As soon as Giuseppe Mirenda steps through the door of his newest restaurant called “Basta Pasteria,” wearing two Italian flags on his collar and a “Jesus Saves” hat on his head, he is immediately greeted by an employee with, “Good morning chef.” 

The title “chef” demands respect but also had an edge of camaraderie as both men grinned and Mirenda leaned in for a handshake and a hug with his employee. 

“I couldn’t do this without them,” Mirenda said. “I'm kind of like the gasoline: I'm the one that sparks everything together, gets everybody moving…you can see me in the line, running food, serving tables, whatever is needed on that day to be able to better help my team.”

Basta Pasteria is the third of Mirenda’s multi-award-winning restaurants he’s opened over the past 10 years in Salt Lake County including Sicilia Mia which opened in 2014 and Antica Sicilia which opened in 2016. 

Antica Sicilia is one of four restaurants in the state of Utah to receive an award from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America and has received a plethora of Best of State awards.

Family

Mirenda’s family and Italian background are the basis for all of his cooking and something he loves to share with each customer. 

His connection and passion with food started as a young boy living near Sicily, Italy where his family was in the restaurant business. He grew up cooking and eventually went to culinary school before immigrating to the United States in 2012 where he met his wife. They have two daughters together.

Today, some of the dishes still served in the restaurants are from recipes that have been passed down from generations while other dishes show his modern-unique flair.

“My grandma is always my judge,” Mirenda said, “She's 83 but she still comes to the restaurant.”

Every day, his grandmother and mother Margherita D’Alessandro prepare the day’s desserts in the morning. The Torta della Nonna, or Grandmother’s cake in English, is a particularly special recipe that has been perfected by his family for generations.  

“It's kind of very weird that certain things work in a family, but I am not allowed in the dessert kitchen area,” he said with a laugh. “So that recipe is being passed to my mom now.”

The olive oil cake served with gelato is the restaurants’ most popular dessert and is even available at the more casual-dining experience at Basta.

Mirenda emphasized the importance of making every customer feel like family from the moment they walk through the door.

“I want people to feel like they're coming home, you know?” he said. 

Food

Mirenda takes care of the savory dishes while his nonna and mom take care of the dessert. 

All the ingredients are either sourced locally for quality, or like the flour to make the pasta, come from Italy.

To spice up the menu, different dishes are featured in rotating specials every Thursday and Saturday and include food with his own flair on traditional Sicilian dishes—including octopus, both boiled and fried.

“So you have a tender octopus on the inside, which is melt in your mouth, but you have a very, very nice and crispy charcoal outside, but it's then served in Mediterranean sauce, which is made out of yogurt, capers, parsley, dill, Parmigiano and lemon,” he said.

Other specialties include the steak and Genovese, a short rib ragu. 

But the most popular dinner item on the menu Mirenda said is the carbonara which entices about 40% of guests every night. 

Carbonara as a dish that originates from Rome, but in unique Antica Sicilia fashion, the pasta is spun tableside in a wheel of Parmigiano cheese rather than the traditional Pecorino cheese. Antica Sicilia manager Bryton Quick said each 80- to 90-pound cheese wheel is split in half for the tableside service and lasts four to five weeks. 

“[Carbonara] is traditionally not a Sicilian dish, but it is a Sicilian thing to use Parmigiano over Pecorino,” Mirenda said. “I've been criticized many times because people from Rome use only Pecorino but it works and for me and it tastes 100% better.”

To bring fresh pasta like the carbonara to a wider audience, Mirenda opened Basta in February to cater to a different price point and atmosphere than his other two restaurants. 

“In my experience, I think it's needed to understand what the experience of a customer is, and I think that's why Antica Sicilia and Sicilia Mia are such a big staple for Salt Lake City—it's because I care as much as the food, as much as I care about my service,” Mirenda said.

Basta even has some of the same dishes as found in his other restaurants, including the gnocchi sorentina, margherita pizza and olive oil cake. But it’s the overall “casual vibe” and quick 10-minute cooking experience that differentiates the new restaurant from the other two and allows him to “lower the price considerably.”

“People haven't seen this concept here in Utah,” Mirenda said. “[Customers] are enjoying the fact that they can get a good meal…and it takes about 10 minutes for fresh, homemade pasta.” 

Mirenda said Basta has the potential to change the game for “fast food” by offering an affordable version of fresh pasta made with fresh ingredients. 

“In Basta there is the idea of growing this brand into maybe something that will grow in different states,” he said. “I see Basta becoming a global brand.”

Faith

Having more restaurants has been a dream of Mirenda’s for some time and he even opened another restaurant before 2020, but when COVID-19 hit, he had to close it and called the time “a very, very dark part” of his life.

His “Jesus Saves” hat is just a small implication of his beliefs, but he said without his faith and belief in Jesus Christ, it wouldn’t have turned out as good.

“I try not to force it out on anyone, but I think it has helped me tremendously to be close to him because he has helped me in many ways,” Mirenda said. “Throughout my professional life, there's been many turbulences, and I think there's no other way I would have either come up from it or being able to go through without him.”

Mirenda said no other physical restaurant locations are currently in the works as he and his team continue to improve the experiences people are already having at Antica Sicilia and Sicilia Mia, and watch the new open-kitchen concept blossom with Basta. 

“I think they are two staple restaurants for Salt Lake City, and we're gonna keep it that way,” he said. “When you come in the door, it's all about the customer. It's all about how your experience is going to turn out…I think that's been the No. 1 goal all along.”