The secret is in the sauce - Pasta Jay's

My father was a raconteur, a storyteller. After he’d finish serving a particularly delicious tale, he’d give you a knowing Irish wink and offer an epilogue for dessert: “It’s mostly true. And the parts that aren’t make it more interesting.”

That’s how it is with Jay Elowsky, who everyone calls Pasta Jay after the name of the Italian restaurant he’s operated on Pearl Street for nearly 40 years. He tells story after story, and you’re not entirely sure which parts are true. But it doesn’t matter. As a chef, Pasta Jay knows that every good story—like every good sauce—needs a little seasoning.

How does a Polish kid from Bay City, Michigan, end up running the most successful Italian restaurant in Boulder, with a second operation in Utah and jars of rich, red sauce sold in supermarkets across the country?

After a brief and incomplete stint as a student at CU-Boulder in the early 1980s, Jay headed to California to work in his Uncle Sonny’s pizzeria. There Jay learned Italian recipes handed down from Sonny’s great, great grandmother, “Mama Genovese,” who was the cook for King Victor Emmanuel of Italy in the 19th century.

Absorbing everything Sonny could teach him, Jay convinced his parents to loan him $50,000 so he could return to Boulder and open his own Italian restaurant, which he called Pasta Jay’s. The Mall on Pearl Street had recently opened, but Jay chose a spot for his restaurant a couple of blocks west of the Mall, in an old house at 925 Pearl.

“Everyone told me not to open on the West End,” Pasta Jay recounts now about his 1988 decision. “They said it was off the bricks, and no one would come there. Well, it was an instant success. From the first day, there was a line out the door. We could barely keep up.”

The first day for the new restaurant was September 16, 1988. That afternoon, before opening the new place, Jay and his parents hurriedly painted bright red some old chairs they had procured from CU to use in the restaurant. When they opened that evening, the second customer through the door was George Karakehian, the proprietor of Art Source on the Pearl Street Mall. “After George finished his meal in the newly opened restaurant,” Pasta Jay recollects, “he got up to leave. But the chair stuck to him. The red paint hadn’t dried yet. George and I have been friends ever since.”

In 1989, the year after opening Pasta Jay’s Restaurant, the Boulder City Clerk observed to Jay that the CU football team was looking for a meal sponsor, someone who could feed them before games. Jay volunteered but was told that university rules required that the school pay something for the food. So, Pasta Jay charged the team $1 per player for dinners.

Feeding the football team lasted more than 30 years. Along the way, Pasta Jay started the Buffalo Stampede, a Pearl Street tradition on the night before every home game, which continues to this day. There is Buffs paraphernalia throughout his restaurant. Jay estimates that he serves 5,000 meals every CU graduation weekend.

Jay estimates that about ten percent of his diners are CU students. Another 20 percent are tourists, and the rest are locals. “We are very family-oriented,” Jay explains. “I judge our success by how many highchairs we’re using. I want families to be able to afford to feed their kids.” A long-time leader in Downtown Boulder, Pasta Jay understands that Boulder residents are the key to continued success. “We have to get families downtown. We need to keep the locals coming in.”

Now at the corner of Pearl and 10th Street, a few yards east of the original Pasta Jay’s location, Jay figures he has served between 200,000 and 250,000 meals each year since 1988. That’s nearly 10 million pizzas and plates of pasta over the course of four decades.

“Through the years, we’ve added more sauces,” Pasta Jay explains. “We now have something for everyone.” Jay says his favorite item on the menu is stuffed shells. That and the chicken parm are the two most popular items in the restaurant. If you look closely at the menu, you’ll notice that some dishes are named after regular diners and local luminaries. “Even my dad has a dish on the menu, and there’s a drink named after my mom. It’s kind of cute.”

The same age as me and approaching retirement, Pasta Jay has been gradually handing over the reins of his Boulder and Moab restaurants to his daughter Josie and his son Jay Wyatt. “Jay Wyatt started bussing tables in the restaurant when he was 11. The other day, Josie was in here at 2 am, learning recipes.”

Like Nicole Hurdle at Hurdle’s Jewelry, Zoe Polk at Pedestrian Shops, and Chase Kraegel at Peppercorn, Jay’s kids have had to earn their place as next generation inheritors of a long-time downtown family business. “I am harder on them than I am on my own employees,” he says of Josie and Jay Wyatt. “They can stay here in the restaurant, or they can start their own businesses. It’s up to them. But I am always asking them, ‘What are you doing to build your own empire?’ They have worked for where they’re at. They’re doing a good job.”

The millions of plates of pasta and pizzas that Pasta Jay has served over the decades have included meals for visiting luminaries to Boulder, including the Grateful Dead and the Dali Lama. And Jay says he’s proud that the Sundance Film Festival is coming to Boulder next year. “While Sundance will give us a big boost in January, what it really does is puts us on the map. Overall, it gives Boulder more of a national presence.”

As proud as he is of his kids and the restaurant he has built up over the decades, Pasta Jay says he reminds himself to be humble, to help those who are less fortunate. “We have served homeless people meals out of the back door of the restaurant,” he says. “We have to be actively involved in the community. I keep learning. I try to give others a helping hand. I keep reminding myself: It’s about how you treat other people.”

True to that community service, Jay is donating the food that will be served at the annual Rock the Shelter fundraiser for the All Roads homeless shelter at eTown on September 25.

Throughout every story he tells—some even true—Pasta Jay keeps coming back to how fortunate he was to come to Boulder for college more than forty years ago. Even though the college part didn’t stick, it led him to his three passions: His family, his food, and his community.

“It’s amazing what this town offers. I am in love with Boulder, still.”

Interview Courtesy of Bob Yates