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Married couple Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee recently opened Pasta|Bar. (Pasta|Bar)
The couple duo behind the Los Angeles Michelin-star winning Sushi by Scratch team has landed in Austin with a new concept: Pasta|Bar.
Scratch Restaurants chefs, owners and married couple Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee opened Pasta|Bar, 1017 East Sixth St., for business as of March 13, shortly before welcoming a new daughter in April.
(Pasta|Bar)
“Pasta Bar has been a runaway success and we just continue to be so grateful to this city and everyone here for making us feel at home and supporting us,” former Top Chef contestant Lee told Austonia.
A longtime team together, Lee and Kallas-Lee first met in middle school before reconnecting in their early 20s and starting their lives, and businesses, together.
(Pasta|Bar)
The pair dipped into Austin in December 2020 for a five-week pop-up after the California government shut down outdoor dining for the second time. The pop-up was so successful, that they opened up a waitlist and decided to put down roots.
“Austin was so amazing in wanting to support us that I felt responsible to stay until everyone had the opportunity to dine with us, so we kept prolonging and prolonging our pop-up until eventually, it became apparent that we needed to just make it permanent,” Lee said. “That is around the time that Margarita and I decided that this is where we wanted to make our home going forward.”
With the great success of restaurants prior behind them, the partners have plans to open yet another restaurant: a high-end omakase restaurant called Shokunin in Dripping Springs later this fall.
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