Frankie & Johnnie’s

My second-favorite place to get pizza in Los Angeles abruptly closed the other day, reportedly for good. It was Frankie and Johnnie’s, a tiny business about the size of a phone booth located on Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, just west of Rodeo Drive. Frankie and Johnnie’s should not be confused with the Johnnie’s New York Pizza chain, though it probably was, often.

Frankie and Johnnie’s served very fine pies with very thin crusts and if you bought slices as opposed to a whole pie, they’d reheat them in their big oven and come out much crisper. It was very difficult to walk past the place and not stop in for a slice or two. They also served an amazingly wide range of decent pasta dishes — amazing because the whole kitchen there seemed to be about the size of a Honda Civic. I’m going to miss that place.

You’re probably wondering what my favorite place is to get pizza in Los Angeles. Once upon a time, it was Damiano’s, featured elsewhere on this site. Now, it’s Vito’s Pizza on La Cienega, a few blocks south of Santa Monica. It’s not fancy but the pizza is made expertly and many friends who obsess on “New York Pizza” and somehow believe one cannot find rotten pizza in Manhattan, swear that Vito’s is as close as you can get. It is very good and I really hope I never have to add it to this blog.