Culaccino: A Franklin Staple

The menu is inspired but not pretentious. Italian ingredients such as saba, tallegio cheese, fregola, speck, and hand made pasta make this restaurant authentic yet approachable. Servings are ample. The entire menu sounded great and we had quite the time ordering.

We settled on the caprese salad simply called, Burrata, which was burrata cheese, heirloom tomatoes, strawberries, speck, pistachio, sorrel, and saba (think balsamic syrup). The combination of strawberries and tomatoes was surprisingly good. This was followed by the meatballs, which my campanion thinks is always the best way to judge an Italian restaurant, that were tender and smothered in tomato sauce with thick slabs of Parmigiano. Served in a cast iron skillet, YES.  Next up was the house made Malfade (flat wide pasta with curly edges) with shrimp, pesto, green beans and Parmigiano. A home run. We argued over what pizza to order and I was cajoled into the Chichirrichi which had chicken sausage, pear, pine nut, and gorgonzola (not my favorite cheese). But it was exceptional, perfectly wood fired with a mellow blue cheese flavor that paired perfectly with the pear. Finally, I'm definitely ordering anything that has fava beans (seldom found in the south) so the Rainbow Trout (sourced from local Bucksnort Trout Farms) with fava beans, fennel, fregola (Italian wheat berries) in a lemon saffron broth was a definite go. 

We ordered the Tiramisu as it had been forever since we've had it, and it was good. But the dessert we all fought over was the Butterscotch Budino, rich with salted caramel, cookie crumble, hazelnut, and sea salt. 

 With more than two decades of experience, chef and owner Frank Pullara moved from Naples, Florida, to middle Tennessee in 2020 to open Culaccino using family recipes he grew up with. Thank you chef for sharing these dishes. Culaccino is  the Italian word for the “lasting impression” that which a cold glass leaves on a wooden table. It made a lasting impression on us and we'll be back soon.