Checking in at: Bouchard’s, Cincinnati OH

The mother and son team of Renee and Jodi (Bouchard? Miller? We see them listed online both ways) arrived in Cincinnati, and then the Findlay Market, from West Virginia, in 2007. Their deal is fresh pastas, flat breads, and sauces, as well as baked goods like pies, cookies, brownies, and cobblers. Some is available to eat on the spot, all is available to finish off at home.

Fresh fettucine to go

If you’re planning to eat in, you create your own pasta or flatbread, limited only by your imagination and what they have on hand. Select your pasta, your sauce, cheese, and toppings from those available and they’ll put it together on the spot. Want penne marinara with sausage, mozzarella, and roasted red peppers? It’s yours! A flatbread with EVOO, chicken, feta, and black olives? You got it! There’s no seating at Bouchard’s but there’s plenty of spots around the market for you to sit down and enjoy your lunch and, perhaps, grab a local brew.

Fresh pasta in Findlay Market

We’ve only tried the ravioli, and they are first-rate. They offer lots of variety: four cheese, fig prosciutto mascarpone, walnut gorgonzola, smoked mozzarella, eggplant, spinach, mushroom, meatball, and Italian sausage. Take home a container of sauce to go with — marinara, carbonara, roasted red pepper pesto… the list goes on — and do your chefly best to marry ravioli with sauce. Ask them for help if you don’t trust yourself.

Just as their own names seem to vary, so does that of their stand in the market. Are they called Bouchard’s? Bouchard’s Pasta? Bouchard’s Anything’s Pastable? Brocato’s? All seem to be used, but the sign said Bouchard’s when we were there, so that’s what we’re calling it!