Carrabba's Italian Grill in Waldorf, MD

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We're not real chefs. We're real eaters.

We don't mean diners, gourmands or bon vivants. Founders Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba are two Sicilian boys from Texas who love to cook and eat. They love the Sicilian food their parents and grandparents cooked. They love the Creole and Southern food their family members picked up passing through Louisiana and stepping off the boat right on the dock in Galveston. And they love the Western food that's just part of being in Texas.

Food, you see, isn't only about food. It's also about what happens when famillies {get, come} together. You may be poor, went the saying a mere generation ago, but you'll never be hungry.

Food is a part of us because that's how we were raised; food was {there, present} at births, {christenings, weddings, graduations} and funerals. Food is what reminded us we were family. To this day, whenever one family member gets together with another and starts talking about something or someplace, the conversation inevitably turns to "Whadya eat?"

Their Gulf Coast experience is about the place where all of their ancestors came to build their lives. They called it America! And they didn't just mean Ellis Island, or {Little Italy in New York, the North End of Boston} or South Philly. They meant the whole place, wherever it began and ended. And it meant an idea too, a promise that if you sacrificed just about everything and pretty near worked yourself to death, you could have something a little better. Which was what you already did in the Old Country--except without the promise.

So they came, ship after ship. Full of us. And other ships from other countries as well. Other ships with different types of people and languages. In America, we would all come to know each other. We would talk, wrestle, and occassionally cook together. We maintained our idea, sure enough, but we also became something different, too. Something entirely new.

These are the recipes of our families. Recipes that grown through the generations. This is the way we remember things tasting. And this is what it all comes down to--with generous sprinklings of life, love and oregano--for two Sicilian boys from Texas who love to cook and eat.

Come see us in Waldorf, MD, and we'll cook you up something you'll love to eat!