Knockout Pasta

Stephen Bird’s secret suffix for his homemade pasta shop: Litl Rhody Pasta K.O. could be “knockout.” “The ‘K.O.’ starts a conversation,” Bird says. For, in addition to producing handmade pasta and pasta entrées in a small Tiverton establishment, he enjoys the small-town feel of getting to know customers by their first names and even giving them an I.O.U. if they forget that he’s a cash-only operation. A former Merchant Marine, Bird was kitchen manager at The Brick Alley Pub in Newport when his pasta supplier announced he was closing his business and said to Bird, “Why don’t you buy it?” So he did, and he “practiced” pasta-making for eight months, with Brick Alley as his only customer. He opened Litl Rhody in late December 2018, with a half-dozen wholesale accounts, though he’s now down to two. But he’s chipper about his loyal customers, who love to choose from a dozen possible flavors for flat-cut pastas (pappardelle and fettucine), a half-dozen shaped pastas (plain only; flavor additions to the shaped dough would jam the machine) and a half-dozen takeaway entrées, which rotate weekly. Customer favorites include chicken Parmesan, burrata/spinach manicotti, cavatelli, lasagna and lobster mac ‘n’ cheese.

14A Stafford Rd., Tiverton. 401.265.1870; LitlRhodyPastaKO.com