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FRANNY'S

I recently came across this new pizza restaurant called Franny's on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.  A short little piece in the New Yorker Magazine got me interested, and then, out of the blue, I got a flour-related call from Andrew, chef and co-owner along with his partner Franny.  So, I made the trip.  On a fairly dim block on Flatbush, Franny's large window draws you in to find a long narrow space with a bar up front, seating running along both walls to the back and, in view even from the street, their hand-built, direct-fired, wood-burning oven.

Seasonality is central to Franny's menu, with the dishes changing frequently as ingredients come in and out of season. When I ate there recently, I had a salad of puntarella (a vaguely bitter winter salad green similar to, but not quite, dandelion greens) that had been dressed with an anchovy, olive oil and some flavorful lemon.

But Franny's focus is the pizza.  On any given night there are about eight or nine different varieties, each shaped for one person.  The crusts are very thin, but chewy, and they come out of the oven blistered with a depth of flavor that comes from baking with wood heat and smoke.  They use King Arthur's Sir Lancelot Hi-Gluten Flour for their pizza dough.  The dough gets mixed the day before it is baked, allowing for a long flavor-building fermentation. Andrew told me that in addition to building flavor, the long fermentation allows for even more blistering of the crust in the hearty brick oven.

The pizzas come out hanging over the edge of their plates, uncut.  All of the pizzas are topped with just one, two, or at most three toppings.  I have had the simplest of all: Tomato and Buffalo Mozzarella.  On another trip I had a  pizza of  Tomato and Mozzarella with Anchovies and Capers.  All the flavors are bright and distinct. However, the flavor of the crust is never lost, even with the more assertive ingredients.

Franny's is a place to seek out. Their Web site, www.frannysbrooklyn.com, has their current menu and directions.  Franny runs the front and Andrew is in back at the oven.

Tod Bramble
King Arthur Flour
Bakery Flour Sales