As a third-generation restaurateur, Toni Calderone was determined to master the business of franchising from a young age. At just 14, she was already committed to learning the ins and outs of the industry. She developed her first business plan—a drive-thru pizza concept—at 17 in a high school entrepreneurship class. Confident in her idea, she turned in the assignment but skipped the class, only to be met with a lesson in accountability from her teacher, who failed her.
“He said, ‘Toni, you can have all the great ideas, but you have to execute them. You’ll be somebody someday, but it won’t go anywhere unless you show up,’” Calderone recalls. “That hard lesson taught me at a young age that I had to show up and put in the work. It set me on a quest to own a franchise one day.”
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Calderone is the first woman in her family to own a restaurant, a role inspired by her mother and grandmother’s encouragement of her independence. Meanwhile, her father taught her to be resilient, bringing her ambitions to the forefront.
Her first restaurant was a fine-dining, farm-to-table concept in downtown York, Pennsylvania, where she served Italian dishes from scratch. She perfected her pasta noodles to be consistently al dente in just three minutes, and something clicked.
“We were onto something special—a unique noodle that cooks perfectly every time because of the water we use,” Calderone says. “In Italy, you find casual pasta spots everywhere, but that wasn’t common here. I wanted to bring that authentic Italian experience to the U.S., so I started thinking about how to turn my concept into a quick-service model.”
During the pandemic, Calderone started selling pasta by the pound from her Rig-a-Toni food truck. She took over a shuttered drive-thru restaurant, refining her operations as relief funds allowed her to reinvest in her business. By the time lockdowns lifted, she had reimagined her concept as PastaNito—a playful blend of “pasta” and “infinite.”
As she navigated negotiations for second-generation restaurant locations when leasing activity was low, she experimented with various formats, keeping each location under 1,200 square feet. The models included food trucks, market stalls, and endcap drive-thru units.
PastaNito’s menu offers six types of fresh pasta, including vegan and gluten-free options. Customers can customize their bowls with a choice of pasta, vegetables, proteins, and sauces, leading to more than 33,000 possible combinations, supported by a robust distribution network.
“We’ve ditched our commissary model and partnered with a distributor who connects us with small businesses we can grow with,” Calderone says. “We make our meat sauce and noodles from scratch, and we partner with brands we trust enough to bring their products under our banner.”
Years of planning and preparation, including work with the FDD, brought Calderone’s teenage dream to fruition in September when the first PastaNito franchise was awarded in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area. More locations are in development, including a site in Maryland and a potential unit at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Reflecting on this milestone, Calderone recalls her journey from high school to opening her first restaurant at 30, navigating numerous mindset shifts along the way.
“No matter how confident I was, I still struggled with imposter syndrome. There was a lot of soul-searching,” she says. “People would question if I could handle it all, yet I’d find myself sitting across from high-level businessmen, pitching million-dollar ideas, proving I could do everything they doubted.”
As she worked to launch her restaurant, develop a franchise model, and survive the pandemic, Calderone also managed motherhood, divorce, and a second family—testaments to her resilience and ambition.
“I want my kids to see that I made it through so many pivots and challenges while chasing my dreams,” Calderone says. “For my daughter, especially, I want to show her she doesn’t have to be hardened by the world to succeed. My legacy is about creating space for her and making an impact in an industry where a small percentage of founders are women.”
Carrying forward her family’s legacy, Calderone aims to expand PastaNito to 500 locations in the next five years. After spending recent years assembling a franchise infrastructure with attorneys, consultants, and brokers, PastaNito is set to accelerate growth in key markets along the East Coast and in Texas in 2025.
