Twyrl Pasta Bistro To Bring Handmade Pasta To Arlington This July

ARLINGTON, MA — If you've ever just not felt like making a dinner for the family but been frustrated at the lack of places to go and just pick up a healthy dinner, something delicious that you could eat any time and not worry about added preservatives, then you might understand how Twyrl Pasta - a new bistro slated to open next week on Broadway came to be.

"I wanted an alternative to that junk treat," said Anka Bric, co-owner.

Bric said that feeling combined with a passion for handmaking pasta and good food is what drove her and brother-in-law Chris Furlong to go into business together after a trip to Europe inspired them. For the past two years they've been working on Twyrl Pasta, slated to open on July 17 for a soft launch but then the plan is to open for real on July 20.

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Although the restaurant won't be open on Mondays normally, 17 is Bric's lucky number so she couldn't resist. The name, inspired by the twirling of pasta on a fork came together after a lot of deliberation on what the restaurant should be called. But the most difficult aspect of the past two years has been figuring out a location for Twyrl.

"We looked in Boston and many of the surrounding towns and we were just waiting for a place that had the right feel. And this came on the market and felt perfect," said Bric.

The duo are into everything being homemade and hand done and healthy and working to create a menu with affordable prices.

Furlong has experience running a restaurant. He sold his gourmet pizza shop in California to move back here to be closer to family. And while Bric has cooked in restaurants and camps, she's a scientist by trade. For the past two decades she's been working on cancer research, most recently in Cambridge.

She'd been considering the problem of affordable healthy hand made food for families for a long time, she said. And though it was difficult to leave her stable job, with one kid in middle school and the other in high school, the timing was right to make the leap.

The space, formerly the Madrona Tree restaurant has been completely renovated she said. And the new vibe is one of a casual comfortable bistro.

"We've made the atmosphere a nice place to hang out and have dinner but we're also hoping to do a lot of take out and delivery as well," she said.

And the aim is to make the kind of food you could eat every day and feel good about serving to your family. The restaurant has been approved for 19 seats and will have outdoor patio seating as well. They're still on the look out for a prep chef, and someone to bus tables, but during the summer it's mostly going to be a family enterprise. Both sons will be helping out.

The restaurant specializes in sandwiches, salads and of course, pasta. The pasta is a bit of a choose your own adventure. You can choose from a variety of different shaped pasta, pick a sauce, and choose your own protein. But there will also be quick go to house specialties that Bric has put together. One of her favorites is a traditional style Carbonara Spaghetti, with spicy Italian bacon.

She's also importing wines from small Italian vineyards rather than anything you could find at a grocery store.

"Everything that we make is made here by hand. Everything that I can get my hands on is preservative free. We'll have bread baked fresh from Somerville bread company and nitrate-free deli meats. We're really trying to do healthy clean foods."

Twryl is situated at 315 Broadway in Arlington.

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