345: Pizza Week with Mya Anitai of Franny's

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0:31I think a pizzeria like Franny's should be accessible to everybody, you know, as best as possible. There should be something for every single person in the community, for kids, for teenagers. So I'm trying to be as conservative as I can with my price increases, but I also have to run the business. Yeah.

0:52This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbarg.

0:59Franny's is the poppin' pizzeria and restaurant located at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore in Highlands, New Jersey. When the shop's chef and owner, Maya Anitai, left a successful restaurant career in Richmond, Virginia, working at the legendary Mama Zoo in Dinamo, to move to New Jersey, she didn't know exactly what to expect. But what she has built over the past couple years is pretty extraordinary. Does Frannie serve the best grandma slice in New Jersey? Perhaps. In this episode, Maya shares her journey and the pizza style that has earned her the attention of many in and around the New York metro area.

1:35I really hope you enjoy this conversation.

1:48Maya Anitai, welcome to This Is Taste. Thank you for having me, Matt. Oh my gosh, I'm excited to have you in the studio to talk about Franny's, which I'm biased, obviously. Well, not obviously. Let's just be obvious here. You're my sister-in-law. You are my brother-in-law. I've known you for a minute, but the big but is like, I'm a fan of not just Franny's, but the restaurant you ran in Richmond, Virginia called Dinamo, which I've talked about with many guests on the show. But we're here to talk about pie. Yeah. I want to hear first about Franny's. Where are you and what's your style? We are located in Highlands, New Jersey, which is at the very top of the Jersey Shore.

2:27We say it's where the Jersey Shore begins. It is right across from New York City. So you can see, you know, Staten Island. You can see the Verrazano from the end of the pizzeria when you're looking at the bay. And pizza style. We do a New York style flower toss round. And we're also doing a square grandma pie as well as Sicilian. But the flower toss New York style round and the square grandma. Those are my two classics. Those are your classics. And I've enjoyed many a slice. But let's talk about grandma style, Nona style. To you, what defines it? For me, it is definitely the oil pressed into the square pan.

3:08Now, I've seen other people do it in a round pan and call it a grandma, but I love the pinched corners of the grandma pie, which gives it the handle, as they call it. Yeah. And the handle is like truly one of the greatest, you know, food inventions, I would say, ever. Yeah. I'm always really surprised for profiling purposes on who wants the middle part of the grandma pie. I do have some customers who specifically request no handles. Yeah. But for me, I'm a corner slice person. Yeah, I'm a corner as well. But like no handle order. I mean, what does that say about the person? I like to watch. Usually I don't get to watch them eat it.

3:42I wish I could watch them eat it. But, you know, you have to get it. You got to get it out with the spatula because it's right in the middle. So I'm getting it out with the spatula. It's going on the plate. And then I don't know if they fold it, if they're doing fork and knife. I'm not sure what it is, but they don't want the crust. My read of the non-handle is like you want as much pizza in your mouth as possible. Yeah, that sounds right. As fast as possible. That sounds right. Like chewing is not required. Chewing is not required. You just slurp it all in one. Maybe kids, I guess. Kids don't always love crust.

4:09Who knows? It's true. And really, you have to be in the mood for crust, but it's pizza. It's pizza. Where did you learn to make pizza? I first learned at Mama Zoo in Richmond, Virginia. I was a bartender there for many years. I guess I worked there on and off for the better part of 10 to 15 years. And the bartender was also making the tavern pies or the bar pies behind the bar while bartending. So that was where I made my first pizzas, oil press, round pies. So they were doing oil press. So that's a cool bit trial by fire. You're asked to make pies and like make Jack and Cokes too? Yeah, basically.

4:50While doing full service at the bar. I mean, it wasn't a very large bar, but you were also making the pizzas for the rest of the customers in the restaurant itself. So, you know, you'd be servicing your bar, making the pizza. Somebody would come and be like, I need two large on T1. Yeah. So you'd turn your back to your customers and be like, hold on for a minute. And then bang out, you know, two large pies, stick them in the oven, try not to get burned. And then go about the service. And be like presentable, like while you're getting flour. I mean, there was a sink, but it was pretty much just going through bar mops like crazy.

