The Pasta Bowl, an Italian restaurant in Chehalis, officially opened a drive-thru on Saturday after a soft-opening earlier in the week.
The drive-thru offers a limited express menu for customers on the go. According to restaurant owners Amy Clark and Tony Bennett, they decided to open the drive-thru to provide additional options for those who don’t want to sit in the restaurant or don’t have the time.
The drive-thru menu will include dishes like beer mac and cheese, penne alfredo, penne meat sauce, and a full-sized chicken garden salad.
According to Clark, the dishes will use penne because the noodles are similar to spaghetti but hold up better for drive-thru orders. Items on the drive-thru menu cost $9, though items on the kids menu are smaller and will cost $8 and come with a drink. Portion sizes will be slightly smaller than meals for sit down customers of the restaurant.
“Everything is still house made,” Clark said of the menu items.
Clark and Bennett told The Chronicle they have been working on the idea for the past couple of months and started construction work on the drive-thru window about three weeks ago.
Customers worried about timing won’t have to wait long for their orders.
“It’s basically as fast as McDonald’s,” Bennett said.
The drive-thru will be open everyday of the week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The restaurant will have two drive-thru workers on hand on Friday and Saturday nights.
“We’re really targeting people who are on the go, who don’t have don’t have time to sit,” Bennett said.
Clark and Bennett said they received a lot of requests for a “go” method for The Pasta Bowl. Clark added she believes people became accustomed to using a “go” system during the pandemic.
As for the most popular drive-thru menu items, Clark said they have so far been the lasagna and the bacon-loaded beer mac and cheese.
