Goodbye Pasta

Cindy Brenneman thought of Pasta Connection as the restaurant where everyone knew her name — especially since, when she phoned in an order, she rarely had to give her name at all.

“I would ask for No. 11 and they would say, ‘Do you want artichoke hearts with that, Cindy?’” said the Mesa Verde resident, who dined at the restaurant almost every week for a decade. “Just from the way I ordered things, they knew who I was. And I’m not anybody special. I think they treated everybody that way.”

Now, Brenneman and other loyal customers are waiting for their neighborhood haunt to return. Pasta Connection closed April 20 after 24 years at the southern foot of Harbor Boulevard, and with the building’s new landlord planning a massive renovation, the restaurant staff isn’t sure where its next home will be.

Luis Rodriguez, the owner of Pasta Connection, would like to reopen in the same spot as soon as the landlord, the Murrell Co., is finished with the new building. The landlord, though, is asking for higher rent than the property’s previous owner, and Pasta Connection has yet to reach a deal.

“We’re really stuck on wanting to stay right here in Costa Mesa,” said Yadira Hernandez, one of Rodriguez’s daughters.

“That’s our first priority, staying and keeping our customer base. But if we have to venture out, if six months comes up and we haven’t found anything and we have to venture out to a different city, we will.”

Blaine Bush, a leasing broker working with the Murrell Co., acknowledged rent would be higher when the building reopened, but said that was typical after any renovation of an old property. He noted that his office had spoken with a number of possible tenants for the space at Harbor Boulevard and West 19th Street and hadn’t ruled out Pasta Connection.

“They’re a great tenant,” Bush said. “If we can make an economic agreement with them, we’d like to see them stay.”

A representative for the Murrell Co. did not return a call seeking comment Friday.

Pasta Connection, which has another location in Orange, drew a following in Costa Mesa for its homemade ingredients and also its famous sign out front: an image of the owner’s infant son with a bowl of pasta overturned on his head.

Murray Black, a retired Costa Mesa resident who lives three blocks from the restaurant, said he walked there frequently for breakfast over the years.

On April 20, Black was one of the many diners who packed the restaurant for one last meal before the doors closed.

“I really hate to see it go,” he said. “It’s going to be a loss for a lot of people in Costa Mesa who went there for years and years.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].