David Ellis and Samantha Taylor’s pasta-centric restaurant combines British and Southern influences and showcases their love of entertaining.
by Catherine Currin | photography by Forest Mason

Figulina chef David Ellis and artist Samantha Taylor cooked their first meal together on Thanksgiving in 2015, soon after they met for the first time. The two — who’d connected earlier that year as they’d been traveling separately across the U.S. — decided to meet in Portland, Oregon, for the holiday, as Taylor was planning to move there A Beaufort native, Taylor grew up with a traditional American Thanksgiving, but it was Ellis’ first, since he grew up in Great Britain. “Dave was super intrigued and excited to not only experience some traditional dishes, but also contribute a few of his own,” says Taylor.

The two combined heritages and made sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, turkey roulade, crispy duck-fat potatoes and a medley of roasted carrots and multicolored beets. It was enough food that they had to share. “What started out as a Thanksgiving for two turned into a Thanksgiving for two plus a few of my new neighbors, plus some newly acquired British friends,” laughs Taylor. 

For Ellis, the meal felt similar to his hometown tradition of the Sunday Roast. “A lot of British staples lend themselves to Thanksgiving quite seamlessly — Yorkshire puddings, for example, are the perfect vessel for mashed potatoes and gravy,” he says. Ellis had moved to the U.S. from England after years of training in French and British kitchens. He’d originally studied music technology, but once he started working in a kitchen, he fell in love with the process. “The kitchen quickly became my second home,” Ellis says. “I loved the culture, the banter, the community, the craft.”

Since that first meal, the couple, who are now married, has lived in Melbourne, Australia, New Zealand’s South Island and England. They finally settled in Raleigh in 2019 to be closer to Taylor’s family. She focused on her art, teaching classes online and in-person, and Ellis took a job as a cook at Poole’s Diner, moving up the ranks to chef de cuisine. “But inevitably, I found myself building my own restaurant in my mind,” says Ellis. “I just needed to land on a concept.”

Making pasta became a passion project for Ellis during the pandemic. “I became really obsessed,” he says. Coincidentally, Taylor had given him a pasta sheeter attachment for their Kitchenaid in Christmas 2019, a few months before everything closed down. The pandemic brought the couple a lot of uncertainty, but Ellis also found himself with a lot of extra time on his hands. “I’d had a go at handmade pasta at a variety of points in my career, but I finally was able to really play around with it,” Ellis says. “I love the hyper-tactile and rustic nature of manipulating dough and the therapeutic nature of creating repetitive shapes.”

When longtime Raleigh restaurant Humble Pie closed its doors in 2023, the two realized it was the perfect spot to start their own restaurant, with Ellis as head chef and Taylor as creative director. “There isn’t another building like this in Raleigh,” says Ellis. “We love the bones of the place.” The menu would reflect what they liked to make and how they entertained at home: pasta, but with Southern and English influences, and a more family-style type of dining. Ellis first remembered experiencing a concept similar to his vision at pasta bar Fiorella in Philadelphia while visiting the city: “We ordered seven different pastas for the table and shared. I thought that this was a really cool way to eat and experience a menu.” For longtime Raleigh residents, walking into Figulina from the boisterous patio off S. Harrington Street may bring a wave of nostalgia, since they kept the general layout, as well as the checkered floor and triangular barstools tucked around the cozy wooden bar that have been there for more than three decades as part of Humble Pie.

To make the space their own, Taylor played up the location’s quirky architectural charm, adding her talents and a “playful maximalist” tone to the decor. “The space is by default industrial, with those airy warehouse-high ceilings and exposed beams, but we took loose inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement and my own illustration style to incorporate heaps of pattern and off-kilter botanicals,” says Taylor.

Copious art covers the walls, and potted fig trees fill empty corners. For the bar area, Taylor painted a Great Blue Heron scooping up fish on the wall and hung handmade ceramic pendants from Ellis’ hometown of Stoke-on-Trent over the countertop. Taylor drew whimsical flowers, food and drink to illustrate the menus and establish the tone for the meal: upscale and quirky, handmade but high-end.

