GO SLOW: Lumache is a tiny temple of authentic Italian pasta in Victoria
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
If you're looking for a real artisan pasta experience in Victoria, snag a seat at tiny Lumache and dine with James Frost and Heather Dosman.
Words and Photos
By CINDA CHAVICH
Piano, Piano — slowly slowly.
Even at the height of service, chef James Frost is in the slow zone, methodically building each fat pillow of egg yolk ravioli with the loving intent of an Italian nonna.
These words, advice from a chef in northern Italy, are his motto and mantra. Like a pot of barely bubbling sugo (sauce), time is the magic ingredient that creates the finest flavours.
“Piano, piano — the phrase sticks in my head,” James tells me, recalling the months he spent working in Trentino, where traditional techniques and the Slow Food ethos rules.
It’s the simple secret of classic Italian cooking and why I’m here at Lumache, watching this master of artisan pasta carefully set an egg yolk in a nest of pureed spinach and ricotta, then gently enclose it in a package of delicate sfoglia. It’s his signature filled raviolo — when cut, the golden egg and creamy filling spills out, a self-saucing masterpiece that relies on precise timing and a soft touch.
That’s just one of the authentic northern Italian dishes you’ll find on the menu at Lumache, an intimate space devoted to the slow and intricate art of making fresh artisan pasta.
LUMACHE IS ALL ABOUT FRESH PASATA
With his wife Heather Dosman — the sommelier and service whiz behind the couple’s new venture — it’s the place to experience an ever-changing, seasonal menu which melds old world Italian recipes with the finest west coast ingredients.
And people are lining up to get one of the sought-after reservations in this tiny, 16-seat room.
Many come for the full Pasta Tasting Menu — several courses including four antipasti, vegetable dishes and four pastas, including his egg yolk raviolo, with cheese or sweets to finish ($89).
Or there’s the ever-changing ala carta choices, with salads and starters, including James’ signature slow-cooked Trippa a La Quercia (honeycomb tripe), alongside several seasonal fresh pastas and an exquisite, multi-layered Lasagna Verde ala Bolognese.
This night I’ve chosen a plate of Agnolotti del Plin, elegant little “pinched” pockets filled with tender braised beef and spring dandelion greens, in a silky bone broth and red wine reduction, a side of sauteed greens and a trio of crisp arancini, oozing warm Fontina Val d’Aosta.
But the menu changes every month so there’s always a new pasta creation to try.
Our seats at the bar are at centre stage, a perch overlooking the sliver of a kitchen where pasta is rolled, filled, cut and cooked á la minute on three induction burners, then plated on vintage china and delivered by the chef with a friendly flourish.
SMALL BUT MIGHTY
James and Heather spent more than a decade working in Vancouver before moving across the Strait with a dream of creating their own restaurant in Victoria.
“We weren't sure, being outsiders from Vancouver, if we would be received with open arms, but people were extremely supportive,” says James. It took nearly two years to find a suitable space but, thanks to a series of pop-up dinners at Café Brio and other spots around town, they had a devoted following by the time they opened in December.
Their initial goal was 50 seats, but this petite spot feels right. The former Hanks space is now a cosy temple of pasta — with café curtains, hand-crafted fir tables, and golden walls decorated with a playful trompe l’oeil effect, a nod to the colourful painted houses of Genoa.
It’s been described as a “micro-restaurant” and James admits “this is about as small as it gets”. With just three tables and bar seating, the experience is as curated as the menu — the intimate Tavolino table for two, the Mezzzo (middle) table for up to four friends, and the four-top Tavolo booth in the back, plus six seats at the bar.
But that’s also what makes dining here a unique experience.
AN ARTISAN AT WORK
James grew up in Edmonton, eating his mom’s Godfather’s Spaghetti Sauce, a recipe gleaned from the classic film. He always loved pasta but only learned how to make it from scratch alongside skilled chefs, notably Adam Pegg of Vancouver’s La Quercia, where seasonal ingredients are interpreted through a northern Italian lens.
“The first time I realized what real pasta was, was when I got a job at La Quercia,” says James. “When I started working for Adam, I realized what pasta was and could be. And I started exploring history and regional Italian foods.”
He further honed his Italian cooking skills alongside chef Fiorenzo Varesco, Pegg’s Italian mentor, and went on to develop the pasta-centric menu at Livia Forno e Vino in Vancouver.
“And, ever since I've been obsessed with it, and Italian cuisine as a whole,” he adds. “Not just pasta, but the whole history and culture of Italian cooking, as it aligns with the way I like to eat and the way I've always liked to eat.”
Ingredients at Lumache are local and seasonal but where it’s appropriate the couple leans into high end Italian imports — anchovies from Sicily, airdried beef bresaola from Valtellina, a rotating selection of fine Italian cheese and wine.
“The most important thing is the quality of raw materials, that’s what guides our vision,” he says.
Traditional recipes are the foundation, but seasonal ingredients from island farms and James’ nose-to-tail Slow Food focus, is what informs his ever-changing menu. It might be tortellli filled with speck, ricotta and Square Root Farm radicchio with BC hazelnuts, or plump rounds of Bottoni di Testa stuffed with roasted pork cheek and jowl from Matriarch Meats in Comox.
It’s always enlightening to watch James’ Vegetable Time videos on Instagram (I love the one that dives into an oddball Tromboncino squash from a small Saanich farm). He waxes lyrical about Romano beans, loves cooking tripe and other off cuts, and is obsessed with olive oil.
“I can never have enough olive oil,” he says. “I'm always buying new olive oil for different purposes. You know, this one for fish, this one for vegetables. This one for me.”
Though he loves Italian ingredients, James says his experiences in Italy really solidified his belief in cooking with foods close to home.
“We do bring things from Italy, but what I really brought home with me, the real lesson that I learned working there, was that it's the proximity to the ingredients that makes them special,” he says.
GOING SLOW
Lumache is a labour of love for James and Heather who share every aspect of their hands-on operation.
Heather is the sommelier/front-of-house pro and the one who manages the reservations (yes, you do need to book the month before you want to dine), leads their small wait staff, and chooses the ever-changing, carefully-curated list of wines, selected from small sustainable producers, in BC and Italy. She also makes the mascarpone that goes into their stellar tiramisu, served in vintage china cups.
“I do the kitchen," says James, "and Heather does, pretty much everything else.”
James’ passion for pasta and his infectious grin is, well, infectious, and sitting at the open kitchen bar while chatting with the chef as he puts together your dinner is all part of the charm of this crowded little eatery.
The piano, piano mindset comes through on the plate and in the atmosphere — like the lumache (snail) in the restaurant’s name, it’s all part of the slow lifestyle, a place to appreciate small, unhurried moments and culinary comforts.
Open your calendar at the beginning of the month and make a reservation (via email).
If you can’t get in — every seat is often booked up within days — get on the waiting list. You might get lucky, and a spontaneous night out for a beautiful plate of handcrafted pasta, might be just what you need to slow down.
