Carrabba’s — The Original on Kirby
Italian · Upper KirbyAbout Carrabba’s — The Original on Kirby
For nearly 40 years, Carrabba’s has been Houston’s true neighborhood Italian restaurant. Family owned and operated, The Original Carrabba’s on Kirby Drive opened on December 26, 1986, when Johnny C. Carrabba III ’77 and his uncle Damian Mandola ’71 launched with $500 in the cash register — a loan from Mr. C, Johnny’s dad — 94 seats, seven barstools, and a menu whose most expensive item was a $9.95 T-bone steak. The recipes came straight from the family kitchen: Rosie Carrabba (Johnny’s mother) and her mother Grace Mandola passed down the Sicilian dishes that still define the menu today.
After the initial success of what Johnny has called “lightning in a bottle,” a second location opened on Voss Road in 1988 — later renamed in honor of Rosie. A joint venture with Outback Steakhouse in 1993 expanded the Carrabba’s name to over 250 franchise locations nationwide, but the family retained ownership of both original Houston restaurants. In 2021, they bought out their remaining interest in the national chain to focus entirely on their Houston family of restaurants — the two original Carrabba’s, Grace’s on Kirby (named for grandmother Grace Mandola), and the Mia’s Table locations (named for Johnny’s daughter).
The kitchen still makes fresh pasta daily, hand-stuffs their signature Cappelletti, pulls fresh mozzarella in-house, and fillets fish daily. Mr. C — Johnny Carrabba Jr. — still mixes his own secret spices and makes Italian sausage for the restaurants. The Carrabba-Mandola family legacy stretches back to their Sicilian ancestors’ migration to Bryan, Texas in the 1890s, and the famous “Chicken Bryan” dish is named for that very town.
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