Figulina boasts a pasta-heavy menu, accompanied by creative appetizers and a handful of desserts. “We’re a pasta bar, but not an Italian-American restaurant like people might be used to,” says Ellis. “You can go for comfort dishes like tagliatelle bolognese or a creamy carbonara, but also try something totally new.” Ellis incorporates North Carolina influences and his own heritage into the dishes, like his soda bread with lamb rillette and a brisket pasta dish topped with collard chow-chow. “Pasta is the perfect vessel to apply a variety of flavors representing the seasons and reflect the best flavors of our state and the South,” says Taylor.

The menu is paired with an extensive cocktail, wine and aperitivo list handpicked by Jeff Bramwell, the restaurant’s wine director. After years as the beverage director for Matt Kelly’s Mateo and Mothers and Sons, Bramwell is leaning into his affinity for Italian wine at Figulina. “The restaurant really has a neighborhood feel — it’s elevated, but super comfortable,” he says. “With a list of around 30 wines, I honed in on the best of the best that still felt approachable.”

For aperitivi and digestivi, Bramwell curated a selection of more than 50 strong liqueurs that can cut through the richness of a pasta-heavy meal and offer guests a chance to slow down. “It has a romantic vibe to it,” he says. “Enjoy a vermouth and soda, relax before you get your dinner started, and then think about what you want to eat and drink.” Near the bar, the sprawling community table (repurposed from Humble Pie’s kitchen) invites guests to meet each other or offers a spot for a large group
to enjoy a meal together. Just beyond it, a giant window showcases the chefs making pasta from scratch at a long stainless-steel counter.

The name Figulina derives from the Latin word for “a potter’s workshop,” but also comes from the word figura, which means to shape or form. It’s partly a tribute to Ellis’ hometown of Stoke-on-Trent — a village famous for its ceramics that’s home to fine china makers like Spode, Wedgewood and Burleigh — but also to that pasta-making process. “Manipulating clay is not so dissimilar to manipulating dough,” says Taylor. “We think of pasta as so much more than just flour and water — every shape has a unique origin story.”

One of Ellis’ favorite pasta shapes, for example, is the Corzetti. “This shape dates back to the Middle Ages, in the Liguria region of Italy. It was created by texturing small, hand-cut coins of pasta with hand-carved, wooden stamps,” he says. “This pasta is believed to have been mostly served to nobility or the wealthy during special events and feasts. And the embossed design also helps sauces cling better to the surface of the pasta.”

Recently, the two carved out a corner of the restaurant for a shoppable provisions section, which includes a table, shelves and a few coolers offering curated take-home goods for entertaining. “As we were figuring out ways to best use this space, offering a market of sorts made sense,” says Taylor. Guests (whether they’re dining there or not) can purchase fresh pasta, tapered candles, delicate serving dishes and specialty items to fill out a charcuterie board, like cherries, chocolate or tinned fish — all things you’d find on their table at home.

“We love a good dinner party!” says Taylor. “If we’re hosting, we’re creating fun tablescapes and putting out our favorite wine, olive oil, snacks and spreads.” For Thanksgiving, they make food that melds Southern and British traditions, plus shortcuts they’ve learned from entertaining together. “Making a Turkey Roulade versus roasting a full bird is a guaranteed way to get a perfectly cooked and flavorful turkey component without the risk of it being too dry,” Ellis says. “And it slices up for the perfect Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich.”

Their menu includes European favorites like a Pithivier, a French pie with beautiful layers of puff pastry stuffed with duck confit, sweet potato puree and a filling of ground pork-sherry soaked golden raisins. And to complement the turkey, there’s bread sauce, a rich, traditional British gravy. “It’s made from stale bread, seasoned milk, onion and spices,” says Ellis. “It’s super creamy, comforting and often served as a side dish with roasted poultry, particularly turkey or goose. We love a recipe that combats food waste!”

In recent years, the two have celebrated Thanksgiving on the coast with Taylor’s family, but they’re always sure to gather with friends as well. “We always attend or host Friendsgivings and like to contribute some kind of British component,” says Taylor. “Even as someone from outside of the U.S., it’s easy to get behind this family and food-centric holiday,” says Ellis. “Getting together at the table with loved ones and good food is what it’s all about.”

This article originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of WALTER magazine.