Frankie's Ristorante

80 Main Street
Lenox, MA 01240
(413) 637-4455
www.frankiesitaliano.com

This was the first visit to Frankie's, a cozy-looking storefront in Lenox with an inviting porch. It's a block away from Church Street a.k.a Overpriced Restaurant Row. A friend of mine calls the Church Street Cafe "Home of the $16 side salad." So, it had several things to recommend it, but I had not heard a word about the food.

Google searches revealed a number of customer reviews, with three ecstatic ones for every two mediocre, and a really terrible one thrown in once in a while. No consistency, but the extremely positive were in the majority. Did this place look like it would have "the best Italian food I've had outside of Italy"? Did it look like a dive? No to both. So - worth trying to see what we thought.

We arrived at 6 and were seated on the porch - very pleasant. Overall, a low-key vibe, playing up the "traditional red sauce joint" sensibility with red and white checked tablecloths. I would feel very comfortable showing up here in shorts.

The menu is also super-traditional with pastas, piccata, marinara, parmiagiana, etc. The cocktail list was truly putrid - a martini with gin and prosecco, a margarita with amaretto. One cocktail featured half and half. Luckily, they have a downright cheap wine by the glass list with a very fine chianti for only $5/glass. They also have a full bar and will be happy to make you a plain old boring martini. I had a vodka gimlet that was perfectly respectable.

The bread was fresh from the oven and service friendly and generally responsive. We ordered salads to start which were fresh and reasonably sized for starters. The balsamic vinagrette was serviceable but undistinguished.

The mains were solidly in the category of "fine." I had a pasta carbonara that was closer in consistency to an alfredo, and if a forkful did not have a generous helping of pancetta, it tastefd underseasoned. But overall, satisfying if not transformative. My mother had a gnocci in tomato sauce with kalamata olives. The gnocchi had a nice consistency but the sauce was a bit too intense - it almost tasted as if it were made with sundried tomatoes. My dad had one of the house specialties - lobster and shrimp ravioli in a cream sauce - and he reported it was good, but average.

Probably the best bite of the night was a cannoli we split for dessert. The shell was crispy and not too sweet, the filling light and mixed with tiny chocolate chips. Very delightful.

There are two other Italian restaurants on Church St - Cafe Lucia and Prime Italian Steakhouse. Both are more upscale, with pretentions of fine dining. Frankie's is less expensive, although still more expensive than it should be for what it is. It is certainly a "restaurant" rather than a "ristorante." In the BG's humble opinion, they would be better off embracing this price point and the casual ambiance even more so - put your gnocchi in a simple fresh tomato sauce, for example. And whoever is in charge of the cannoli - bravo!