Daniel S.
Yelp
With the augmentation of New York pizzarias that recently opened alongside Eastern Avenue, I am starting to think that this road was named after the East Coast instead of being the eastern boundary of Las Vegas over a century ago. The New York style pizzarias that border Eastern Avenue include Joey's New York Pizza, Grimaldi's, Angelina's, IDK, and Frankie's. It wasn't until a few years ago that Las Vegas had a void in New York style pizzarias. Thanks to the augmentation of New York pizzarias along Eastern Avenue with a handful throughout Las Vegas, people like yours truly that grew up with and appreciate this cuisine no longer have to hoo a flight out of McCarran to New York City.
Frankie's Pizzaria is located in the Village Pub anchored strip mall at the southwest corner of Eastern Avenue and Wigwam Lane. It is two stop lights north of Interstate 215. This is a location that I am familiar with. You see, it was a few ago when it was a Great Grubbing and I had stopped there a few times for coffee. That was back before mid 2016. Fast forward a few years later, I found out about Frankie's when stopped at the nearby stop light on the way to Grouchy John's. It instantaneously became a mental bookmark. After reading the positive Yelp reviews, my plan was to visit it twice. I executed this plan in the past couple of weeks by stopping by once to try their New York style pizza then a week later for an eggplant parmigiana sub (in New York they are called heroes). Both visits were on a weekday afternoon. To provide a clearer review, the following two paragraphs coorespond to each visit.
Tuesday January 15, 2019 visit:
The purpose of this visit was to put Frankie's New York style pizza to the test. With my first hand experience growing up in a metropolis where pizzarias outnumber Chevrons in Las Vegas, you cannot fool this New York transplant with inferior pizza. As this paragraph shows, they passed the test. Upon walking inside this small restaurant that includes a few tables and counter, I set eyes on their specials that appear to be all day everyday. I took advantage of the $5.99 special featuring two slices of pizza with a topping, fountain beverage, and a garlic knot. It took a couple of minutes for the cook to walk from the kitchen to the register. Since he was in the kitchen preparing this fantastic pizza, it was excusable to wait a couple minutes. This turned out to be a full service dining experience where he poured the Coke in a glass then delivered the pizza in a regular plate to the table. This granted an additional tip. As far as service, my complaint is that there were zero forks and knives. The utensils would of made it easier to delight in the overflowing zesty melting cheese and delectable red sauce covered with mushrooms on mouth watering dough. These two delicious slices of New York style pizza laid to waste the mythology that the water in New York is responsible for the fantastic pizza in the namesake city. It seems that pizza made from Lake Mead water (I presume) could be equally delicious. On a scale from 1 to 5, I rated the pizza 4 Stars.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019 visit:
With Frankie's New York style pizza passing my test with flying colors, it was time for me to attempt their eggplant parmigiana sub. In all honesty, I love eggplant parmigiana more than pizza. It was at 1:07 PM that I stepped foot in the pizzaria. Just like last time it was sparsely busy. But this time a more personable cook greeted me. After exchanging $9.99 plus tax, he let me know that there was a 12 minute wait. This was a "to go" order. He packaged it in a styrofoam box which is different than the tin foil wrapped hero that I am used to. In approximately another 12 minutes, I was in my home taking in every bite of the sub. Just like New York style pizza, I know a good eggplant parmigiana sub when I taste it. Right off the bat I can tell it is inferior when the bread is soggy or hard. Right off the bat I knew that this one passed the test. On a scale from 1 to 5, I rated it a 3.5. There have been eggplant subs that I ate in New York that have included far more eggplant. There were a few of them where I had to open my mouth wide to take in the overflowing eggplant. Being that these restaurants are on the other side of the continent, this could be comparing apples to oranges. Summed up, this was a delectable easy to eat eggplant parmigiana sub that I would easily order again.
Based on my two visits I am impressed with Frankie's Pizzaria at the same time that there is an appreciation that their New York-worthy food is increasing the choices of New York cuisine in Las Vegas. Now if only Las Vegas can land New York style diners, bagel bakeries, Kosher delis, and New York style Chinese restaurants. Who knows, maybe sometime in the future they will join the New York style pizzarias along Eastern Avenue.
