Carrabba’s — The Original on Voss
Italian · GalleriaAbout Carrabba’s — The Original on Voss
The second original Carrabba’s location, opened on Voss Road and Woodway Drive in 1988 by Johnny C. Carrabba III ’77 and his uncle Damian Mandola ’71. The Voss restaurant was later renamed in honor of Rosie Carrabba — Johnny’s mother and the family matriarch whose recipes, alongside those of her mother Grace Mandola, form the backbone of every dish on the menu. Rosie still greets guests at the Voss location nearly every day, seven days a week.
Like its sister location on Kirby, the Voss kitchen makes fresh pasta daily, hand-stuffs their signature Cappelletti, and pulls fresh mozzarella in-house. Independently owned by the Carrabba family — distinct from the national franchise chain — the restaurant carries on a Sicilian-Texan culinary legacy that stretches back to the Mandola family’s migration from Sicily to Bryan, Texas in the 1890s. Mr. C — Johnny Carrabba Jr., Rosie’s husband — still mixes his own secret spices and makes Italian sausage for both original locations.
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