ESO Artisanal Pasta

06/29/2026

🎉 HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, CHEF KRISTINA! 🎉

Drop your birthday wishes for Chef Kristina in the comments and help us make her day extra special! 🎂👇

05/31/2026

Send this to someone you miss ❤️

And invite them to grab a tiramisu.
Because is there anything better than sharing a tiramisu with someone you love?

Life gets busy, schedules get packed, and sometimes it’s been way too long since you’ve caught up with the people who matter most. Consider this your reminder to make the plans.

Tag them, send them this post, and we’ll save a slice for you both! 🍰

05/28/2026

A week before we opened… complete chaos.

It felt like 24 hours in a day still wasn’t enough. We were sleeping 4 hours a night, barely eating, running around nonstop, and carrying so much pressure on our shoulders. Construction delays kept pushing our opening back over and over again, to the point where it honestly felt like it would never end.

Then one day we looked at each other and said: August 8th. No matter what, we open.
It also happened to be Chef AJ’s birthday, and I still remember him saying, “This will be the best birthday present.”

And somehow… we made it happen.

Were things perfect? Not even close. There were still unfinished details, things that weren’t up to our standards yet, problems we hadn’t solved. But we focused on what mattered most: hiring the team, training people, and opening the doors. No excuses.

That week taught us something important: when life feels overwhelming and your mind is filled with a thousand things at once, stop trying to do everything alone. Write it down. Split the responsibilities. Keep moving forward.

And yes, things did go wrong on opening day. Of course they did. They always will. That’s part of building something real.
Dreams are not supposed to feel easy. They’re supposed to challenge you, exhaust you, test your patience, and force you to grow into the person capable of achieving them.

Looking back now, I still feel the excitement of that week. The fear, the adrenaline, the exhaustion… and the pride of knowing we pushed through anyway.

If you’re in your “chaos” season right now, don’t quit. One day you’ll look back and realize those were the moments that made the dream worth it.

05/19/2026

Here’s a fun fact: there are more than 600 pasta shapes in the world🤯🫪

From classics like spaghetti, the one most of us grew up eating at home, to shapes like orecchiette that half of us still can’t pronounce properly 😅 Every single pasta shape has a purpose, a history, and a sauce that pairs perfectly with it.

In Italy, pasta changes from region to region, town to town, and sometimes even family to family. One pastaio might roll cavatelli by hand using just fingers, another uses a fork or cavatelli board. Some make them tiny, others long and stretched. Neither is “wrong”, it’s tradition.

The same goes for sauces.

Ligurian Pesto and Cacio e Pepe come from the North and Central parts of Italy, while Southern Italy is famous for Sugo di Pomodoro and Puttanesca. Northern Italians love rich cream sauces, stuffed meats, butter, and savory polenta. Southern Italians lean toward olive oil, fresh seafood, herbs, and bright tomato sauces.

That’s the beauty of Italian cuisine: there’s no single version of it!

At ESO, we want you to experience a little bit of everything, from classic Italian traditions to the American-Italian dishes we all secretly grew up loving ❤️🍝

And if there’s a pasta shape or dish you would love to see on our menu, let us know below 👇

04/24/2026

Hey, ESO family! ❤️

We need your love and support! We’ve been nominated for Best Italian Restaurant in Charlotte, and we couldn’t be more proud.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a plate with us, shared a meal with family, or supported our journey in any way, we’d be so grateful if you could take a moment to vote for us. It truly means the world to our team.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. We wouldn’t be here without you!

Here’s how to help pick the winner in our latest CharlotteFive Readers’ Choice contest.