Italian newcomer Grappolo Cucina raises the bar for food and hospitality in Winter Park

Grappolo Cucina
526 S. Park Ave., Winter Park
“Family has a way of bringing the you in you to the surface at Grappolo. When you walk through its doors, you’ll be met with open arms, a bit of good-natured braggadocio and a lot of love. It is family that anchors the recently opened Italian eatery on Park Avenue, and it is family that brought proprietor Massimo Fallica to Orlando. This meant leaving London and his popular restaurant, La Meridiana, behind — a restaurant he continues to help manage and sets the standard for the hospitality and food that feature at Grappolo.” Read the full review. Credit: photo by Matt Keller Lehman

As a semi-principled critic, I protect my anonymity. No photo in the byline, no notes at the table, bookings made under the alias Chewbacchus Jones. At Winter Park’s Grappolo, I managed to eat, drink and form opinions anonymously until the end of meal three, when I was unmasked by a companion whose lips were loosened by Amarone. I can’t blame him. Wine will put you at ease — so will Grappolo.

Aliases, deceits, alternative facts — we increasingly wrap ourselves in fiction. In the States, we also slather Italian food in it. Mozzarella from Wisconsin, “San Marzano-style” tomatoes, pedigrees cooked up by culinarily illiterate branding bozos. Our lives become thinner in this discounting of the genuine. Fellini knew. Truth is found in family and the food we share. He insisted on authentic, freshly prepared meals in his films, believing how we eat reveals who we are.

Family has a way of bringing the you in you to the surface at Grappolo. When you walk through its doors, you’ll be met with open arms, a bit of good-natured braggadocio and a lot of love. It is family that anchors the recently opened Italian eatery on Park Avenue, and it is family that brought proprietor Massimo Fallica to Orlando. This meant leaving London and his popular restaurant, La Meridiana, behind — a restaurant he continues to help manage and sets the standard for the hospitality and food that feature at Grappolo.

Good Italian food isn’t a product of ROI and P&L, but PDO and TLC. Food that’s properly sourced and fatto con amore — made with love. Grappolo serves very good Italian food — food that will have you chef-kissing like a cartoon capocuoco. It is well-prepared, true to its roots, informed by the classic but unafraid of the inventive — evidenced by starters like a gorgeous tuna tartare with avocado ($19) and a deeply flavored beet carpaccio with hazelnut and goat cheese ($16).

You’ll taste the love in the rich brininess of Grappolo’s spaghetti ai frutti di mare ($29), which all but sings “Santa Lucia,” its scratch pasta fresca a wonderful sauce sponge, topped by mussels, clams and plump head-on shrimp that also find their way into an equally enjoyable paccheri ai gamberoni ($27). There was branzino with olives, capers and tomatoes ($39) and branzino atop beetroot risotto, both clean, crisp-skinned and delicious.

Credit: photo by Matt Keller Lehman

Fork-tender octopus over smoky romesco ($19) is among the better takes in town, and herb-crusted rack of lamb ($46) was similarly succulent — a welcome whisper of gaminess to remind me I wasn’t eating (flavorful) filet mignon. Tagliata di Manzo ($41), sliced ribeye served with arugula and Parmigiano Reggiano, ate like it reads — wonderfully — and paccheri with filet ragù ($29) was a bowl full of soulful. And, and, and … I’ve eaten and eaten and eaten and you’ll be tempted too. But save room. Both house-made tiramisu ($10) and pistachio cake ($12) make for memorably sweet finales, best enjoyed with an espresso and a surrender to Grappolo’s easy vibe.

At my last meal, over dessert, my mind drifted to a contrada dinner I enjoyed at Il Palio many moons ago. At the communal table in the streets of Siena, strangers quickly became friends between bites. It was a memory triggered by a nearby table, where the extended Fallica family indulged in the simple joy of sharing food together. Very real, very true. In the words of another Massimo — Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana — “Family is everything. It’s what makes a meal more than just food on a plate.” I’m certain our Massimo, Orlando’s Massimo Fallica, couldn’t agree more. At Grappolo, the food is in-your-face tasty, but family is the secret sauce.

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This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2025.