The Franks, Delivered

When Frankies 457 Spuntino opened in the fall of 2004, it was part of a wave of openings that same year that would influence the next decade-plus of the New York food world — Momofuku Noodle Bar, the Spotted Pig, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Per Se, Masa, the original Shake Shack, the list goes on — and it drew the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Hudson to then-sleepy Carroll Gardens, in part because co-owner Frank Falcinelli had been a partner at the ’90s hot spot Moomba. At Frankies, Falcinelli and partner Frank Castronovo — “the Franks” to all who know them — aimed for something more neighborly.

Frankies opened as a cash-only trattoria in an Italian American enclave where home prices weren’t yet impossibly out of reach, just as “Brooklyn” was becoming a global brand. It’s probably best known for its eggplant parmigiana and meatballs (plus the backyard that’s as appealing for a casual Sunday brunch as it is for a weekend wedding), and it’s been around long enough that people who grew up eating at the restaurant as kids now stop by to ask if there are any jobs available. The restaurant has also spawned a line of dried pasta, a cookbook, those cans of Frankies olive oil you see everywhere, and an outpost in Nashville (plus another in the West Village that lasted eight years before it transformed into Anton’s).

There was also Prime Meats, a German steakhouse in the Luger’s mold that the duo opened in a corner space on the same block as Frankies, which they later transformed into Franks Wine Bar. In 2019 — in a former garage between the other two restaurants — they opened F&F Pizzeria, serving pricey slices. For their next act, they and their pizza guy, Matthew O’Connell, are doubling down on pies. Later this month, they’ll expand F&F into the former Franks Wine Bar space, turning it into a sit-down pizzeria where you’ll be able to order their now-famous clam pie with a glass of Oregon Chardonnay.

The full-service pizzeria will preserve some of the Franks Wine Bar DNA, both in the drinks menu and the space, which they’ve outfitted with a couple PizzaMaster ovens and additional lighting. Bulbs and fixtures are, they say, one of the few details they still debate. “We argued today about lights,” Castronovo says, laughing. “It’s so stupid. We have fun doing this.” They’ll serve the same pies as out of the garage — pepperoni with Sicilian oregano, hot sausage with sage — but the food menu will be a little more robust, with some additional salads, pastas, and appetizers. Even if the final list of dishes is still in the planning stages, the Franks can envision the vibe, and invoke the name of another seminal 2004 opening to describe it: “Think if this was Franny’s back in the day and this was your neighborhood, you’d be psyched,” Falcinelli says. “You’ve got pizza for your kids, pizza for yourself, a killer great by-the-glass wine list, a slammin’ cocktail list.”

F&F 2.0 is also the first part of a three-pronged expansion plan that will next year grow to include outposts in Manhattan and Pittsburgh, where they’re taking over a space that was for 40 years home to another pizzeria called Bado’s. The pizzerias will all be a little different from one another, but they’ll always be built with an eye toward timelessness. “I had a hot restaurant and the lesson I learned is don’t have a ‘hot restaurant.’ It’s terrible,” Falcinelli says. “We want to have a long burn — not a fast burn.”