PRIMI Pasta & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Durango

If I were the owner I’d fire the entire front house staff. We arrived Saturday night around 6pm. The restaurant was approximately 30% filled. The host who personifies a full on douche bag with his hair drawn back said that the wait would be an hour and 45 minutes. My wife was determined to eat there so I took my seat outside with my daughter and we ate a nice lil desert we purchased. There were many tables open, but they chose not to seat us. Please keep in mind, this isn’t the typical restaurant where you have servers. You order at the register and sit and wait for food. The place was wide open so it was quite odd they chose to ignore us customers sitting and waiting outside. After an hour the host (who I can’t explain how terrible he was) asked if we just planned to eat desserts or wanted to stay for dinner. We were on the waiting list, so I very kindly let him know we were staying for dinner. He finally agreed to seat us. From the time he said it would be an hour and 45 minute wait, we waited an hour and nobody else was seated in the empty restaurant. It was clear something was wrong at this establishment.

The food that eventually came out was good and very nicely presented. However, the main course is pasta that takes about three minutes to cook and one minute to sauce…it took them an hour to get our plate out…. By the time we were done eating, some of the staff had already started drinking on the job visibly to customers. It’s clear to me that the employees are entitled and are ruining this business.

This is a nice establishment that has been ruined by...

Having enjoyed our travels to Italy over the years and tasted the wonderful food and wine from several regions we looked forward to our visit to Primi. Based on the owners’ website and customer’s comments we had dinner. However, I should have paid more attention to the ones who had a less than positive review. The restaurant was far from busy, meaning the staff was not under pressure, and their “elevated fast- casual” philosophy (what genius came up with this?) has the customer look over the menu, go to the counter, place their order, pay for their order, and asked for a specific tip amount. Once this is done, you sit and wait for the drinks and food to arrive. Although reasonably priced, the food was very disappointing. Their pomodoro sauce, the basis of good Italian pasta was weak and watery. One small sprig of basil was the only flavor and very little parmigiana added nothing. No additional cheese was offered. The bolognese pasta was also lacking in flavor and mediocre. The cost of the meal, with a 20% tip paid in advance, was $81.95. Yes, I was a dummy to tip 20% in advance not ever having been in here before, but having spent many years in food service, I tend to lean towards small restaurant owners who take on the challenges and risks of this business. I should have waited to tip after the meal, and I suggest everyone should. Also, $28.00 for 2 half glasses of wine is greedy. One other thing. At no time did any runner or busser ( remember, their is no wait staff here) ask how our meal was or if we liked it , including Tracy, who passed our table...

We moved to town a few weeks back from New York and had not even entertained getting Italian food in Durango until tonight. Let’s just say we were not disappointed.

We read some negative reviews about the service, but to be honest the system here works just fine and all of the employees were friendly and looking to help navigate you through (what is simply a cafeteria style approach). To be honest, this is actually a breath of fresh air compared to some of the stuffy white table cloth places back east.

Also, c’mon people, it’s not that difficult to go to a counter to get your food! If you are in Durango and you have an issue walking a few feet to place an order…you might be in the wrong place.

What was most surprising was the food: really top notch food with delicious complexity to all of the dishes. The cocktails were really good and the house red wine really paired well with dinner. We split a really good salad (the toscana), each got a different pasta entree (the Pomodoro and the Bolognese with a side of meatballs and a side of sausage) and then tried the cannoli and the almond cookie for dessert. Everything was excellent: really fresh and the flavors were wonderful.

Don’t pass this place by if you are looking for good Italian food. You will not be disappointed. Nice work Primi: we...