Principles and Beliefs

is providing you with authentic recipes, highest quality products, and procedures that create a compelling and differentiating experience for all of Our People. It is our continuing to evolve in a way that enhances your ability to compete in your neighborhood, and asking you to make changes that will move your restaurant toward continued success.

A Superior Brand

is being involved in our neighborhood and maintaining an active and visible presence in it. It is continually identifying and acting on opportunities to give back to the community and making it a better place to live, have fun, and do business. It is supporting our Neighbors and neighborhood in tangible and intangible ways.

Active Presence and Support

is an attitude that ensures that every Customer is indulged and welcomed. It is inviting Customers to enjoy anything they want prepared any way they like it, ensuring our Customers feel they are a member of the family the first time they visit, and ensuring they are welcomed back like family when they return. It is all of our Carrabbamicos totally focusing on exceeding Customer expectations to create a personalized and totally enjoyable Carrabba's experience. It is the attitude reflected in the saying "the answer is yes, what's the question?"

Anything Goes

is staying connected to our heritage but not being ruled by it, being true to our roots and ourselves

Authenticity

is ensuring you have a working environment where you are included, treated as family, and made to feel special. It is including you in the fun of Carrabba's, recognizing your contributions, and celebrating your and our achievements in ways that you value.

Belonging

is ensuring you understand our Principles and Beliefs in detail and how you contribute to our success. It is ensuring you are crystal clear on what you need to do, your priorities, and why you are asked to do the things we ask of you.

Clear Direction

is reaching out to you in difficult circumstances, providing you with a fair hearing and ensuring you can talk to anyone in the company with complete assurance that you will be listened to, responded to, and dealt with fairly and with respect. It is ensuring we are kind with people even though we are tough on results.

Compassion

is the freedom to relax, familiar surroundings, caring people, and an intense desire to please. It is a warm and sincere greeting by name for all Customers. It is being fully engaged while serving our Customers, paying attention to the smallest and most technical details of service, anticipating Customer needs, being available when we are needed and being discreet when we might be in the way. It is always being professional, letting the Customer dictate the pace of service, and tailoring our service to their desires.

Concentrated Service

is living by our principles, adhering to our standards with absolute discipline, making the right decision in difficult situations, and sticking to our fundamentals.

Courage

is selecting the right people, identifying their unique talents, and working to find opportunities to capitalize on those talents. It is never missing an opportunity to coach, and never letting our standards be compromised. It is owning the performance of our Carrabbamicos and passionately working to develop their skills. It is getting to know them, treating them like family, and being there for them when they need help.

Developing People

is having a sense of humor, being able to laugh at ourselves, being the kind of person others want to be around, and celebrating together.

Fun

is thinking before acting, considering the feelings of others, and balancing the short and long-term needs of the business with the needs of Our People. It is growing sales and managing costs the Carrabba's way. It is also being the kind of person others want to work with and for, always striving to grow as an individual, and creating an environment where people can excel, feel safe, and feel like family.

Grow Your Business

is giving for the sake of giving, rather than for the sake of gaining, being genuinely warm and welcoming, caring, inclusive, kind, and sincerely seeing to the comfort and well-being of others.

Hospitality

is affecting your own destiny by identifying what you want to achieve and then behaving in ways that make your dreams and our mutual success possible. It is looking for solutions instead of focusing on the problem, acting in ways that make you the "go-to" person in the restaurant, and passionately being of service to others.

Make It Happen

is living the letter and spirit of the agreements, never taking advantage of one another, and keeping confidences confidential and proprietary information proprietary. It is paying them on time and their delivering to us on time. It is our Purveyors ensuring that their products and services meet our needs, adhere to our product and service specifications, and are of the highest quality. In turn, it is our ensuring that their products and services are used properly.

Performance

is ensuring you are well-trained and have the knowledge and skills to do your job to Carrabba's high standards. It is providing you with opportunities to add to your knowledge and skills and then giving you the chance to practice before we hold you accountable for performing.

Preparation

is giving our best in all situations and always working to improve. It is attention to detail and consistently meeting and then exceeding our standards

Quality

is taking ownership for your actions, performance, results and the success of Carrabba's. It is doing what is necessary to learn your job, performing it to our high standards every day, and asking questions when you have not received Clear Direction. It is learning and living the Principles and Beliefs in detail.

Self-responsibility

is attending to the details of carefully selecting and properly serving wines that will perfectly complement our food, preparing our mixed drinks with fresh ingredients, offering the beers you crave in cold mugs, and crafting perfect martinis. It is fanatic attention to the quality of the juices and garnishes we use, freshly preparing them everyday, and never compromising on beverage quality. It is staying current with what our Customers want and introducing them to new drinks and new wines they will love. It is having the knowledge to perfectly prepare drinks that enhance our Customers' experience and the caring enough to serve those drinks responsibly.

Serious Beverage

is offering the best of who we are every time—close is never good enough. We are passionate about food. It is this passion that drives us to meticulously prepare and present our food the way our ancestors did—from scratch, using the finest ingredients from around the world, and to exacting standards. It is turning these ingredients into dishes with bold flavors, obsessing about food safety, and promising to never compromise on quality to ensure our food is worthy of the Carrabba's name.

Serious Food

is inviting people to participate in the fruits of our success and includes sharing dollars, responsibility, authority, and accountability. It is recognizing that "we" made it happen rather than "I" made it happen.

Sharing

is adhering to our systems and standards, following our procedures and doing what is needed to keep our commitments. It is owning your restaurant in every sense of the word and protecting your and our investment in it. It is enthusiastically accepting the responsibility for developing your business, your people, and yourself. It is acting on the feedback you receive, achieving the goals for each of Our People, and building a successful restaurant. It is also asking for the help you need in a clear and timely manner.

Step up to the Plate

is keeping one another informed of innovations, trends, and changes in the marketplace. It is negotiating fair agreements, working toward a long-term relationship, helping each other in times of need, being respectful, and celebrating our successes together. It is also providing each other with feedback on how well the other is meeting our needs, seeking input on how we can better support each other, and providing a receptive ear when concerns are raised.

Support

is providing you with the best systems, tools, procedures, and standards in the business. This will allow you to focus on operating your restaurant the way we ran the first restaurant on Kirby. It is keeping the same commitments to you that you make to your Carrabbamicos and making sure that you have what you need to indulge our Customers. It is ensuring you know how to achieve the goals for each of Our People and holding you accountable for achieving them. In return, we ask that you keep two commitments to Carrabba's:

Support for You and Your Restaurant

is understanding you are part of a team and being a team player. It is looking for opportunities to help, offering your help when needed, and asking for help before it is too late. It is offering your input and ideas and enthusiastically supporting a decision once it has been made. It is also respectfully challenging others when they do not live up to our Principles and Beliefs.

Teamwork

is coaching you with clear, timely, and honest feedback on your behavior and results in a way that emphasizes teaching over discipline. It is challenging you to reach your potential and respectfully holding you accountable for achieving that potential by providing the ongoing coaching you need.

Unwavering Support

is enthusiastically keeping the commitments we make to all of Our People and relentlessly trying to completely indulge our Customers without compromising our business. It is creating an environment where our Carrabbamicos can say "yes," looking for ways to exceed Customer expectations, and getting to know the people who visit your restaurant. It is tirelessly making sure that the little details that take us from good to great are executed every day.

Working the Business