Oct. 22, 2014 By Michael Florio
An Astoria pizzeria that has been in business for 50 years has closed.
The operators of Frankie’s Pizza, which is located at 22-56 31st Street, left a note in the window that read:
Dear Costumers!
Thank you for your loyalty and support after 50 years of business– Frankie’s Pizza is closing!
News of the development spread quickly via twitter.
The pizzeria had served generations of residents.
One Yelp reviewer wrote last December that he “loved going here [Frankie’s] as a kid in the 70s, and I hung out here as a teenager in the 80s….I had been away for a while, but I came back there in the late 90s or early 00s.”
ASTORIA — Whoa. Holy crap. Frankie’s Pizza on 31st Street near 23rd Avenue is closed. 50 years. pic.twitter.com/dnWVoytZqy
— Adam Kubonic Plague (@adamkuban) October 22, 2014
Photo: Adam Kuban
Featured Events
12 Comments
The makers of Frankie’s Pizza must have went somewhere. Hopefully someone knows where they went. Grew up on Frankie’s pizza which was the best, anywhere. Sad they got replaced with overpriced cr@p, like most places in Astoria!
I had been eating pizza there for over 30 years. Their pizza was simple and that is why I liked it. Loved their sauce and the best part was the crust. I will truly miss them.
Cannot believe this 🙁 SO upsetting as it was the only late night pizza spot. And to hear an Artichoke pizza chain will open up there is a tragedy! Check out the best slice only a few doors down at Rose & Joes Bakery! In the back there is a pizza oven, Always went there rather than Frankies for over 20 years now!
This is sad news. I remember Frankie’s when a slice was 45 cents, that’s how long I’ve been eating there. It was always opened late and I remember coming back from a night in Manhattan back in the 80’s and having a slice or two before heading home. Frankie’s was always there waiting for you as you got off the train at Ditmars.
I suppose some greedy landlord wants to rent out to some wealthy national corporate franchise or another damn bank. To hell with local tradition and character.
I dread what this city will be like in days to come: sterile, homogenous, featureless – an endless procession of bland, cookie-cutter, corporate outposts.
I dunno, I am a true NYC slice fan, can’t stand all the artisanal pizza nonsense, and I have to say I thought their plain cheese slice was just really bad. I’ve had a plain slice at just about every hole in the wall pizza place in the Astoria area and this place was honestly my least favorite. The sauce was crappy and flavorless, the cheese was chewy and weird, and the crust was doughy and blah. Obviously they have history in the area and you’re always sad to see a business like that go, but it felt like they had just stopped trying to make their pizza good.
That being said, I think it’s crazy and sad how many places have closed in the Ditmars area recently. The obnoxious real estate people around here are really pushing rent prices up at a ridiculous pace that old businesses just can’t afford. The over night I counted 12 (TWELVE) completely vacant retail spaces all on Ditmars that haven’t been filled for several months. Obviously this is happening all over New York, but I think it’s a sign of a particularly intentional and brazen top-down gentrification push by real estate goons when they can’t even fill the places they’ve pushed old tenants out of because even new hipster businesses won’t pay that kind of rent.
Amen. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Small, independent, neighborhood businesses have been marked for extinction. It’s unofficial policy now.
I agree. The real Frankie’s closed a long time ago. Thank goodness we still have ROSE N JOES & Politos on b’way!
I think the stair construction was the last straw.
They had NCY style pizza which is no longer welcome. It has to be artisanal or local sourced now Or at least like the Dominoes or Pizza Hut the locals grew up with
The locals loved Frankie’s.
Wow. I. Have. Been. Coming. To. Frankies. Pizza. For. At. Least. 20yrs…. They. Will. Be. Deeply. Missed
What? The locals loved the original Franks, I had for over 40yrs now. I still order pizza once in a while, it’s either from Alba’s, Porto Bello and Rizzo’s, I buy slices from Rose’s too.