Sunday, June 19, 2005


franny's and bklyn is da bomb or whatever

it's amusing how the ny times remains years behind events -- such as the paper's decision today to devote the city (if you need to, use bugmenot!) section to the on-going bklyn hipitude, which started oh, about 10 years ago and is currently at full peak, if not past its peak.

bklyn is the hip borough; i know it's a hard fact of life for those older manhattanites (we're discussing mental age here) who still go to see woody allen's new movie every year.

sorry man. can't help ya. hip-hop has also happened. . .

myself i've long reveled in bkyn scene, as did yesterday by running over to franny's for a pizza and a beautiful salad of organic bib lettuce hearts, fresh herbs, and organic edible lavendar in moscato viniagrette. now i do like franny's crust, which is made with good old king arthur flour.

once again my problem is the sauce. i know franny's makes many different pies (tsk, tsk: purists such as those should know that pizza comes in just 2 kinds -- margherita and marinara, altho' i will reluctantly tolerate a sprinkle of fresh sausage or a quattro stagione -- the di fara's fresh baby artichoke white pie requires its own discussion) and so needs a bland sauce to work with all those ingredients.

i also wasn't thrilled with the fat, awkward, sliced-on-the-diagonal flops of fennel sausage on mr. right's pie. and once again, the pie was too wet.

did i mention that the salad was superb? after that we wandered over to the chocolate room for a slice of the chocolate layer cake and a glass of banyuls. alas, the banyuls was served too warm.

and the chocolate layer cake wasn't quite the retro, magnolia dream mr. right had hoped for. nor was it the modern slice of intense decadence i would have liked.

again, however, i offer the owners encouragement: improvement is possible and worthwhile!

mr. right freely confessed that my pizza is better -- but then, i've spent years customizing it to his personal tastes. i myself remain unhappy with the crust, and continue to tinker for perfection.

however, i may have to admit that the problem will always ultimately be the home oven. . . i certainly do make a livelier, herbier sauce than any of the famed public pizzas in new york.

long-time readers know that i do think both john's and grimaldi's have declined. i know others don't agree, however.

while i liked the fanny's pizza, i may still think grimaldi's has the edge on the sauce, altho' franny's crust is now better. . .

the crust was near spot-on to the genuine neapolitan article. the new adrienne's that's opened near my job is still young, but the shake-down grace period i give all fresh places is nearly over. . .

i'm not a square-pie girl, but i'll try to keep an open mind. i'll be trying it soon.

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