5:22Just wiping and continuing. I was always well moisturized at that job. Lots of olive oil. Lots of olive oil on the skin. Looking back at Mama Zoo, I want to hear a little bit about that restaurant because I think, as I mentioned, we've talked about on the show a bit, but it really was, in past tense, an institution in the Southeast in America. What does Mama Zoo mean to you? Well, it's definitely where I really gained my love of restaurants. I had been in restaurants since I was 14 in Virginia Beach and, you know, other places in Richmond. But when I took that job, I got it when I was 21 years old through a friend.

5:57and you know I remember that the friend was like hey the owner's looking for people to work here we lost a couple staff members he wants people who can sing and I was like why do you want people who can sing she's like I don't know he just likes people who sing and later on I realized a lot of that was because the Ed Visayo the owner of Mama Zoo was always super supportive of artists and musicians which is how I managed to keep that job for so long because while I was an artist and musician, I would come back and forth in between tours. So I guess, you know, he just thought people who could sing were funny.

6:30You know, they would have a little bit more lightness to them in in the restaurant, which I believe is true as well. But Mama Zoo was there 20 more than 25 years, unfortunately closed during the pandemic. Really, really sad to see it go. I mean, I know the space that Ed and your crew kept was so unique. I mean, it was really it was a dark room and it felt like an Italian American tavern in Chicago or Cleveland. It could have been in either of those cities. Totally. Yeah, it was definitely I know a lot of people were like when I would wait for service to open, the door would be open. People like, I don't want to I don't know about this place.

7:06I don't want to go in here. But the line around the block, I mean, it was the smallest kitchen and these guys were just firing so hard. There wasn't, you know, no dish. There were actual dishwashers, not electric dishwashers. There was human dishwashers and like five people in the tightest space you've ever seen just pushing out so much food so fast so plentiful and I loved every part of it yeah and it really just observing you and I talked to a lot of chefs it made you a really just exceptional operator and I want to get into that Franny's what how you operate and and really how I think you run a restaurant with a lot of empathy and that's rare.

7:44Thank you. First, I want to talk about pizza in general. What excites you about pizza? First question. And second is, how did you end up in Highlands? And talk about the restaurant you took over. Sure. What excites me about pizza? You know, a lot of it for me really is that old, the Jewish mother style, like really liking to watch people eat a good pizza that came from my place, from, you know. There's two parts. I like the customer aspect. It excites me when people have a slight, when I see somebody eat the grandma pie for the first time and they're like, what is going on here? And I'm like, I know that first feeling.

8:21I love that. I also really like learning pizza hacks, which I didn't, you know, when you do the same thing for so long, you don't, you learn how to do what you're doing really well. But you don't always get to see the other side or other styles and how they work within your, your place. So when I took over Francesco's, now Franny's, it was a pizzeria for 40 years in Highlands. And the owner had been looking for—he actually sold twice and re-bought the place. He had been looking for the right owner and it just didn't—the other two guys, one guy just rode it into the ground. The other guy during Sandy, after Sandy, was like, I'm done and just left.

9:03The hurricane that destroyed a lot of the North Coast ashore. And Francesco's at the time and all of Highlands was truly underwater, really was out of control. I was still in Virginia at this point, but I've seen the photos. I hear the locals tell the stories. So, you know, once I met Giorgio and cut to the chase when I ended up buying the restaurant, he showed me so many things that I never even knew about for the different styles that he had been doing for 40 years that were so interesting and that I was able to, you know, talk with my partners at Dinamo. and use all these different hacks. And that really reinvigorated me a lot.

9:40That's cool. So you were like passing on the knowledge that Giorgio gave you and you're passing on to your cooks now. Totally. And there was like things that I wish that I would have known in the beginning of Dinamo that could have put us in different directions, you know, at the time. And now I know I'm like, oh, that was how we got this crust to be crispy here, but soft here. That's how like different handling and storage methods and things like that. Is it tricky to take over from an operator who's had the business for 40 years and buy it from them? I mean, it seems like, you know, a lot of these things, they move glacially.

10:13And really, you needed to change some things to make it work for your style. And did he like kind of like pop in too much? No. In fact, I think he was and still is very self-conscious or conscious about not stepping on my toes but like being available for help. But, you know, he ran this place. It was like it was it was a boys club for sure. When I first came in, it was like he and all these older guys sitting around drinking espresso. Spoiler, I don't have espresso anymore. At a pizzeria. I mean, that's that's definitely only for the staff. It was for the staff, like the couple guys, you know, the neighbors.

