Chattanooga Has Fun 2.5

2040 Hamilton Place Boulevard, Suite 100
Chattanooga, TN 37421
Phone: (423) 894-9970
Fax: (423) 894-9971
E-Mail: ca9304@carrabbas.com
Website: www.carrabbas.com

We’ve all seen the movies about big Italian families gathered around the kitchen, tasting Mama’s Bolognese sauce and waiting for the noodles to boil.  Think Moonstruck.  That’s exactly what Johnny Carrabba and Damien Mandola were shooting for when they opened their first Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

If you’ve ever looked around the inside of the Carrabba’s Italian Grill beside Hamilton Place, you’re sure to have noticed the pictures hanging on the walls.  “Obviously history and culture are a large part of the restaurant,” Miguel Morales, owner of the local franchise says.  “We take great pride in the Carrabba family and the Mandola family being true Italians.  All the pictures you see on the wall are either family of the Mandola family or family of the Carrabba family.”

True history is pictured in many of these photos.  “There’s a picture of Johnny’s dad, who is the only gentleman that still knows the recipe of our homemade Italian fennel sausage,” reveals Morales.  “He has willed that recipe to Johnny when he passes away, and until then, he’ll be the only person that has all the ingredients for that sausage.  So basically, he puts those ingredients together, still today, and turns them in and they basically dump that into the recipe and have no idea what seasonings are in the packet because that’s his personal recipe.”

Many of the photos you see on the wall are from old grocery stores and meat markets—the family businesses of the Carrabbas and the Mandolas. Johnny Carrabba and Damien Mandola are family—Damien is Johnny’s uncle.  “Instead of continuing with that business,” explains Morales, “they started to open restaurants at a young age, and when Johnny Carrabba graduated from college, Damien Mandola had a great new idea for a family-oriented Italian restaurant with the kitchen upfront, an expo kitchen so everyone could enjoy everything going on there.”

The original Carrabba’s opened its doors on Kirby Avenue in Houston, Texas in the mid-80s with Johnny Carrabba at the helm.  Mandola continued to manage his two “white tablecloth” Italian restaurants in Houston.  Within two years, Mandola realized that Carrabba was having all the fun and decided to close his two restaurants and open a second location of Carrabba’s.  The partners were approached repeatedly about selling the restaurant.  Since approximately eight percent of the recipes being used were their family recipes, Mandola and Carrabba didn’t see this as an option until Outback Steakhouse made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.  Outback offered the men a partnership, still allowing them full control over the restaurants and full control of the recipes.

Unlike many of their competitors, Carrabba’s Italian Grill continues to grow and flourish, having had their biggest success in only the last five or six years. Why is that?  In large part, it’s due to their refusal to accept anything less than the best and most fresh ingredients for their food.

“With economic changes,” says Morales, “we’ve put a lot of thought into [the menu]. There are a lot of different places out there cutting the cost of their menu and things of that nature.  I don’t think that’s a possibility for us, because the product we had on our old menus was given at a great price for buying fresh product rather than frozen product.  It costs a little more money to do that.”

Morales explained that they came up with some menu items that took a diner from the soup or salad course, to the entrée, and on to dessert for one low price.  Diners are still getting delicious meals made with fresh ingredients, including the house specialties such as crispy calamari, Chicken Marsala (cooked over an open flame using oak and pecan woods and marsala wine from the Lombardi family vineyards in Italy), unique pasta dishes and handmade pizzas baked fresh in their wood-burning oven, and—don’t forget—their “Sogno di Cioccolata”, a rich fudge brownie brushed with Kahlua, then topped with chocolate mousse, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

There are always the options of curbside pickup, large party carry-out, or private dining—where a Carrabba’s chef comes to you to prepare a feast.  Whichever you decide, you can’t lose with the best fresh ingredients and the engaging hospitality of Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

Carrabba’s Italian Grill, 2040 Hamilton Place Blvd.  (423) 894-9970. www.carrabbas.com