Naked Pasta opens intimate West Greenville restaurant and grocery concept

Naked Pasta is moving out from behind the wholesale curtain and into the room with diners. The longtime pasta maker is building a small restaurant-and-grocery concept at 1286 Pendleton St. in West Greenville, a space designed for about 20 guests with an open kitchen where the team will handmake pasta in plain view.

For Brett and Christina Barest, it is the clearest sign yet that the business they have run for more than 20 years at 404 Cedar Lane Road has outgrown its back-of-house identity. Naked Pasta has long supplied restaurants, sold at farmers markets and built a reputation as a source for fresh, hand-kneaded pasta. The new shop changes the relationship completely: customers will be able to watch the work, eat the results and leave with more to cook at home.

That matters because the new concept is not trying to be a high-volume dining room. It is aiming for a tight, intimate experience that blends restaurant, retail and take-home meals in one stop. Christina Barest has said the shop already functioned partly like a grocery, with restaurant-quality plates that customers could take home and finish themselves. Earlier plans also called for a wine and beer bar, more small plates, indoor-outdoor seating through a garage door and additional take-and-bake options, along with fresh produce from local farmers.

The menu is expected to stretch beyond the standard red-sauce playbook. Local reporting has pointed to dishes such as carne asada ravioli and spicy queso-and-black-bean Mexican pasta, alongside other handmade offerings built around local ingredients. Naked Pasta is also listed as a Certified SC Grown member specializing in fresh pastas, raviolis, sauces and lasagnas, which fits the direction of the project: local sourcing, visible craft and a retail case that extends the brand beyond dinner.

The move lands in a part of Greenville that is already changing. The Village of West Greenville Business Association rebranded the district as The Village in 2025, and the area now maps nearly 100 businesses. A 2022 micro-area plan emphasized authentic character, mixed uses and inclusive growth, while also acknowledging fears of displacement tied to rising land values. That gives Naked Pasta’s expansion a bigger neighborhood role than a simple restaurant opening. It joins a corridor where food, art and redevelopment are already tied together, with Revival Butchery next door and a block that has been reshaped by steady investment.

The original shop at 1286 Pendleton St. was only about 500 square feet before the expansion plans took hold, and property owner Sarah O’Dell bought the building in 2022 after Naked Pasta was looking for a larger location. Construction began in April, and the target is summer 2026, once permitting and health-department approvals are complete. For Greenville diners, the payoff is straightforward: the pasta is no longer just something to buy from Naked Pasta. It becomes the whole experience, from the first cut of dough to the last forkful.