Frank’s Family Pizzeria offers the kind of backstory that everyone can love. The founders of the longstanding downtown Wyandotte pizza institution passed away and handed the restaurant off to their kids, who in 2020 sold to a new generation of entrepreneurs and pizza chefs.
The latter include Wyandotte native Josh Cade and Riverview brothers Brandon and Zane Hunt, who are co-founders of Austin, Texas’s Via 313, one of the first Detroit-style pizzerias outside of Michigan. The Hunt brothers and Cade are childhood friends who have fond memories of going to Frank’s with their parents and grandparents.
Upon taking over in 2020, they remodeled and made some smart updates to the restaurant — most notably the addition of Detroit-style pizza. They also overhauled the bar menu, and added a few different appetizers and salads, but they kept key components of what Frank’s had built, and have seemingly kept old and new generations happy. That is an achievement.
Slices of the original “old world Italian” round have been served up for decades at Frank’s, and little of that recipe has changed, so we focused on the Detroit-style pizzas and a few new appetizers. The first thing to note is the pizza sauce, which is Frank’s original recipe. It’s made with chunks of tomatoes that impart a bit more of a marinara personality than most pizza sauces, which are typically a bit thicker in consistency with fully pureed tomatoes. Cade describes it as a “clean” sauce that lets the tomatoes flavor, garlic, basil, etc. do the talking.
This is an excellent move that pizzerias should consider. However, we found the sauce — which is added to the pizza last, as it is wont to be on a Detroit-style pie — was fairly cold. The sauce served with the meatballs and arancini was also cold, and that contrast did not work well.
Cade said the sauce should have been served hot with the arancini and meatballs, so maybe that was a kitchen misfire. Normally the pizza sauce is not cold but closer to room temperature, Cade added, but, regardless, it was a distraction from otherwise solid slices.
The good news is a manager said the sauce can be ordered hot, and some regulars do just that, an easy remedy. Pretty much everything else at Frank’s hit the mark — caramelized cheese ringed the edges and the crust cooked in Detroit-style pizza pan provided fine foundation and was crunchy all around on two out of three pies. It was a bit soft on The Peterson, but the slices held an excellent grouping of toppings — sausage, pepperoni, oregano, garlic, and generous dollops of cooling ricotta cheese — that helped me overlook the crust.
Perhaps the best pie was one we built with an ample portion of Wisconsin brick cheese, and plenty of crispy, curled up pepperonis that we don’t see enough of these days, as well as white onions and jalapeños. The crust was perfect, and everything popped. We also built a version of Frank’s prosciutto pie minus the prosciutto for a vegetarian co-diner. It arrived with gorgonzola, fig, parmesan, and balsamic glaze, and was an altogether harmonious sweet and salty pie.
The meatballs before the pies were huge and fairly dense — not the lightest and fluffiest ever packed, and though some maintain that those are the marks of finer meatballs, I disagree, as long as, like those at Frank’s, they are moist and super flavorful. The arancini had a crunchy exterior holding a nice mix of risotto, cheese, and herbs. Another solid starter consisted of baked goat cheese, pesto drizzle, and red sauce that’s all scooped onto garlic bread.
The bar should also be highlighted. In a previous life, it offered jug wine, a few light domestics, and very limited liquor. The new iteration holds a full selection of domestics and craft beers, a short list of wines, and cocktails that work well in the context, like an aperol spritz or martini. The interior has an old-school dive vibe and there is a pleasant patio during the warmer months. More sandwiches, appetizers, and other items outside pizza are on the way now that the restaurant is in a groove. Overall, Frank’s is a strong addition to the Detroit-style pizza canon.
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