10:49And I kind of dragged it on for a while. But, yeah, I didn't do a rip the bandaid kind of thing because I realized in the town. Yeah. And in Highland specifically, for 40 years, the people in that town had been eating from Giorgio's Kitchen. And he really had sort of taste made, I thought, the area, you know, as noticed by the story of my style tiramisu, which we can discuss later. But, you know, he really people were going to his restaurant three, four times a week. He was employing parents and kids, which I do now, too. But I thought I was going to kind of come in and do a Dinamo, too. Mm-hmm.

11:26That's what I had been looking for originally. And then after I shadowed with him for quite some time, I was like, oh, there's not a need for what Dinamo is in Richmond in this part of Jersey. There's a need for the classic beach-style pizzeria. And his pizza style was so good that instead of coming in only with mine, I adapted and learned what he was doing as well and then took a kind of year-long slow roll into merging both menus, his and mine, until we found where it really was a happy medium. Yeah, it's a really smart instinct, Maya. I feel like that's something that's challenging for a lot of operators that are impatient.

12:02It's patience. Yeah, it was a slow, you know, and actually we I rebranded, did the official name change a year after purchasing the place, continued as Francesco's, but, you know, started to make my changes. And then when we did when we did finally become Franny's with the new signage and the menu and was very clear about it with customers, the pandemic hit a month and a half later. So, you know, I'd put in all the tons of extra seating and was trying to get as many people in as possible. And then about a month and a half later, it was like, get the seats out of here. It all came to a crashing halt.

12:33Turned it into a grocery store. You mentioned the beach, and I want to bring up an important point about your restaurant. You're open year-round, but you operate a restaurant located in the heart of the Jersey Shore. It's where it begins. It's where a lot of New Yorkers come at. I think Sandy Hook National Park is worth visiting. I love it out there. Yeah. Talk about your typical day-to-day on a Friday in the summer on the Jersey Shore doing pizzas. What's it like, Maya? Yeah. During the heart of the season. I mean, we're we we have great locals and regulars that keep us afloat all year long. But in the summer, Sandy Hook Gateway National Park, which you mentioned, which is we're the last stop before you get there.

13:10And if you go any further, you just drive into the ocean. So we get I think it's 30 ,000 people come to Sandy Hook Gateway every day in the summer. And the traffic is out of control. So, like, you know, very much in the morning, I when the summer's coming, there's always a red flag to the delivery driver. It's like, do not tell me that you were late to work because of beach traffic. Like, you've lived here. You've got to leave. But it's a real lockdown. You have to take shortcuts. It's like we're friends with the local police and have to occasionally ask them to let us do some pizza delivery maneuvers to get through the traffic.

13:43But, like, we don't even cross the bridge to go past Sandy Hook and Seabright in the off-season. You won't deliver up there. We won't even go there. Yeah. It's like unless it's after 9 o 'clock at night and the park is closing, it's just gridlock. It's crazy. But we also get so much business from Sandy Hook and especially people who are, you know, co-in with like 10 to 20 family members and they come off the beach so sunburned by 9 p.m., forgot to make a dinner plan. So we get the people who just roll in bathing suits, sunburned, ready to eat. I mean, and pizza really does cure a sunburn. Yes, I think it does.

14:19I'm pretty positive. I'm pretty sure. I've experienced that. It's like the aloe vera number one and pizza number two. Exactly. But yeah, I mean, in the busy, especially on a Friday, Franny's Friday, it's our busiest night, no doubt. I usually go to work before we open so I can actually get some work done. And then it's kind of managing anything that needs to happen, checking on reservations, making private party calls. And then really at 11 o 'clock, it just starts. And from five to nine on a busy Friday, we are just whooped. What are you pumping out? How many pies? I mean, well over. There's 200 easy.

14:58But we're also getting, you know, special orders for 30 pies here. We get the standing orders for some of the military that's down there, teachers and camps. So it can vary. Have you ever had any of the bear moments? You know, like bear season one, episode seven, ticket machine order? Not so much at Franny's. I mean, I've definitely had something I felt like. I had a real tough time getting through the Brasile episode. Yeah. Add some like Brejol flashbacks. Mad triggering. Oof, that one was tough. But no, you know, when I first took over, I was like, God damn, this place is really turning it. Yeah.

