Montague Street’s Oh My Pasta! Kaput; Successor Lined Up

By on May 26, 2012 12:04 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Commercial Real Estate, Food

Oh My Pasta! has gone limp. After opening about nine months ago, on September 3, 2011, the Italian eatery at 142 Montague Street has shuttered. The locally run restaurant was owned & operated by Marco Lasala, a native Italian from Barletta in southern Italy, who had moved to Brooklyn Heights, serving a menu of family recipes assembled from his homeland.

While reviews were generally positive for the locale, there’s something about that second-floor location at 142 Montague that’s had a tough time catching a break. Before Oh My Pasta!, the site held Taze Turkish restaurant, and Turkish Kapadokya previous to that. And let’s not forget there have been two fires in the building, one in September 2008 and another in March 2007. Somehow, Aerosoles in the ground floor space has managed to carry on.

Fortunately(?), a successor is already lined up for the second-floor space. A sign posted in the window has a hearing set for “Sangthongsiri Inc.” to open a restaurant, with a request to serve liquor, wine and beer. (The Community Board 2 hearing is June 6 at 6 p.m. at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, 3rd Floor Conference Room, at 121 DeKalb Avenue.)

A Google search for the biz lists its address as 156 Court Street in Brooklyn, 11201. Good luck… and let’s hope the joint’s name is a little easier on the ears than Sangthongsiri.

(Photos: Pasta!/Chuck Taylor; Taze/Sarah Portlock; Kapadokya/Homer Fink)

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  • Homer Fink

    santhongsiri remind me to put the gazpacho on ice…

  • Van

    Eamonn’s is closing as well. In three week’s, door’s close June 18.

  • lulu

    Oh My Pasta! seemed to get a really good crowd for the space. And it had turned into a fairly reliable Mont. St. option. I wonder why it couldn’t make it. Perhaps the owner will weigh in.

  • Jj

    Aside from having one of the worst names ever (2nd only to noodle pudding), to the ousider, it just seemed like a strange small pasta chain. I don’t think most people know there was a guy lovingly serving home cooked dishes.
    Expectations are high these days. U have to have a narrative

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    I ate there once and never went back.

  • David on Middagh

    Jj, you have an interesting point, there. Maybe if it had been called “Lasala Pasta”, more buzz would have been forthcoming. Doesn’t that roll off the tongue beautifully? “Lasala Pasta. Lasala Pasta.” You just want to say it over and over again:

    “We went to Lasala Pasta last night.”

    “Where?”

    “Lasala! Lasala Pasta.”

    ” ‘Lasala Pasta.’ ”

    “Yes!”

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Thought their pasta was very good though I never went back due to lousy atmosphere and service.

  • Matthew Parker

    I’d love to see an excellent pan-Latino restaurant open again in the Heights. Kinda like a Yerba Buena/Yucca Bar/Boca Chica type. There was sort of one (but more Cuban) in the space that the Heights Wine Bar now occupies. One can only hope.

  • x

    the new company sounds like Thai-related.

    A new Thai restaurant maybe?

    how about a fancy French restaurant??!

  • Livingston

    The name makes me think the new place could be Thai.

  • Monty

    I don’t speak the language, but I’m 95% sure that sangthongsiri is Thai. It’s actually promising because all the other Thai places around here are run by Chinese people.

  • lori

    Oh my pasta was okay, but I felt I could do as well at home myself.

  • Matthew Parker

    Would love to have some good Thai in the nabe.

  • Victor

    Can one of the 20 Thai restaurants on Smith Street just move to Montague St?

  • PBL

    This is a bummer. Only went their once, and while the pasta really was fantastic, the atmosphere was not very welcoming (I told my wife that it was a fine place to grab a quick lunch, but hardly a “destination”). I think with a few tweaks (including a name change), this place had potential. Too bad.

  • BH’er

    Maybe the Boulud place that was going to open in the old Starbuck’s location could reconsider The Heights? )

    I agree with David on Middagh – I would never invite friends to dine at a place called “Oh My Pasta” nor would I fess up to having eaten at a so-named restaurant to others…

    Other thoughts – I tried it out, but always have a hard time justifying to my family why I should pay $16 for a bowl of pasta that is just as easy to cook at home for 49c

    Add to that the backyard plastic chair feel and Ikea dishes… it just wasn’t a comfortable enough experience – why not just go to Monty’s Pizza and grab the same thing for $8 minus the stairs?

    And one last thing… going upstairs to a 2nd floor restaurant counts as a bit ‘adventurous’ or risky, so combining the 2nd floor risk with the food quality/experience risk of a place you just can’t see into – just not going to work

    My advice to the newcomer: publicize extensively the ambiance and experience and clearly post the menu and pictures at street level – people need a better idea of what awaits at the top of that narrow staircase!

  • Bette

    I agree with BH’er. I never ate there, but heard good things about it, and when one day I went up to take a look, I was so disappointed in the generic, hospital cafeteria ambience that I realized I would never eat there.

    The very kind maitre’d showed me the back terrace which was outfitted with plastic furniture of the kind you would see in a dusty Home Depot display and a “tar beach” rooftop feel – broiling hot with no umbrellas. The (sad to say) nice people there did not have the taste and sensibility to open a new restaurant, in my opinion, starting with the off-putting name.

    I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but really – they didn’t do enough research in the ambience part of restauranteur-ing. It was not someplace anyone would choose to go to.

  • Sal Manilla

    We have to admit it, Montague Street just does not attract high quality restaurants. Armando’s has terrible food, Lichee Nut is dumpy and Heights Cafe is for tourists. Bay Ridge has better restaurants.

  • Knight

    So move to Bay Ridge & gain 20 pounds, Sal.

  • Happy Neighbor

    Why can’t we get a good Mexican restaurant on Montague Street…we already have one full Thai restaurant and a couple of other Asian restaurants…There are other ethnic restaurants that would be desirable…. we need some diversity..in addition to mexican …what about seafood, russian, spanish, etc…there are other types of cuisines other than asian….come on people.

  • TeddyNYC

    @Happy Neighbor

    A good seafood restaurant would be nice, or maybe a restaurant like Prime Meats. I don’t know why it always has to be Asian or Italian.

  • monty

    Coming soon sign in the window says Ani Sushi.

  • runnic

    That’s a bummer. Also, can the neighborhood absorb yet another sushi spot?

  • EHinBH

    OMP was discusting. Sorry the owners didnt understand how to design a menu. BUT HOLY! I dont understand another asian place… It’s actually kind of hilarious.

  • Christi

    Oh My Pasta was delicious and had become our favorite neighborhood dinner spot (along with Tutt Cafe). Yes the name was funny and the ambiance was awkward and the service slow BUT the food was really good. I would happily take the challenges in order to have good food served. I would love to see them open in another location. We certainly do not need yet another asian restaurant in the neighborhood. Whole heartedly agree with the Mexican. Doesn’t have to be fancy just good affordable food (like Chavela’s in Prospect Heights).