- November 23, 2024
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Bobby and Meryl Frappier are Trails residents and the owners of FIG, Frappes Italian Grille, in Ormond Beach. Photo by Jacque Estes
Meryl Frappier in the restaurant herb garden. The garden is being expanded so the couple can grow fresh vegetables for their diners. Photo by Jacque Estes
FIG, Frappes Italian Grille, has been a mainstay of downtown Ormond Beach for 26 years. Photo by Jacque Estes
Bobby Frappier often hosts cooking classes in the FIG kitchen. Courtesy photo
When Bobby and Meryl Frappier drove by 123 W. Granada Blvd. in the 1990s, Meryl said, “If only it said Frappes on it.” Not long after, the couple opened an Italian restaurant in that location with the sign, “Frappes.”
“Frappes is what they called Bobby’s dad,” Meryl Frappier said.
The sign has changed a bit; a year ago it was updated to FIG, Frappes Italian Grille.
The same year the couple bought their home in The Trails, a decision Meryl Frappier said she is happy they made.
“We were looking to buy a house and some friends of ours found a really good house at a good price,” Bobby Frappier said. “We looked at it, bought it, and moved in. That was 20 years ago.”
“I love the area,” Meryl Frappier said. “I love the trees and that all of the houses are different. It just looked like a great community to raise a child, and the schools were top notch.”
The couple’s restaurant career began when they moved from South Florida to South Daytona and opened Frappes Hoagies, a sandwich shop on Ridgewood Avenue. Meryl was 5 ½ months pregnant and Bobby’s parents had found the couple a space to open a shop for $100 a month.
A few years later a second, slightly different restaurant, Frappes Café was opened on Beach Street in Daytona Beach, and soon the restaurant was expanded to two floors to accommodate their following.
“Twenty-nine steps up and twenty-nine steps down,” Meryl recalled. “That’s when Bobby really started cooking dinners, and that’s when we started making a name for ourselves.”
Bobby Frappier is the head chef and is self-taught.
“My mother was a great cook, my father was a great cook, and my grandmother was a superior baker,” he said. “But I am not a baker.”
Many of the menu items are family recipes he remembers from his childhood.
Soon some of the food on the table will be fresh from the FIG gardens out back.
“We have our own herb garden now and we are tilling in the back of the parking lot so we can grow our own vegetables,” Meryl Frappier said. “We serve healthy and as organic food as possible from local farmers right now. We really have a moral compass on the food we serve our guests; we switched our salmon to wild salmon everything to keep people healthier.”
Both agree that running a restaurant is a labor of love, but it’s also an extension of their family, from the staff to their guests.
“We have a great time here” Bobby Frappier said. “We sit down with our friends and guests, both the same people. We have second and third generations of families coming here.”
For the past 18 years Bobby Frappier has also taught cooking classes in the restaurant.
“I take about 14 students and teach them hands-on. We start with knife skills, prep and cut, make dishes,” he said. “Then we all hang out in the kitchen and eat and drink wine.”
“We love this town and our community and we are just thankful and blessed to be going on our 26th year,” Meryl Frappier said.
