Refrigerators and freezers are stocked with prepared foods as well as conventional and gluten-free pastas — the same line that it offers at local farmer’s markets. The couple sells a line of blast-frozen seafood items (branzino, salmon, scallops, shrimp) from Small World Seafood, and partners with farms selling Wagyu beef, including Stonyrun. There are a couple of small tables for in-store snacking.
In the back, there’s a glassed-in kitchen with a long work table and a quaint 35-seat dining room. But Settantatré — Italian for “seventy-three,” as the couple’s wedding anniversary is July 3 — will not operate as a restaurant, per se, Gentile said.
“I have too many things going on,” Gentile said. “It’s just not feasible.”
Instead, the kitchen and dining room will be the centerpiece of a membership program called the 73 Club. For $73 a month, members (and their guests) get access to semiprivate twice-weekly dinners, special-release foods, cooking classes, and events, such as lunches in the kitchen with Gentile; $60 of the fee can be applied to any purchase, including items from the retail shop and farmer’s markets.
Initially, all of the 73 Club’s features will be open to the public.
“I have a lot of customers who spend [the $60] just on retail stuff, so it makes sense for them to join it,” Gentile said. Many dinners are about $55 per person.
“I had to come up with something that was neat and fun and [that] adds to our space and allows me to actually enjoy it,” he said.
The Settantatré backstory
Gentile, 42, was executive chef at Ristorante Panorama a decade ago when Curcio, office administrator at 320 Market Cafe, was diagnosed with celiac disease.
Handmade pasta has always been Gentile’s stock in trade, and he set about trying to create a tasty version without wheat flour. He turned the family kitchen into a lab, combining every flour he could get his hands on.
Several years ago, he came upon a recipe that he felt he could bring to market. He left Panorama in late 2022 in anticipation of the first store’s opening in early 2023.
His tortelloni, tagliatelle, and pappardelle became a hit among the gluten-free community. The Inquirer’s Craig LaBan, whose daughter is allergic to gluten, called it “the best I’ve tasted for a fresh pasta” and named it one of his favorite gluten-free spots in the city.