JOHNNY CARRABBA: Restaurateur lavishes gratitude on family, staff in big-as-his-life cookbook
WHEN people look at Johnny Carrabba, they no doubt see an engaging, successful restaurateur whose family name adorns nearly 250 Carrabba’s Italian Grill marquees throughout the country.
When Carrabba looks at himself, he sees something much different. “I still see myself as an Italian immigrant,” the co-founder of Carrabba’s said. “When you look at my family, it’s hardworking people who run a business. It’s what we do. It’s in my chemical makeup.”
Carrabba isn’t an actual immigrant, but
his blood courses with the Italian immigrant experience on both his mother’s side (the Mandolas) and his paternal Carrabba clan — both iconic branches in the city’s rich restaurant family tree. Still, no matter his successes, Carrabba remains in his heart a boy from the East End of Houston; a Sicilian kid whose grandfather ran a grocery store at Canal and 74th where Grandma was the cashier and Dad was the butcher.
It’s against this humble background that he sets “With Gratitude, Johnny Carrabba” (published by Carrabba’s Family of Restaurants, $50, available at carrabbascookbook.com or amazon.com). Carrabba’s first cookbook is set for release Tuesday. The cookbook — part Carrabba’s family history, part love letter to his staff, associates and customers — contains about 100 recipes from the original Carrabba’s as well as his newest restaurants, Grace’s and Mia’s.
It’s an oversize-format cookbook, befitting the larger-than-life story of the Carrabba family. Carrabba ladles out deep admiration for his family, business partners and employees throughout the book. Without them, he said, he wouldn’t be where he is today. He deliberately chose not to put himself on the book’s cover. “(The book is) for everyone that made the 30-year journey with us,” he said.
Carrabba would contend that that journey actually started with his great-grandparents. The Mandolas came through Galveston from Sicily. The Carrabba side of the family hailed from a little Sicilian town called Corleone. Sacrifices were made, work was hard, everyone wanted something better for the next generation.
The story of Carrabba’s restaurant, however, is a more modern tale. Thirty years ago, his uncle Damian Mandola, who operated the successful Damian’s in Midtown, persuaded him to partner in a new concept — a casual Italian restaurant with an open kitchen, wood-burning stove and big bowls of pasta. There was a hitch, though: No bank would finance the project. After 10 banks turned them down for a loan, they finally secured financing after Carrabba’s father, John Charles Carrabba Jr., put up $100,000 in collateral. Carrabba’s opened in a 3,000-square-foot building on Kirby that formerly was an adult bookstore. Two years later, Carrabba and Mandola opened a second location at Woodway and Voss.
“It was a new wave,” Carrabba said of the two original restaurants. “Damian put the thing together. He was ahead of his time. Nobody had an open kitchen 30 years ago. You never saw a pizza coming out of a woodfired oven. The place was fun. The servers had a lot of personality. It was the place to go. It was like a party every night.”
The party kept gaining steam. In 1993, the partners were approached by Outback Steakhouse, which saw the possibility of growing the company in a major way. Carrabba and Mandola entered a joint venture with Outback to launch a chain of Carrabba’s, and a franchise was born. Though Carrabba still maintains an interest in the chain, his focus today is on the two original and family-owned restaurants. (His partner Mandola, who lives in Italy, is no longer part of the day-to-day operations at Carrabba’s.)
Though Carrabba’s has lavished love on his newbie restaurants — Mia’s (opened in 2012) and Grace’s (2014) — his heart belongs to Carrabba’s. Sure, he’s intent on growing the Mia’s brand, as well as Common Bond, the upscale French-style bakery he bought in January. But Carrabba’s on Kirby is where he finds joy, especially in his staff.
“Not to sound corny, but I look at all the people who work for me as my family, and the father of the family provides. When I wake up each morning, I still have to provide for the people — my employees who really made Carrabba’s,” he said. “That’s what I love doing.”
The cookbook, he says, is simply a reflection of that love, which he fully intends to keep doling out.
“I think our best years are head of us,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do. It’s not about getting bigger, it’s about getting better.”