Cortland Standard .net

By TYRONE L. HEPPARD
Staff Reporter
theppard@cortlandstandardnews.net
CORTLANDVILLE — Heather Shimer and her sister, Haley Lowie, wanted to share their family’s fun and unique dining experience with the rest of the community when they opened Rex’s Hot Pasta and Italian restaurant almost two years ago.
Today, from its new location in the Groton Avenue Plaza — a few blocks away from where they grew up — the sisters say they have met that goal.
Inspired by family dinners, Shimer and Lowie started Rex’s out of the kitchen of Ivan’s Bar & Grill at 206 Main St. in Cortland in 2013.
The duo started serving up their family’s take on pasta dishes with a spicy twist and set themselves apart from other downtown businesses by offering large portions and curbside service.
But Shimer said Thursday afternoon as business picked up, it became apparent they would have to find a more suitable space of their own.
“We basically tested the waters for about a year and a half,” Shimer added. “Once we decided that it was going really well, we decided to get our own place (and) expand.”
At Rex’s Hot Pasta, the large portions and curbside service are still around. But the restaurant now has a full-service bar of its own with wine and beer on tap and more menu items with dishes made from fresh local meats and produce, Lowie said.
“They have such goodproducts around here,” Lowie said. “It (buying local) was pretty much a no-brainer.We really didn’t think much about it.”
Lowie and Shimer said they grew up on Mildred Avenue. So while they were searching for a new restaurant location, their intent was to be as close to the west side of the city as possible.
They ended up settling on the empty 1,500-square-foot space over the city line in the Groton Avenue Plaza. But while the restaurant is technically outside of their hometown, Shimer and Lowie said the location is perfect for what they had in mind.
Lowie said they really wanted to provide customers with outdoor dining, and in the back of the restaurant is a patio area where customers can relax.
Lowie and Shimer said they also wanted the inside of Rex’s Hot Pasta to be as different as the meals and atmosphere they offer, so they hired local interior designer Becky Costa to assist them.
The restaurant’s raised ceiling, and Costa’s creative use of pipes and even water spigots to accent the bar, gives the space an industrial-type atmosphere while the work of local painter, Bryan Bancroft, adds an art gallery feel to the dining room.
“I think the space kind of spoke to what needed to be here,” Costa said. “A kind of causal fun yet upscale restaurant that we’re really excited about for Cortland.”
Rex’s Hot Pasta is named after Shimer and Lowie’s father, Rex Fredenburg, whose penchant for fun, family and spicy pasta dishes became the inspiration for their cuisine.
Bancroft’s huge mural of a man with a shaved head and bushy mustache painted on the side of the building is a spitting image of Fredenburg, who said that was something he was not expecting when his girls said they were relocating therestaurant.
“I told them whatever can make you successful, you go ahead and do it,” Fredenburg said. “But I wasn’t planning an 8-by-8 (foot image) of my face on the side of the building.”
Fredenburg said he can vouch for the authenticity of the restaurant’s homemade recipes and, given Rex’s Hot Pasta is staffed by friends and family, he added he could vouch for the fun people will have when they eat there as well.
“We’re used to cooking for a lot of people — that’s all we do is entertain,” Fredenburg said. “If it wasn’t here, we’d be doing it in my backyard.”