By LOIS KINDLE
lekindle@aol.com
Mister Pasta, a newly opened, fast casual Italian restaurant at 11681 Boyette Road, Riverview, specializes in fresh, house made pasta and build your own bowls. It offers six types of pasta, six sauces and a choice of 10 different proteins cooked to order in only a few minutes.
In an age where restaurant prices are skyrocketing, this place aims to deliver fresh, quality sit-down Italian meals, with bowls starting at $9.99. All come with garlic knots.
Beyond the bowls, the Mister Pasta menu offers a variety of signature dishes — chicken, veal or eggplant parmigiana; baked ziti; cheese, beef or lobster ravioli; and seafood-stuffed cannelloni.
It also features nine hero sandwiches, four salads — including its Famous 2702 Salad, a customer favorite — four Italian flatbreads, Junior’s New York cheesecake and cannoli, plus homemade cakes and Tiramisu — all served in a delightful, Old World inspired setting that includes custom-made tables.
The heart of Mister Pasta is its Create-Your-Own Pasta Bowl experience, giving guests the freedom to design a dish exactly the way they want it. They choose their favorite, fresh house-made pasta and sauce, prepared
from scratch, using authentic Italian recipes and premium ingredients. Then, if desired, they can add all kinds of fresh veggies and proteins.
Unlike traditional restaurants where dishes are prepared out of sight in the kitchen, Mister Pasta invites guests to watch their meal being built in front of them.
Pasta dough is made fresh daily and cut to order in a special machine with different dies for different shapes. Because it’s
fresh, the pasta cooks in just two to three minutes, compared to the 10 to 12 minutes required for boxed pasta.
Mister Pasta offers online ordering — customers can order and pay online and then pick up their food — and catering services for any size group. It also offers delivery within a six-mile radius through www.misterpastacom., Door Dash, Grubhub and Uber Eats.
The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. To place an online order or for more information, call 813-252-4628. For delivery or pickup, visit www.misterpasta.com/.
About the owner
Mister Pasta LLC is owned and operated by Wimauma resident Harvey Tripp, a 40-year restaurateur/entrepreneur from Long Island. His career includes owning restaurants, night clubs, seafood stores and delis.
On the side he raced late-model, open-wheel, modified cars for 11 years.
A 5th-generation Italian, Tripp learned to cook with his mother. At Mister Pasta, he cooks alongside his employees.
“There are a lot of fast-casual restaurants but none like ours,” he said. “We discovered this concept while we were vacationing in Europe two years ago. As we were walking down one of Barcelona’s main streets, we saw a long line of people waiting outside this tiny, walk-in place and decided to check it out. It was basically a shop selling fresh, house-made pasta.
The family was intrigued and, after traveling through the rest of Europe, returned to Barcelona before heading home.
“We spoke with the owners, loved the concept, kept talking it over, then finally decided to pull the trigger,” Tripp said.
Mister Pasta LLC was formed May 14, 2025. The restaurant opened for business Feb. 2.
