Pasta Al Dente Vendor Keila Stapleton Opens Brick-and-Mortar Store for Fresh Pasta

Keila Stapleton spent six years hauling handmade pasta to the Old Capitol Farmers Market in downtown Springfield. Now she has a permanent address: 731 North Grand Ave. East, the former Sam's Pizza at the corner of Eighth Street and North Grand Avenue, where she officially opened the front of the space for retail sales on Feb. 25.

The shop operates under the name Pasta Al Dente by Keila and runs a rotating grab-and-go format. For her opening week, Stapleton stocked pappardelle, casarecce, and gnocchi alongside a hot-ready meal of fresh gnocchi with homemade sauce and tiramisu for dessert. Frozen homemade pastas and sauces are available on an ongoing basis for customers who want to stock up between visits. "The menu will change every week, or maybe every two weeks," Stapleton said. "I am still evaluating and figuring things out."

The store keeps tight hours for now: Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again from 4 to 6 p.m. The location was not a cold start. Stapleton had already been using the commercial kitchen on North Grand Avenue for a year to produce the pastas, sauces, and desserts she sells at market, so the transition to opening the front of the space for retail was a natural next step.

The culinary foundation behind the menu is specific and well-traveled. Stapleton is a native of Brazil who spent 19 years living in Italy, attended chef's school in northern Italy, and has built her entire lineup around northern Italian cuisine. That background shows in the shapes she chooses: pappardelle and casarecce are not the kind of pasta you pick up at a supermarket, and housemade gnocchi served with scratch sauce as a hot-ready option is a clear signal about what this shop is going for.

Stapleton is not abandoning the market circuit. She will continue selling at the Old Capitol Farmers Market and at the farmers market in Peoria, and she participates in the annual Illinois Product Expo at the State Fairgrounds. The brick-and-mortar adds a fixed retail presence to a business that has already built its audience one Saturday market bag at a time.