"Pastaria kind of evolves over the course of the day," he explains. "We get the lunch crowd from business, and they have to get their salad or their plate of pasta, and then they got to get out. And then we have our downtime in between -- we'll have some people come in casually at the bar and have some beers.
"And then we just get an onslaught of families, which is awesome, all these little kids running in. The room's still bright, and families are having a good time, being able to get out and have a meal together, which is great. Then as the sun goes down, you'll start to see people a little bit more dressed up for date night.
"We're four different restaurants in a day. It's a lot of fun."
Though Pastaria's menu largely stems from Craft and his top lieutenant and business partner, Adam Altnether, Moxey has been able to introduce his own dishes as specials, including the ever-changing pizza of the day. Pastaria regulars have taken notice.
"I put the bucatini all'amatriciana on -- which is certainly not a new dish by any stretch, but I love it. But then I took it off and ran carbonara for a week or two. I got positive reviews on that, but we had multiple people ask every night, 'Where'd the all'amatriciana go?'
"So it was like, wow, I was super happy they were that into that dish."
With his duties as Pastaria's executive chef, not to mention the demands of being the father of a toddler, Moxey hasn't been able to explore St. Louis' restaurant scene as much as he would like. (For his upcoming birthday, he plans to take a couple of days to hit up several places he's been meaning to visit.) Still, he's been impressed not simply by the quality of the scene, but by its spirit.
"It's really cool the way everybody works together here. There were definitely friendships in New York between different restaurants and restaurant families, but there was still this competitive mindset. Even if it was in the background, it was always there.
"But here everyone's just so welcoming and supportive: 'Hey, man, can I help you out? Do you need anything?' It's just easy to come into and feel welcome."
This is part one of Gut Check's Chef's Choice profile of Brian Moxey of Pastaria. Part two, a Q & A with Moxey, will be published Wednesday. Part three, a recipe from Moxey, will be available on Thursday.
