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Meet Andrew Cacioppo of Brezza Cucina in Old Fourth Ward

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Cacioppo.

Andrew, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I was a kid, my father was a preacher at a small Baptist church in Vidalia, GA and my mom was a stay at home mom. Money wasn’t something we had a lot of, so we couldn’t afford to go out to eat at restaurants very often. When we did, it was for a celebration or a special occasion. I was always obsessed with the idea of being able to order whatever you wanted off a menu and trying different and new things.

My mom is amazing and never wanted us to feel like we were missing out, so we often played restaurant at home. She would set up the bench from our piano in the doorway of the kitchen and write out a menu on a chalkboard. I’d write down orders from my sisters and father and give it to my mom to cook the food. I would bring it out to them, and she even sewed me a little apron with a French chef’s hat embroidered on the chest. Since then, restaurants have always been something with which I have been fascinated.

I started working in restaurants and haven’t looked back. I began working in the front as a busser/host, then worked my way through every position in the dining room. From my first experience with fine dining, I fell in love with the idea of working in the kitchen. I had experience as a chef at the age of 25 but felt there was still room to grow. Tom Colicchio had just opened Craft Atlanta, and I knew him from Top Chef so I went and applied for a job as a food runner. I knew I needed more experience to work in his kitchen, but believed I could impress with my work ethic. As a food runner, I worked next to the chef, Kevin Maxey, all night. After a month or so, I mentioned to him that I wanted to work in the kitchen and that I had some experience. He told me to start the next day.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Anything that is worth doing is difficult. The road has not been a smooth one. Looking back, I was woefully unprepared for what I was getting myself into and everything it took to succeed on any level. I had lots to learn in regards to terminology, technique, timing, and temperature. I started buying cookbooks and chef autobiographies, watching seminars on the science of cooking from Harvard, you name it. If it was about food, I was soaking it up like a sponge. I would go into work hours early every day so that I could work on technique and increase my speed on prep… It has been a very long road to get where I am, and I have made a multitude of mistakes along the way, but I don’t regret my decisions. I had a dream and worked my ass off until I realized that dream.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Brezza Cucina – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
When we first began this journey, I was brought on as a sous/pastry chef by Adam Evans. Adam and I worked together at Craft and then again a few years later at The Optimist. So when he told me he was headed somewhere new and asked me to come with him, I jumped at the opportunity. Adam is a great mentor and has played a huge roll in my professional career. He told me about Brezza Cucina and how it was a joint venture with Jonathan Waxman, who I consider a living legend.

When the spot first opened, Brezza’s concept was a meld of Jonathan’s and Adam’s styles: Italian focused with local, Southern ingredients. When Adam left to go open his own place in Birmingham, we adjusted the concept as a more casual environment that was accessible to everyone. A year later, which also saw my promotion to executive chef, we began questioning who we were and what we were going to be about. As a chef, I didn’t want to be “the pizza place,” as a businessman I didn’t want to be “the empty place,” and as a leader, I didn’t want to be “that crazy guy.” Jonathan and I decided that we wanted to elevate the menu, and I started doing more research into Italian food and questioning what I love to eat. I drew on memories from when I was kid in my Italian grandmother’s kitchen and started formulating recipes that would work in a modern context, under Jonathan’s guidelines.

I didn’t want to simply exist; I wanted to have an impact on our community and the people living in it. Besides buying produce from local farmers, a system Jonathan helped pioneer in the 1970s in California that is now known as “farm to table,” we really wanted to focus on the community. We source our honey from Honey Next Door, supplied from Inman Park. We utilize spirits from distilleries such as Old Fourth Distillery and American Spirit Works. We feature local breweries on our beer list. But more than that, we want to support local charities as well. We have a program called “Cocktails for a Cause,” where we donate $1 from the sale of each cocktail to a local charity that directly impacts lives, such as Giving Kitchen, Lost n Found Youth, and the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Contact Info:

  • Website: brezzacucina.com
  • Phone: 404.724.9700
  • Instagram: @brezzacucina + @chefandrewc
  • Facebook: @brezzacucina
  • Twitter: @brezzacucina

Image Credit:
Courtesy of Brezza Cucina

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