It is a Sunday afternoon and the pot filled with ravioli is boiling on the stove. The aroma of homemade tomato sauce fills the air. The table is being set, as a traditional Italian dinner will soon be served. For those pasta lovers, there is nothing like the taste of fresh ravioli and homemade tomato sauce on a Sunday afternoon.

At a young age, the scenario was familiar to Paul Moncado and David Creo, who grew up in the vicinity of Mineola. Now, the two entrepreneurs have taken their love of pasta to a whole new level, creating a Disney World of pasta and ravioli at their business New York Ravioli and Pasta Company, located at 161 Second Street.

While Willie Wonka may have had a chocolate factory, Mineola has a pasta and the freshest and tastiest imaginable. Forty different kinds of ravioli, fresh rigatoni, fresh cavatelli, fresh mozzarella, spinach fettuccini, tomato linguini, homemade manicotti and stuffed shells - you name it, New York Ravioli makes it.

"We're a specialty company ... We're capable of making anything," said co-owner Moncada, who founded New York Ravioli with childhood friend Creo.

If not for a 'New York Ravioli' sign above a loading dock at 161 Second Street, the former home of Kozy Shack, the building is undistinguishable. However, inside is a factory with the equipment that turns out six different shapes of ravioli with 40 different fillings, ranging from the traditional cheese to striped lobster ravioli and crab meat to porcini mushroom.

While Moncada's and Creo's company may have Ravioli in its title, it produces 14 different cuts of pasta as well as tri-colored fettuccini (regular, tomato and spinach), fresh rigatoni, stuffed rigatoni and sun dried tomato tortellini, to name a few. New York Ravioli even makes fresh mozzarella and fresh manicotti, both the filling and skins, with a special machine designed for it.

All the products with the exception of dry pasta imported from Italy and Greek olives, are made from scratch, which is something Moncada has strived for - quality, homemade products that aren't readily available. In that way, New York Ravioli has created a niche, a sort of pasta bliss. "We're like the Baskin Robbins of Ravioli," Moncada said. "The product is excellent. If people like the product and they like us, it will all work out."

Moncada and Creo have been in business for eight years. They're idea for a ravioli company actually began while working at a restaurant. At night, they would wait tables. However, during the day, it was time to make ravioli. Moncada and Creo decided they would take a shot at their own business.

Their original location was in Williston Park. However, the business outgrew the location, Moncada said. For the past eight months, the home of New York Ravioli has been 161 Second Street, where New York Ravioli supplies restaurants, country clubs, and gourmet markets from Manhattan to Montauk and "mom and pop" pork stores. The company has also started to market to distributors in Ohio, Nebraska and Florida. The public is also welcome to purchase products Monday through Saturday (7 a.m. to 4 p.m.) straight from the factory. Moncada said he hopes to have a storefront in the fall so community members can stop in and purchase their Sunday afternoon meal. "I think a business like this is helpful to the community," he added.

The owners believe they've created a unique market, considering the variety of their products and their confident consumers won't be able to find better quality. "There's not a lot of people doing what we're doing," Moncada said.

However, the entrepreneurs continue an attempt to improve what they offer. "There's not a day that goes by that we don't think we have to come up with new concepts and new ideas," Moncada said.

One new idea Moncada and Creo have come up with is their own homemade sauce, called "Joan's Homestyle," in memory of Moncada's mother who was also like a mother to Creo. The sauce is currently available in six varieties including Vodka sauce and the labels bear a photo of Moncada's mom who passed away. "Since I was a little kid, my mother and grandmother taught me a lot. They use to make everything fresh in the basement," he said.

Now, Moncada and Creo have carried on the legacy, making everything fresh in their Mineola factory. "We make a quality item at a reasonable price and we're extremely customer oriented." Moncada said.

New York Ravioli seems to have found its home in Mineola. Moncada and Creo are from the area and have a strong desire to continue to build a business that provides fresh and original products for the public to enjoy. "This is the perfect location for what we want to do," Moncada said.

The only thing that may be standing in their way is the New York State Department of Transportation's Long Island Rail Road Project. Part of a plan to eliminate the grade crossing on Roslyn Road involves taking the 30,590 square feet of the property currently occupied by New York Ravioli and turning it into a parking facility.

"I don't think there's anything we can do about it. When the time comes, we'll deal with it," Moncada said.

The railroad project isn't expected to be completed for another three to five years. So while New York Ravioli may be living on borrowed time in their current location, they will continue to manufacture their products and build their customer base. For Moncada and Creo, every day is a new adventure in the tasty world of pasta.