I had no idea Carraba's was so big. TFMJ and I have seen Carraba's signs all over Florida. Once, a few years ago, we attempted to go to one but ended up at something like Bennigan's. I believe that happened because everything else was closed. It made me think Carraba's was Bennigan's. But it's not.
While sitting at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, we noticed a Carraba's sign and discussed eating there. Overhearing, a woman in front of us turned around to let us know how much she likes the restaurant. We were intrigued, but went to the Crab Houseinstead, hoping to rekindle an old memory of mine about a Jupiter fish house. That didn't happen. What did happen is we had a waiter who'd been in a fight with a pit bull (literally) and I got mushrooms stuffed with crab. They might have been good. I'll never know because there was a blanket of tasteless white cheese over the top. Why? What a waste. And who buys/eats cheese like that? It's disgusting. I'm off track. TFMJ and I shared fish+chips (good if you like your fish in frozen stick form) and talked about Carraba's.
The next night TFMJ's cousin, with no prompting from us, picked-up take out. If you can't guess from where, we will likely never be friends. My pizza was pretty great, even a few hours later unheated. Chicken Parm and pasta also good, but it was in incredible lentil soup (a side) that captured our hearts. Very brothy (for lentil) with sausage crumbled in. DEElicious. I ate half of TFMJ's and half of his cousin's. Thank you guys for sharing.
Carraba's, we will return. You are everywhere. 32 locations in Florida, including the Tampa Airport. 7 locations in Arizona. They're even in New York's triple-A towns: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse. Wow.
Who else likes this chain? Anyone dislike? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
I love Carrabba's, they have a few locations up here in New England. The one in Peabody, MA on Route One is local to us, that's the one we usually go to. There's this other one in Bedford, NH, which is almost spitting distance (actually a couple of freeway exits) from MerchantsAuto.com Stadium in Manchester (home of the Fisher Cats, AA affiliate of Blue Jays).
The guys that founded the chain (Johnny Carrabba & Damian Mandolo) used to have a PBS cooking show called "Ciao Y'All". They have three cookbooks out as well, called "Ciao Y'All", "Ciao Tuscany" and "Ciao Sicily". Excellent books and recipes, check 'em out!
Posted by: Christine | March 23, 2009 at 08:48 PM
mmmmmm... lentil soup.
my veal was a little undercooked, though.
Posted by: TFMJ | March 23, 2009 at 02:31 PM