Dino’s Grill is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. So hold up a Dino’s homemade ravioli and toast the iconic Midtown restaurant.
Not many Memphis restaurants can say they’ve been around for half a century.
“I think a lot has to do with the atmosphere,” says owner Mario Grisanti, 43. “Not too many places have that kind of decor or the old-school feel of what around here would be considered a diner. I think that’s a major reason that sets us apart.”
The restaurant was named after the late Dino Grisanti, father of Mario’s dad, Rudy Grisanti. Rudy retired, but he still helps out at the restaurant. “For some people it’s like stepping back in time, to tell you the honest truth,” says Rudy, 72. “We haven’t really changed a lot of anything in the last 50 years.
“It’s like going home. It’s like comfort food. And people feel comfortable, like family.”
The anniversary dates to when Dino’s Grill opened as Dino’s Southwestern Grill on January 2, 1973. “My direct family — father, grandfather, great-grandfather — have been making food for people and living off of that for 80-plus years,” Mario says. “It’s a very humbling experience to know that people come in to eat what we make.”
Mario, who took over ownership from his dad four years ago, made some changes. “Pretty much just make it look fresh. Make it look new again and not old and worn out. Like painting and getting new floors, making sure everything was clean.”
He also added pizzas. “It’s one of the things I thought we should have been doing a long time ago, but I never got to it.
“I ordered seven different crusts and 10 or 12 different pepperonis, five or six sausages. And I just kind of had to play around with the cheese and the dough and the toppings to get a flavor that I wanted. That took a little while to do, but it all came together.”
They offer cheese, meat, supreme, veggie, and chicken pesto pizzas. “The pizza sauce we use isn’t really a pizza sauce. It’s our marinara sauce. That sets it apart from a lot of other people’s pizza.”
Mario also introduced their Italian Chicken Philly sandwich. “We already had all the ingredients to make it.”
Asked what people might not know about Dino’s, Mario says, “I don’t know how many people coming in realize we sell frozen raviolis. They’re all handmade from scratch. I don’t put it in a machine or a former. Each one looks different ’cause they’re all handmade. I don’t know of any other places that make them like we do.
“My great-grandfather [the late Frank Benedetti, Dino’s stepfather] started doing frozen raviolis down on Beale and Main at the State Cafe, but he would only do them on Thursdays. When my dad moved over here in ’73, that’s when he put them on the menu full time.”
Dino’s doesn’t just offer Italian food. “We do a plate lunch during the day, like meat-and-three. Chicken and dressing and meat loaf. Fried catfish on Fridays. Grilled calf’s liver, chicken livers. And the greens, corn, creamed corn, beets, yams, mashed potatoes, green peas.”
The restaurant also is known for its all-you-can-eat spaghetti on Thursday nights. As for who holds the record for eating the most spaghetti on a Thursday night, Mario says, “I’ve heard nine plates from a Rhodes football player. As for me, personally, I’ve only seen someone eat four.”
Running a restaurant was in the cards, but Mario also played drums in the Kuldips rock band when he was a high school freshman. “I thought it would be cool to do the music thing. [But] I always wanted to be in the restaurant business.
“I found a letter the last time we moved. It was from myself in second or third grade. And it was, ‘What do you want to be in the future?’ And I said I wanted to own a restaurant and have a red sports car.”
Mario got the restaurant. What about the red sports car? “No. I got a blue one.”
Dino’s Grill is at 645 North McLean Boulevard; (901) 278-9127.