Photo: Daniel Krieger
Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli, childhood friends and the team behind Brooklyn’s Frankies 457 Spuntino (plus a cookbook and several other eateries), are opening an Italian American restaurant and market in East Nashville.
The Franks (as folks refer to Castronovo and Falcinelli) say the area surrounding Laurel & Pine, where they plan to open, reminds them of the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn where they first opened Frankies 457 Spuntino. But Frankies Nashville, which will open in early 2023 in East Nashville, will not be a copy-and-paste of New York.
“We will let it evolve naturally,” Falcinelli says.
Laurel & Pine will be the team’s first location outside of New York. The pick came in part because their third partner — John Burns Paterson, who started with the company as a wine director — moved to town in January 2022. (He’s been here long enough to already lament the closing of BokBok.) Now a managing partner with the Franks, Burns Paterson interned for Sean Brock at McCrady’s in Charleston early in his career, and that history, plus family connections and a childhood in Alabama, interested him in both life in Nashville and the local culinary scene.
“Wherever John Paterson picked, that’s where we were going to go,” Castronovo says.
While they won’t know the specifics until they are closer to opening their doors, they plan to work with regional purveyors to offer local hams and produce on the Frankies Nashville menu. Burns Paterson has been spending weekends at the farmers’ market and getting recommendations from area chefs in order to start building relationships with Middle Tennessee farmers.
“Nashville has a bounty of really amazing farmers, and that fits into the Frankies ethos,” he says.
That ethos, Castronovo explains, is a cleaned-up version of the food your Italian grandmother would make (if you had an Italian grandmother).
“It’s serious, without being too serious,” he says, underscoring the emphasis on local ingredients and a fun wine list. The restaurant in New York is also known for its sound system, and the Nashville location will be no exception.
In New York, some regulars stop by the restaurant and the market multiple times per week, and the team expects that for Nashville. The restaurant and the market will have different operating hours, which have not yet been determined.
The Laurel & Pine space is being designed by Pfeffer Torode Architects, who are also at work on the new Tailor location and a Dickerson Pike development. Frankies Nashville includes a 70-seat dining room, an outdoor garden, a space for events and the market.
“East Nashville already has great goods and services,” Falcinelli adds. “We could see that we could fill in the blanks and be a great neighborhood restaurant.”
