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This new Italian spot specializes in choose-your-own-adventure pasta

Spaghetti Western brings panini and mix-and-match pasta to the Upper Beaches

By Alexandra Whyte

| November 28, 2025

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A spread of pasta and Italian sandwiches

Name: Spaghetti Western Contact: 998 Kingston Rd., spaghettiwestern.ca, @spaghettiwestern.to
Owners: Dimitri and Laura Petropoulos Chef: Travis Simmons Accessibility: Fully accessible

Posters of Clint Eastwood cowboy flicks may line the walls of Spaghetti Western, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be fed cans of beans or salt pork here. Husband-and-wife team Dimitri and Laura Petropoulos, along with their business partner Constantine Patiniotis, are showcasing 11 years of wholesale pasta experience with Italian classics given a North American twist.

Dimitri and Patiniotis have been supplying Toronto kitchens with fresh pasta for more than a decade, rolling out dough for more than 50 hotels and restaurants across the city. “It’s one thing seeing our pasta on somebody else’s menu, but we wanted to actually serve our pasta in a restaurant of our own,” says Dimitri.

The team at Spaghetti Western — From left: sous-chef Kevin Wreakes, pasta maker Greg Wong, front-of-house manager Jordan MacDonald, chef Travis Simmons, sandwich maker Omkar Mathpati, co-owner Dimitri Petropoulos, bread maker Dhruvi Kumar and co-owner Laura Petropoulos

For years, Laura and Dimitri talked about opening their own spot. Then, when a space down the street from where they live with their two young children became available, they jumped on it. The perfect location made it easier to take the next step—and for family members who also live nearby to chip in.

Laura’s sister, Jordan MacDonald, runs the front of house. Unlike a lot of the restaurants they supply, Spaghetti Western aims to be unfussy and easy-going. “There’s an emphasis on families here,” says Laura. “Dining out with kids is really hard, but we embrace that chaos. There are always kids, even our own, running around.”

A chef uses tongs to take spaghetti from a pan

The Food

The menu is a mix-and-match affair, with six pasta shapes to choose from: rigatoni, conchiglie, mafaldine, spaghetti, fettuccine, pappardelle, gnocchi and gluten-friendly casarecce. Each shape can be matched with one of six sauces: classic tomato with blistered cherry tomatoes, bolognese (with a blend of beef, pork and veal), vodka and Italian sausage, white wine cream with grilled chicken, truffle cream with oyster mushrooms, and cacio e pepe.

All the pasta dough is made fresh daily at a downtown location, then sent to Spaghetti Western as well as the team’s wholesale clients. Soon, though, that pasta-making operation will be moving to a commissary space at Dufferin and Lawrence (which will be attached to the restaurant’s second location).

There are also seven Italian-inspired sandwiches, all made on pizza sourdough from neighbouring Grayson’s Rustic Bakery, plus garlic bread and a couple of salads (burrata and arugula). For dessert: tiramisu and lemon crostata made by an in-house pastry chef.

Spaghetti with tomato sauce — Here we have spaghetti in the classic tomato sauce (puréed tomatoes, shallots, garlic, blistered cherry tomatoes). $16

A person digs into rigatoni bolognese with a fork — Rich bolognese (made with beef, pork and veal) is finished with butter and layered over rigatoni. $19

Pappardelle in a truffle cream sauce — Pappardelle shows off the glossy truffle cream with sautéed oyster mushrooms for extra umami. $20

A person eats pasta in a pesto sauce using a fork — Here we have a combo of basil-spinach pesto and white-wine sauce over conchiglie. “The shells cup the sauce perfectly,” says Simmons. $19

A burrata and tomato salad with pesto — For the burrata salad, the Italian cheese tops blistered heirloom cherry tomatoes and toasted sourdough. It’s dressed with basil-spinach pesto, balsamic glaze, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and freshly cracked pepper. $14

An Italian sandwich loaded with Calabrese salami — Inside this folded pizza sourdough, there’s lemon ricotta, arugula, roasted red peppers, spicy antipasto and Calabrian salami. $21

A mortadella sandwich — Simmons’s favourite sandwich features thinly sliced mortadella, pesto cream sauce and a zesty relish made with honey, red pepper and pickled peperoncini. $21

The Drinks

The restaurant is currently waiting on a liquor licence but plans to carry 375-millilitre bottles of Italian wine for dine-in guests. For now, there’s San Pellegrino, sparkling water and bottles of Coke Zero.

“We didn’t want to offer the standard sugary pops,” says Dimitri. “The one exception is Coke Zero—I live off it. And everything tastes better from a glass bottle.”

The Space

Fake cactus plants and posters of classic movies tie everything together for good measure. You won’t see any cowboy hats or neon signs, though—the whole Western theme is reined in. “There’s a rustic saloon look to it, with subtle Western touches and a modern palette of lighter colours,” says Laura. “The black-and-white floor tiles give it that instantly recognizable Italian trattoria look, but different—it’s special.”