Pizza review- Franny's and L&B Spumoni Gardens

Today after work, on the way to the train station, i walked by a news stand selling the 2009 issue of New York Magazine "eat cheap." With 2 pizza pies on the cover i had to buy it and see whats up in the pizza world.

Got on the train home and opened the magazine. Right away i noticed that DiFara's pizza was number 10 out of 20. WTF??? the moment i saw this, i automatically knew this person didn't know what they were talking about. and another thing Lucali's pizza didnt even make the list. smh.

After my sudden judgements i decided to start reading the article. I realized that it was an aritlce about Naples style pizza aka neapolitan/napoletana. DiFara's wasnt number 1 cuz its not really authentic naples style.

When i get off the train, i went straight to Alex's house to chill. As soon as i get there, everyone reads my mind and all wanted to go to DiFara's. I was down but the only problem was that it is closed monday and tuesdays now. So i suggested Franny's cuz i been wanting to go there for years but just never really went out of my way to do so. I also wanted to go because it was number 3 in the New York Magazine.

so me, chris and geo get in to alex's car and drive off to pick up enrique. after we picked him up we went straight to Franny's.

->Franny's
295 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

(not my pic, from google)

->the food
All five of us ordered and shared 3 pies.
-Tomato, buffalo mozzarella with sausage and basil.
-Tomato basil and buffalo mozzarella
-Clams, chilies and parsley


->opinions
Being all our first time there, we didnt know they sold neapolitan pizza which is about a foot in diameter. pretty much each pie was made as a personal pizza or a snack for 2 to share.

the crust was really good, a nice smokey-char taste to it. it was very thin and the crust was a little airy with a nice chew and crunch to it. the cheese and sauce was also really good but the flavors werent that explosive. There was a very slight hint of DiFara's hidden in the pizza but i dont consider it good enough to be an understudy.

overall we were all unsatisfied, just based on the fact that we were all really hungry and 3 pies equalling to about $50 didnt fill us up. another thing was that we were all expecting it to be like a mom and pop pizza joint where u could just chill and eat pizza. instead it was more of a casual, wine and pizza restaurant. The moment we walked in, we automatically didnt fit in.

Because we were still hungry, we got back into the car and drove off to spumoni's to get some more pizza. this time we know we couldnt go wrong.


->L&B Spumoni Gardens
2725 86th St, Brooklyn, NY 11223-3507


->the food
I got square slice and enrique got two. for the past couple times i been there, i been putting tabaso sauce. then we all got rainbow spumoni's for dessert. its pretty much an italian ice cream with a mix of pistachio, vanilla and chocolate flavors.


->opinions
i always liked spumoni's pizza, especially the squares that they are known for. the regular slices are good too but theyre just average slices, nothing spectacular.

theyre squares have a very distinct taste which i like a lot. The squares have a lot of sauce on it. the sauce is a little tangy and the cheese is right between the sauce and crust. there might be long lines at times but they move very quickly. at $2.25 a slice, you cant go wrong.

the only thing that i dont like about the squares is that it doesnt taste as good if it didnt come straight out the oven.

final thoughts
I guess since i went to 2 top pizzeria's today, i might as well start my pizza journey once again. I did a pizza journey a few years ago but the moment i had DiFara's i stopped because i knew it couldnt get any better. now i will continue this journey and visit pizzerias i never been to and see what else the pizza world has to offer.

laters,
-J.P.