Frank Pullara
With the opening of a new outpost of his Franklin restaurant Culaccino in Nashville Yards, Frank Pullara is establishing himself as a restaurateur — but his passion is still in the kitchen.
“Ever since I was 8 years old, I was already cooking with my mom and my great-grandma and my nonna,” Pullara says. “I remember like on Easter, my great-grandma was peeling potatoes, and [I was] getting up and watching or helping. So I’ve always been interested in food.”
He opened the original Culaccino in Franklin in 2021, and last year he opened Culamar just across the street, unveiling the city’s first downtown rooftop bar and restaurant.
“I remember growing up, though, on New Year’s Eve and Christmas and stuff like that, my aunts and my nonna would make a bunch of seafood,” Pullara says. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring something new and exciting to this corner and try and help grow downtown Franklin and Main Street.”
Pullara says people often think seafood is for special occasions, but he likes to say Culamar is just “elevated casual,” and providing high-quality food and service while still being like “an everyday restaurant for everybody” is what he aims for at both concepts. He picked up many of his recipes from his family, though he has made them his own. As for his personal favorites from each restaurant, he’s got a few.
“Pizza-wise, the Il Re Di Bologna — I love mortadella — has mortadella, ricotta, pistachios on it,” he says. “Pasta-wise, our ravioli. You don’t see too many double-stuffed raviolis with robiola cheese and veal shoulder, and butter sauce, and bone marrow. So that one I love, too. Culamar, our cioppino or our trout are my two favorite entrées. It’s just that broth alone. … They are so soulful. There’s so many flavor profiles.”
Pullara started out in the restaurant business at around 15 years old and has been working in the industry ever since. He studied culinary arts in an apprenticeship at the American Culinary Federation in Milwaukee. After honing his craft at a family-run Italian restaurant in Wisconsin, he moved to Naples, Fla., and worked with his cousin Vincenzo Betulia, chef and partner at Campagna Hospitality Group.
Frank Pullara
“I helped him open up three restaurants, and we were on our fourth when I was over there with him,” Pullara says. “One of my main business partners here, he actually gave me my first opportunity in Wisconsin as an executive chef. … Him and I were always talking and still getting together after all those years, and he started talking about wanting to open a restaurant.”
That’s when Pullara and his family decided to move to Franklin. In creating that first place of his own, he wanted to make sure the love for the craft and family-oriented feeling came through — not only in each dish, but in the whole experience for a customer.
“I really want my staff to embrace what we’re doing in the food and the wine program and the cocktails,” Pullara says. “So when they do go to a table, they are standing behind what we’re trying to build and grow here. I just want them to have that passion and that energy of what we’re trying to do. … Anyone can put salt and pepper in a dish, but if you don’t put your all into it, it’s not going to show and taste that good.”
While Pullara has gotten good at the business, he’s quick to point out what it’s all about for him.
“I’m one that still likes to cook and get dirty and grab a chef knife and get behind the cutting board,” he says. “That’s who I am. That’s what I am. I’m a cook. Yes, I am an owner and I own restaurants now and have a lot of employees and stuff like that. But my first passion and love is cooking.”
This People Issue profile is in partnership with our sister publication the Williamson Scene. Visit williamsonscene.com.
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