How do you take your pasta? This question, along with olive-green walls, warm wooden furnishings, an open kitchen, and the scent of garlic, greet you as you step through the green-framed doors of Twirl on College Street. Make your way through the crowds of customers — which you’ll encounter even at 2 p.m. on a weekday — to the main counter, where Cara Hutchinson, wife of co-owner Craig Hutchinson (and designer of Twirl’s interiors!), will cheerfully prompt you: poke, twirl, shovel, or freestyle?

From the second you enter the establishment, Twirl dares you to reimagine how you think about pasta — and, of course, how you eat it.

The most obvious of these shifts is the price, which can’t be beat anywhere else in New Haven. A standard bowl of pasta is a mere ten dollars. Beyond the attractive price point, Twirl also emphasizes a certain philosophy of how food should be prepared and enjoyed. Don’t be fooled by the casual price and ambiance: intention shapes every step of the Twirl dining experience.

If you’re already a Yale foodie, you’re probably already familiar with (and a fan of) Craig Hutchinson and Jim Baronowski’s other business: Olmo bagels. Hutchinson’s background is in fine dining, having grown up immersed in Boston’s fine dining culture before moving to New Haven. This frames his vision for Twirl and the experience he hopes to share with customers: fine dining quality at fast food prices.

This ambition is evident in the details. Despite the low prices, there’s no point during your time at Twirl when you think you’re getting a cheap experience. The restaurant’s communal, family-style tables encourage conversation and the cozy embrace of a meal as a shared ritual; the open kitchen lets you watch Hutchinson make the pasta and, if you’re lucky, chat with him as he works. Even the portions feel deliberate, designed to make a bowl of pasta a proper meal rather than a modest prelude to one. What stood out to us was that Twirl felt like the kind of place one would return to on a homesick evening, and maybe pick up their signature ‘Poppa’ style bowls, named after Hutchinson’s wife, Cara’s grandfather. At the heart of our experience at Twirl was a strong intentionality to deliver warmth and good food to everyone who entered!

We (Gauri and Julia) had asked Cara to surprise us, leaving the choice of dishes entirely in her hands. The menu offered a pleasing degree of customization: you could choose your pasta and pair it with whichever sauce took your fancy, from the comforting simplicity of the Pomarola sauce to the brighter, stronger, and spicier Al Limone. Gauri was particularly pleased by the number of vegetarian options on the menu, a happy change for once!

Gauri loved the pasta she had — she ended up getting the Spaghetti with a pomarola sauce! A classic but delicious. She really appreciated that the pasta fell on the spicier side of the spectrum, with a faint citrusy brightness that definitely added a liveliness to the tomato sauce. The tomatoes tasted remarkably fresh, and the sauce clung to the strands just enough to make each forkful satisfying. A highlight was definitely that the spaghetti stayed true to its purpose: twirl-able! Freshly served, it stood out as particularly comforting, and left a gentle warmth that lingered in Gauri's throat, retrospectively reminding her of the restaurant’s broader atmosphere.

Julia prompted Cara to surprise her as well — as long as the meal included garlic focaccia. Cara decided on the rigatoni bolognese bianco, a beef and pork white ragu sauce. The dish came quick, hot, and (obviously) topped with fresh pecorino romano! The ragu was not too thick, and balanced well with the fresh rigatoni. The meat was browned and tender in a creamy, white sauce — giving it a delicious, sweet and fatty taste. The addition of greens and a hint of lemon gave the dish a fresh kick to balance out the warm, comforting flavors with a bolder note. The pasta itself was on the chewier side, which balanced quite nicely with the rich sauce.

If there was one dish overall that stayed with the both of us, it was the focaccia with roasted garlic purée. I loved that it was roasted because it compounded the flavours, making it infinitely sweeter than the otherwise sharp, pungent flavour. A single spoonful of the purée went a remarkably long way, and it is a flavour we are still thinking about! The focaccia itself, handmade by Hutchinson (like everything else at Twirl), was every bit as memorable. It felt wonderfully fresh and airy, breaking apart with barely any effort. Such a wonderful experience!!

Twirl’s growing popularity points to an interesting tension in contemporary dining culture that Craig brought up in our conversations as well. At around $10 a bowl, freshly made pasta is an appealing proposition, and, with exceptional credit to social media, the crowds seem to have noticed. The resulting backlog has meant a pared-down menu as the team works to keep pace with demand. At Twirl, the crowds have brought a backlog and a slimmer menu, as Craig and Cara work to meet the demand without losing sight of what they set out to do: serve what they would call the perfect bowl of pasta. Their ambition of “earning the block” suggests an ambition more enduring that simply going viral. Rather, they are striving to curate a neighborhood spot people continue returning to! When customers return to Twirl, they’re returning to a family, more specifically two self-deemed “responsible parents”, Craig and Cara, who promise to hold New Haven prices and our stomachs accountable.

So, the next time a craving for pasta strikes, follow the scent of garlic and simmering tomatoes to Twirl and ask yourself, how do I take my pasta?