The Black Italian Griglia Cucina (Grill Kitchen) was created and founded by a Soul Husband and Italian Wife team!
Our mission is to serve you delicious authentic Italian cuisine with a touch of soul prepared with quality, fresh and local ingredients as each meal is cooked for you as if you were like our very own family. We make our food with a mission to fill your hunger with unique and delicious foods cooked with love. We are a faith based business and we bless each meal before it comes to you and we are encouraging families, friends, co-workers or any group to enjoy meals together, becoming one in breaking bread together and fulfilling your hunger physically and spiritually.
We provide individual portions of our cuisine, as well as Family Meal Packages at our brick and mortar location at 2009 Highland Avenue, Louisville KY 40204. As everything is prepared for carry out, you may enjoy your meal at our Shoppe, outdoor seating or to take on the go! All of our sauces and recipes are homemade! Our meats are grilled and we never fry anything! We offer vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dishes as well!
We are Kentucky Proud using local farmers and vendors for our ingredients. We are also BBB accredited with an A+ rating since 2013.
As we originated, The Black Italian still offers family style catering to-go and pick-up by appointment with a unique concept. What is The Black Italian’s family style catering method? This means you are readily available for delivery and set up so that all can present and serve themselves. This is an old authentic Italian traditional way of eating. Everyone gets to pick a little of what they like or a lot of what they love!
The Black Italian wants to cook for your event leaving all the work in our hands and making your job as simple as possible so you and all of your guests can enjoy the event with quality authentic cuisine and style! Our special catering style will save you time and money, yet offer a unique meal with superior excellence.
The Black Italian’s concept is to bring families, friends and all groups together for dinner “family style” by serving Italian Soul Cuisine so everyone can relax and enjoy their food, the event and each other in a special Italian Soul Family Style kind of way!
Tutti Mangia Bravo!
(Everyone eat well!)
HOW WE GOT STARTED:
Anthony and Paula met at their work place in 2002. After getting married, they learned in 2008 that they would be unemployed due to the recession and massive lay offs. Many people told Paula to sell her food because they would buy it, as she planned and hosted many pot lucks and dinner gatherings.
As Paula looked into starting Pasta by P-Bella, one night she was making her homemade marinara sauce and was looking for a quick and easy meat to put into the sauce. She used some of her husband, Anthony’s homemade
flame-grilled hamburgers. After mixing the two flavors, the couple loved the flavor that cam
e of it! Paula asked Anthony if he could grill her homemade meatballs; he said he could try!
After mastering the grilling of the meatballs, they decided to add some other grilled meats to her sauces and dishes and create a whole new unique flavor to the table! Paula and Anthony started giving samples of these specialties to their family and friends and everyone was amazed at the flavor!
Deciding that Paula would run the business while Anthony was part owner and Grillmaster, but working full time for stable income, they took various business classes through SBA, Louisville Metro, SBDC and CVC to get their new passion off the ground! The original name was going to be “The Italia
n Soul Cucina” (The Italian Soul Kitchen). Then, while working on the venture, Paula became pregnant. When the couple found out they were having a little girl, Anthony said, “She is going to be a little black Italian – the two ethnicities brought together!” And then, the idea came to him and he said, “Let’s name our business that! Our food is the two ethnicities brought together!” So they named their business officially, The Black Italian, after their daughter.
The rest is history, after 11 year of hard work, trial and error, and unique menu creations, the support of the community has been overwhelmingly appreciated by this Italian Soul husband and wife team! And they continue to innovate and move forward growing this business which is a legacy formed from a planted seed.
