Secret Ingredients - Pasta Max Cafe (McDonough, GA)
Parts Town / Foodservice Profiles, Foodservice Tips, Restaurant Tips, Secret Ingredients / July 12
This week, we go south for Northern Italian: I spoke with Douglas Zitz, owner and chef at Pasta Max Cafe in McDonough, GA about his successes and philosophies.
I know you’ve been at this for a while–tell me about how Pasta Max started.
It’s our 19th year. We opened up in a small location, about 50 seats. I graduated (from the) Culinary Institute of America in ’83, and worked in restaurants … until I decided to open up my own here in Georgia.
It’s Italian (food); all the pasta is made here on premises.
At the time when you opened Pasta Max 19 years ago, the economy was in much healthier shape. Were there challenges in the beginning?
Yeah, it was challenging, just because it was the first time I actually had to run all aspects of the business. Before I was mainly just working as a chef or a sous chef in a restaurant. It was a little difficult at first, but gradually you get things organized, and I did well.
What was the first big lesson you learned as an owner?
A lot of teamwork is real important.
Looking at the restaurant on a map, you’re positioned in a lovely little downtown area. Seems like a great location.
Yeah, it is. We’ve been at this location for six years. We’ve moved twice since we originally opened, but this is probably our best location so far.
I’m assuming that the moves speak to growth and success?
We had to move for different reasons, but we really like this area down here. It’s historic looking; it’s really quaint. We’re doing better here than in other areas.
What’s Pasta Max’s signature dish?
Off our regular menu, I would say the agnolotti is pretty popular. It’s like a small round ravioli thing, stuffed with spinach, prosciutto, ricotta, parmigiana cheese … they come with three sauces: tomato, alfredo, and pesto sauce, so it kind of looks like the Italian flag. That’s pretty popular.
We do a lot of seafood, especially on our daily specials. Fresh grouper, swordfish–all different kinds of seafood dishes, which are very popular with customers.
We tracked you down through Facebook. Is social important to you?
It’s pretty important. We get a lot of input through it. We also do some advertising through a local guy in McDonough. He has his own page called I Love McDonough; that works well for us.
Being in business for just shy of 20 years, Pasta Max seems to be in a great spot. What advice can you share for the aspiring restaurant owner?
I would just say be prepared to work very hard. I think it’s very hard to tell everybody what to do, but to be successful, you have to get right in there and be one of the workers just like everybody else.
Pasta Max Cafe
50 Griffin Street
McDonough, GA 30253-3122
770-320-9311
