FAT AND HAPPY: More than just a pizza joint, Fat Clemenza is a best-kept Italian secret (PHOTOS)

It’s a Monday night and while business at most restaurants would be slow on this night of the week, that is not the case at Fat Clemenza.

It’s a full house, enticing aromas fill the air, and Dominic Damiano is making the rounds from table to table, chatting with his guests. He knows many of them, as they return week after week, not only for the food, but also for the level of service they receive.

One customer said he visits several times a week, and occasionally just says, “cook me something,” because it’s all good.

The blackboard menu changes nightly to keep it fresh.

However, if you like the element of surprise and give Damiano carte blanche, you might find in front of you dishes such as Mimmo’s fresh-baked garlic rolls, which many say are addictive.

But don’t fill up on the addictive rolls, Damiano warns, as there is more good stuff to come – such as a huge antipasti sampler platter, ravioli, vegetarian pizza, or grouper in a spinach pomodoro sauce.

But save room for the chocolate orange carrot cake.

Fish specials are Wednesday and Friday nights.

“Those who think we’re just a pizza joint have not been here,” said Damiano.

Damiano and partners opened the restaurant in 2007.

“I used to go to Kitchenique’s cooking classes and one night I told her ‘I can do that,’” he said.

He now leads an occasional class there.

“I grew up in the Italian culture of Chicago. It was a total food culture, so I learned to cook,” he said.

The restaurant has garnered a large local following, especially transplants from urban locales.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee heard about it in New York, said Damiano.

Damiano moved to the area 13 years ago from Palm Beach and never left.

“I liked the community a lot and just stayed,” he said.

As for the restaurant’s name, it was as simple as putting names in hat and seeing what came out.

“We liked it,” he said.

And in keeping with the name pulled from “The Godfather,” each year in February the restaurant hosts “mob night.”

“There’s a waiting list to get in that night,” said Damiano.

Fat Clemenza is located in Holiday Plaza on U.S. Highway 98E in Miramar Beach. It is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., and for dinner Monday through Saturday from 5 - 9:30 p.m. Call 850-650-5980 for reservations.