Today our friends at Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog take a look at Frankie’s 457 Spuntino on Court Street, a place that really needs no introduction.
Frankie’s 457 Spuntino is a charming, cozy little place on Court St., deep in the heart of Carroll Gardens. The inside is all brick and warm tones, with Edison bulbs hanging from the ceiling, and a big window at the back that overlooks their backyard and the train tracks in the distance. You can sit at the bar and have a good time watching people come and go, or you can sit at the little table for two in the front window and feel like you’re in your own private world, looking out onto the street. The first time I ate here, a few months after it opened, I sat in the front window and watched the first snow of the season fall. It was sublime, as was the food that followed.
The waiters are friendly and skilled, and there’s a wide variety of foods to choose from. Small plates of veggies and big, delicious salads are always on the menu, as are the meat and cheese plates and various sandwiches made on fabulous bread. Today though, I will be focusing on Brunch, and my favorite breakfast meal at Frankie’s: The French Toast. Mmmmm, it’s SO good. Made from two thick slices of crusty bread, it soaks up the egg just enough and is cooked to perfection so the outside is ever so slightly burnt and the inside is still moist and light. It arrives with slices of banana and strawberry and real maple syrup, and once you get it, you’ll never be able to get French Toast anywhere else.
For views of other Brunch dishes and sides, click here!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Chris // Nov 14, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Great place, but more of the ridiculous no-credit card BS….
2 Angela // Nov 14, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I visited Frankies about 1x a month from Oct. 2004 through Dec. 2007, I love the food and the setting, I never minded waiting for a table with a glass or bottle of wine and when the bar was too crowded a trip to Mini Bar did the trick.
Then something happened to the service, the waits got longer and they didn’t work to make you feel at home while you waited. My last visit in early December I was told there would be a 45 min wait, I went to Mini Bar, we came back 40 minutes later and he said it would be another 20 minutes, we went to the bar and grabbed another drink, about 35 minutes later I stopped the Host and asked about our table. He said that I should be patient sometimes he can’t guess how long it will take and if I wanted to eat there I would wait.
Unfortunately I had my mother and aunt visiting from out of town and at this point it was 9:30 and our options were limited without a long walk involved, so we kept waiting. FORTY minutes later and 1hr and 55 minutes after I first asked for a table and was told 40 min we were given a table, 20 minutes later they brought water and we ordered around 10:40pm. They were rude, they did not buy us a drink or apologize, and at the end of the night, on my way out the host said “are you happy, you got your table. ” It was as though somehow they forgot that our dinner and wine for 4 wasn’t $250++ .
3 dave // Nov 14, 2008 at 8:40 pm
So much Better than Hope & Anchor!
4 jerry // Nov 15, 2008 at 1:15 am
hey you guys didn’t mention the outdoor seating or the barn in the back. or do they call it the stable? I don’t know for sure but there’s a whole other small building out the backdoor and it’s really pretty nice. you also didn’t mention all the celebrities that are there all the time. i guess that’s not such a big deal.
5 Old Fashioned // Nov 15, 2008 at 9:47 am
This fake Italian with a twin on Clinton St in Manahattan looks great from the outside and inside but waiting to be seated is a total joke. A long snaking line along the bar which makes eating at the bar a public and crowded affair. The bartender, when I was there, the ONE time I was there looked barely legal age. Their drink menu cracked me up, seeing an Old Fashioned on the “specialty” drink list! My friend and I ordered meatballs and a beet salade. The meatballs were tiny but yummy. The beet salade was a bunch of cubed, canned beets with dressing on it. More Waldorfy than leafy green salade. I ordered the Old Fashioned that weighed in at around 7+ dollars. It came in a HUGE glass with chuncks of orange and orange pulp floating around in it. Obviously, it was an interpretation of a REAL Old Fashioned. It was a big, gloppy, silly mess. When we finally squeezed out of there, I was practically tripped by the wave of non-Brooklyn women who were slamming through the door. Obviously exasperated after seeing that there was no valet parking. Hopefully with the opening of the extention, this joke of a place will get real.