Kassia's Pasta Farm: Denver's New Mobile Pasta Business

Over the weekend, Kassia's Pasta Farm celebrated the debut of their bicycle food cart from which Denverites will soon be able to purchase a variety of hot and cold pastas and other dishes, including macaroni & cheese, spaghetti, stroganoff, and soups. The steel and metal bike, which features a three and a half-foot cooktop, looks like a compact pedicab. It can hold enough food to serve up to 300 people.

Kassia Koukari, the owner of Kassia's Pasta Farm, has been a bike commuter for almost eight years now. She started the grassroots company in 2011, and slowly started showing up at local events like the Homemade Handmade Market in addition to taking orders from friends and relatives. Her inventive and seasonal creations like her sriracha noodles and a spent grain mushroom stroganoff were a huge hit.

"By the middle of 2012 I was looking into things like food trucks and trailers trying to figure out if I could make a go of it," she says. "but the idea of motoring around only 6 blocks just didn't seem to keep in line with my lifestyle or the local, organic theme I've based my business off of. So I started looking into alternatives and found that in Portland there were a few food bikes operating." More research led Kassia to Denver-based bike builder Shane Evans, who owns Crash 45. Together they designed the new pasta bike.

Expect to see Kassia's Pasta Farm set up outside of Infinite Monkey Theorem winery every second and fourth Thursday starting at 6 p.m. on May 9. The bike will also be at UrbiCulture Community Farms on June 7 at 6 p.m. Stay tuned on their Facebook page for more bike locations and events this summer.

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