30     |    VIPPensacola.com

story by

 

Liesel Schmidt 

  |  photos by

 

Dawn Richardson 

&

 Franco’s Italian Restaurant

   Mambo

Italiano

T

hough lots of restaurants claim to 
be “Italian,” it takes a mere cursory 
glance over the menu to realize 
that what they’re serving is about 

as authentically Italian as a microwavable 
lasagna. And while they may play up the 
theme with the clichéd décor of candles in 
Chianti bottles topping the tables of a dimly 
lit dining room while a canned loop of dulcet 
music sung in the native tongue is piped over 
the sound system, the watered-down dishes 
they offer often bear only a poor resemblance 
to the cuisine of the country they claim to 
represent. 

Taking any question of their authenticity 

out of the game, Franco’s Italian Restaurant 
has been serving truly Italian food for nearly 
a quarter of a century, their fl avors slow 
simmered in tradition to achieve fare worthy 
of a place of honor on the table, a true taste 
of la famiglia in every bite that offers a warm 
welcome and an invitation to sit and enjoy la 
dolce vita. 

Originally opened in 1993, the fare at 

Franco’s brought a new accent to the shores 
of Orange Beach, Alabama, readily standing 
out from the regional cuisine that locals had 
become so accustomed to sampling. When 
Clorinda Bassolino-Meadlock purchased 
the restaurant from its original owners in the 

summer of 2015, she wasn’t simply taking 
up the reigns of someone else’s idea. She 
was taking a leap of faith based on heart, 
heritage, and a desire to share the food that 
had always fed her soul, her true formula for 
success found in the recipes that have fl owed 
through the bloodlines of her family from one 
generation to the next. 

Such robustness is the backbone of Italian 

cooking, a balanced meeting of rusticity and 
refi nement that demands no snobbery but 
rather embraces feasting as an art and a way 
to connect. The table is a gathering place, the 
seated summit of hearts and minds that all 
seem to fi nd equanimity in a plate of food. 
There’s passion poured into every dish; and 
at Franco’s, that passion is truly what drives 
the menu, from the scratch-made sauces 
and freshly rolled pasta to the 
last lingering bite of handcrafted 
tiramisu. 

These are the familiar tastes and 

smells of Bassolino-Meadlock’s 
childhood, recipes she learned 
from her father, a native of Napoli 
whose parents’ desire for the 
American dream brought his 
family to the harbor at Ellis Island 
when he was a 13 year-old boy 
and from her “Nonna,” whose 

homemade pastas were ever draped across 
broomsticks in her garage as they rested 
and dried. For Bassolino-Meadlock, this 
is the very fabric of her family; and when 
guests dine at Franco’s, they’re experiencing 
tradition. “The concept here is ‘La Famiglia,’ 
and that’s absolutely what we are—a family-
owned, truly authentic Italian restaurant,” 
says Bassolino-Meadlock, her thick New York 
accent coating every word. “For me, this is 
something that’s in my blood—my Nonna 
was a wonderful cook; and when my father 
Rocco came to America, he stood on Pepsi 
crates to learn how to make pizzas. After 
he grew up and married my mother, they 
owned their own restaurants in New York, 
and that’s really where I was raised—in the 
family restaurants, learning those recipes,” 

XX-XX CoastalCuisine.indd   1

4/23/17   1:57 PM