Today's Takeout Pick: Mr. Aaron’s Goods

Much of the restaurant industry has had to rapidly change its business model due to COVID-19, and we’re highlighting the Nashville places that are attempting to stay open. Each day we will give you a critic’s pick for a restaurant and a dish, as well as a running list of restaurants still open that you can support. Today: Mr. Aaron's Goods.

If you’re a person who’s used quarantine to become a butcher, a baker or a fresh-pasta maker, good on you. If you’re less that person and more someone who’s just trying to quietly bathe your child during your third conference call of the day, let me introduce you to Mr. Aaron’s Goods — and specifically his small-batch pasta. On any day, Aaron Distler offers 13 or so kinds of fresh pasta on his website. All are made with coarse semolina and whole eggs, extruded through brass dies, and delivered to your door. Simply boil water and in 2-4 minutes, you’ll have pasta so toothsome, springy and satisfying that everyone’s mind will be off murder hornets and back on the fact that you are a stone-cold dinnertime boss.

Distler offers classics like fusilli, fettuccine, spaghetti and rigatone, but also funky shapes like spinach cavatelli (ridged shells), reginette (short, ruffled) and mafaldine. The latter are curly-edged, inch-wide ribbons about the same length as lasagna noodles. If you’re having a hard time picturing them, you’ve probably never had them. I hadn’t until I had Distler’s, and now I want nothing but those ruffle-edged sauce catchers breakfast, noon and night. Ever had the chili noodles at TKO? Those are Distler’s too, made with arbol, japones and Sichuan chiles, and they’ll soon be available on his website as well. He also makes nostalgic shapes like extra-long macaroni noodles reminiscent of the trusty Kraft blue box and “soup noodles” that wouldn’t look out of place in a can of Campbell’s. His attention to detail, technique and whimsy are what keep restaurant clients like Cafe Roze, 404 Kitchen, Margot Cafe and Santo coming back.

Over the past 15 years ago, Distler took a winding road to launching Mr. Aaron’s Goods. After moving here from Indiana to pursue music, he started managing comedian Ralphie May. The two eventually built a barbecue business together, selling sauces and rubs across the country. Next, he spent a few years learning how to grow peaches and apples, helping reopen Breeden’s Orchard and running a small country store. After that, he was poking around online when he came across a commercial pasta extruder in Tuscaloosa. He rented a truck, went to pick it up the next day, and Mr. Aaron’s Goods was born. Today Distler turns out more than 80 pounds of pasta an hour, which you can find in stores like Citizen Market at Hunter’s Station, Greener Roots Farm or Demeter’s Common in Lebanon. Die-hard carb-lovers can also try out single or family monthly pasta subscriptions.

To find out what’s fresh — which some days includes pasta sauces and fresh pita that’s utterly freaking ethereal — check out the website or Instagram page. If you’re in the Nashville area, delivery to your doorstep is included. And if you’re not, Distler will help you figure something out.

Below is a list of Nashville restaurants (with links) remaining open for takeout and delivery during the COVID-19 shutdown. While some may have had existing relationships with delivery providers, most spots on this list are offering the service for the first time. Most offer curbside pickup, but check when you order. As this list is a moving target, please leave any changes, suggestions or omissions in the comments.

Ashley Brantley

Places with takeout or delivery as of Thursday, May 7

Ashley Brantley

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