The Pastaria & Market was opened in 1995 as a retail pasta shop and deli. Donna grew up within a family of Italian immigrants, and she began her culinary path inspired by her food obsessed family and her chef grandfather. Bitten by the restaurant bug at age 12, her weekends were spent with her best friend, whose parents owned two restaurants that she often volunteered to help in. In the 1990's, Donna got to work on perfecting family recipes, creating sauces and different pasta recipes.