There aren’t many Italian restaurants in Baldwin County, which is part of why the buzz around Fresco, in the old Tin Top building on Bon Secour Highway, built so quickly. The other part is the man in the kitchen: Greg Buschmohle, a Detroit-trained chef whose mother was from Naples, whose daughter runs the front of the house — and for whom Fresco is, by his daughter’s count, his 83rd restaurant.
From Detroit to Bon Secour
Greg learned to make handmade pasta and gnocchi in the basement of his family’s Detroit home, taught by his Naples-born mother, and started working in an Italian catering hall at age 10. The corporate restaurant world came next: he co-founded L&N Seafood, opening more than 40 restaurants nationwide, and later ran kitchens at well-known south Alabama spots including the Safari Club, Bayside Grill and The Beach Club on Fort Morgan after moving to the area in 1995.
His daughter Amanda Buschmohle brings the business side. “I’m a CPA,” she says, “but I worked in restaurant management to put myself through Michigan State. I handle the business side of things, and Dad’s in the kitchen making pasta and pizza dough.”
Two Years of Planning, Six Trips to Italy
The father-daughter team planned Fresco for two years, making six trips to Italy to assemble the concept — and, in Amanda’s case, the decor. “I travel extensively, and I find decor and inspiration on my trips,” she says. The dining room’s Sicilian posters date to the 1920s and ’30s, and the cocktail menu she curated from her travels leans Italian: Negronis, Bellinis, limoncello, amaretto and a list of spritzes.
The menu follows the classic Italian structure — Antipasto, Tramezzini (sandwiches), Contorno (sides), Primi (first-course pastas) and Secondi (seafood and meat) — with the pasta and pizza dough made by hand, in house, every day.
What to Order
An early lunch crowd’s verdict, table by table: the Crunchy Goat Cheese appetizer — four medallions of goat cheese encrusted in Parmesan and almond, served with a date and fig dipping sauce — is worth the trip alone. The Caesar is authentic; the Rocket salad, with arugula, prosciutto, orange segments and fennel, is the lighter counterweight. Among the Secondi, the Baked Shrimp with crab and pancetta stuffing in fontina cream sauce competes with a Short Rib Ragout over fettuccine that arrives as a genuinely generous bowl of winter comfort.
The wine list rewards the curious, with by-the-glass picks like a Spanish Albariño that rarely appears on local menus.
The Fresco Pantry Is Coming
The plan goes beyond the dining room. Catering services are on the roadmap, and the Fresco Pantry — dinners to go, built on the same handmade pasta and sauces — was slated to open in March, an answer to every Baldwin County family that wants a real Italian meal on a Tuesday night without cooking it.
Details
Fresco is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., in the former Tin Top location on Bon Secour Highway — an easy detour off Highway 98 between Foley and Gulf Shores, and about 40 minutes from Fairhope down the back roads. Walk-ins work for lunch; reservations are smart for weekend dinner.
Bon Secour has long been known for its seafood and its quiet back roads. Now it has handmade gnocchi from an 83-restaurant veteran — and Baldwin County’s Italian options are suddenly much better for it.