MALIBU, CA — Want some fettuccine with your margarita? Maybe some penne with your piña colada? It might not sound appetizing, but after Malibu’s plastic straw, stirrer and cutlery ban went into effect last year, one local restaurant decided to get creative.

Bob Morris, owner of Paradise Beach Cove Cafe, saw a thick noodle in Italy thirty years ago that, to him, looked like a straw, he told NBC Los Angeles. So he decided to take his idea and implement it into his restaurant, which is how he got the Amazing Pasta Straw.

With the help of a supplier in Italy, Morris uses pasta straws in his Malibu restaurant, and also sells them online.

Making a pasta straw to replace plastic tested all of Morris’ culinary chops.

“Turns out it wasn’t a very easy pasta to make, because they have to dry it slower than normally so it doesn’t crack,” he told NBC Los “I’ve learned a lot about pasta that I never wanted to know.”

He expects sales to increase as more cities implement plastic bans, the news station reported. In fact, a new law banning all restaurants from automatically giving customers plastic straws went into effect Tuesday in the city of Los Angeles. The start of the law, intended to coincide with Earth Day, affects restaurants with 26 employees or more and will impact all restaurants by Oct.1.

The motion that led to the straws-on-request ordinance cited a Los Angeles Times editorial which stated that Americans use — and almost immediately throw away — up to a half-billion plastic drink straws each day.

For now, restaurants have plenty of alternatives to choose from, like pasta straws, paper straws, corn straws and even straws made from avocado pits.

For more information on the Amazing Pasta Straw, visit the website.

City News Service contributed to this post