Carrabba’s Italian Grill

BY KADIE TAYLOR | LIVING 50 PLUS

Joshua Melton started his restaurant career as a busser in Florida. Through hard work and dedication, he eventually became the owner of his own Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Huntsville.

“I started in 2004, got a job interview at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Pensacola, Florida, and I needed a job, I was about to have my first child, and so I needed to provide for him, and I got hired on as a busser,” he said. “I started busting tables, washing dishes, rolling silverware, I even offered to wash vehicles at that time. I came on as $2.13, an hour plus tips as a busser, and then worked my way into the kitchen and started making pizzas, salads, appetizers and then I started to work on the grill for about three years, worked in prep and always kept a positive attitude, smiled and just kept grinding out years until I had an opportunity to become a manager.”

Melton said he worked his way through roles at Carrabba’s and began working with different locations, traveling to different stores around Alabama, helping where needed.

“The opportunity came up right after COVID,” he said. “My boss asked me if I could go to Huntsville and help since they lost the partner. I looked at my wife, and she’s like, ‘Yes, Huntsville, definitely yes.’ We stayed in a hotel room for two and a half months, uncertain that even if I even had the job. I had to fight for it, and against all odds, I became a partner in Sept. 2021. Then we moved up here.”

Melton said he is working to give everyone in Huntsville a taste of Carrabba’s quality, fresh food and delicious recipes.

“It’s Italian American [food], and it’s amazing,” he said. “I’ve had the same prepper there for 21 years. He’s been doing an excellent job. He makes the chicken soup, pomodoro sauce, sausage and lentil minestrone. All these flavors and ingredients are made from scratch. You can go back there and pretty much cook anything you want. So that’s what makes it special, imagine you’re cooking at the house, and you put all the spices together, that’s what we do at the restaurant every day.

“We also have our signature dessert, our double brownie Sogno Di Cioccolata,” Melton added. “It’s two layers of chocolate brownie, two layers of vanilla moose and two layers of chocolate mousse with a pool of chocolate. It’s very delicious, and it goes really well with a scoop of ice cream. Then, of course, we have our Fettuccine Carrabba, which is Alfredo, peas and mushrooms and chicken. I was always told for the last 20 years, it kind of was created by accident. They ran out of all the food in the restaurant, and they had chicken alfredo, fettuccine, peas and mushrooms, and just kind of threw it together and started making sure everybody had food towards the end of the night. So, they came out with the Fettuccine Carrabba, and that’s one of the main dishes that people get every time they come into the restaurant.”

Along with quality dishes, Melton said Carrabba’s also offers catering and an event room for special moments and company meetings.

“We’ve opened our event room to weddings, parties, after the wedding events, corporate or just local community people that want to come in there. It fits about 65 people comfortably,” he said. “With our catering service, we are able to reach out to areas like Decatur, [we can cater to] pretty much anywhere within an hour and a half radius from Huntsville.”

Melton said as an employer who has worked his way up from a busser, he understands his employees and what customers expect in quality food and service.

“My passion really comes from starting off as a busser. I got to see the restaurant from one viewpoint, and then I worked in the kitchen. I got to see it in another viewpoint when I was trying to be a manager,” he said.

For more information, visit www.carrabbas.com.