Damian Mandola

Damian Mandola, St. Thomas class of 1971, opened his first restaurant as a college senior at Sam Houston State University in 1975 — borrowing $2,500 from his parents to launch Damian’s Fine Italian Food in Huntsville with friend Nash D’Amico. After two successful years, the partners moved to Houston and opened D’Amico’s Ristorante Italiano on Westheimer in 1977. When the partnership dissolved around 1980, Damian went to work in the kitchen at Nino’s — his brother Vincent’s restaurant — to hone his skills while reading every Italian cookbook he could find.

In 1984, he co-founded Damian’s Cucina Italiana with four fellow STHS alumni — his cousins Frankie B. Mandola ’65, Vincent Mandola ’61, Ciro Lampasas ’51, and Johnny Carrabba Sr. The restaurant introduced Houstonians to authentic Northern Italian cuisine and became a beloved Midtown fixture for over 40 years. In December 1986, Damian and nephew Johnny Carrabba ’77 co-founded Carrabba’s Italian Grill on Kirby Drive, which caught the attention of Outback Steakhouse and grew to 240+ locations nationwide.

Damian and Johnny co-hosted the PBS cooking series “Cucina Amore” and authored three companion “Ciao” cookbooks — Ciao Tuscany, Ciao Sicily, and Ciao Y’all. A third-generation Texan of Sicilian ancestry and a Sam Houston State Distinguished Alumnus, Damian later expanded to Austin with Mandola’s Italian Kitchen, Trattoria Lisina, and the Mandola Estate Winery in Driftwood with his wife Trina — whose mother was the legendary Ninfa Laurenzo, founder of Ninfa’s — and sons Damian Jr. and Dominic. The Mandola family has been in Houston’s food business since 1912.