15:32And Mama Zoo, I felt like that too. But this was a different style. This was like Mama Zoo would turn on the, you know, on the hour and you would push out a whole seating of food. Same with Dinamo. But this is like this nonstop trickle because you have small orders too. People coming in for two slices, people coming in for six pizzas as opposed to like a sit-down dinner, which we also have. So it's mayhem. On a Friday night, it is mayhem. Wow. And how do you celebrate the end of the night? Two shots of tequila. Yeah. Agave spirits all the way. Yeah. It's like after nine o 'clock, two shots of tequila, start the paperwork.

16:07Start the paperwork and come back the next day. Yeah. I joke with Maddie, my husband, all the time. It's like, that's how I party. I have two shots of tequila a week. It's big time. What else are you doing at the restaurant? Because I feel like you got pizza, but then you got the other stuff. And there's a lot of other stuff. Yeah, we have. I mean, it's a full, full menu. Some of it I've changed from back in the Giorgio days. But a lot of it, I brought in a lot of dishes from Dinamo, especially on the specials. Lots of, we're known for our fresh seafood. That area of the Jersey Shore, we're getting all the clamors.

16:41You know, we have great little neck clams always on menu. lots of fried we have fried seafood we're doing flounder you know the seafood is really always great and fresh for the sit down during the summertime you know a lot of a lot of New York folks don't realize the Jersey Shore is like operates in multitudes it's it's not like only the MTV Beach House stuff which which obviously yeah that's few and far between I mean, that's a little bit further south down. But yeah, I mean, the access to good food on the Jersey Shore is plentiful for sure. And good ingredients. I mean, you know, Jersey fresh.

17:22Exactly. And the seafood, the clamming you talk about, and it really is dayboat and beautiful seafood. And you can get there quickly from New York City, right? It's easy. Today was only, I took the ferry today to come see you. And they actually went to, we made it in 35 minutes. Yeah. I was like, I don't normally it's 45 to 50. But yeah, you can take the ferry directly from from Wall Street or you can take it from Midtown. And it goes you have it highlands, Atlantic Highlands and now Sandy Hook during the season. So you can get to us by boat, by train. But boat is definitely like it's the way.

17:56I used to go all the time, even before you move there via the Seastreek. And I think for New York City listeners, to head to the Jersey Shore for the day is really cool. I know a lot of folks go out to Brooklyn, which I'm not going to shade. But man, you can just hop on that Seastreek and get to Sandy Hook. Of course, stop by Franny's and some other spots in Highlands. And if you go on the Seastreek on the weekends, you can also have Franny's Pizza on the Seastreek. No way. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. I didn't know that. It's nice. A few more questions. I would like to know about, you know, your future.

18:28Are there any dishes? Because I know you're always thinking about food, like as any chef and operator does. And are there any dishes that you really want to work on? Well, you know, I've been chatting quite a bit about our grandma pie and how much I love the grandma pie. And a lot of that is because I think it stems. A, I think it's just delicious and a great pizza. I have my heart and oil pressed for a lot of reasons. Our New York style is great as well, but like that oil press crispiness of the pizza is the end all for me. So I'm really – I really have a lot of ideas about how to push this forward separate from Franny's itself, which, you know, I'm hoping will always thrive and continue to grow.

19:10But I think that there's something to be said about the frozen market. I think there's something to be said about taking the show on the road for parties. I have some access to these new electric ovens that I'm excited to try out in the next week or two. How can those get? Can those get like up there? They say. I mean, they say you can get up to like 500. Who knows? I have never used one. I've only ever used the gas oven. Yeah. But I'm looking forward to plugging it in my garage and seeing what happens. Yeah. We've been talking to a lot of folks during Pizza Week about the kind of model of moving outside of just the brick and mortar.

19:44Yeah. and catering and ways of making money. Yes, I do think, well, for me specifically, because we are so busy in the summer and slow it down in the winter, I just can't help but find ways to do other things during that slower time, which is why I'm trying to use that time to grow the business in other ways that don't affect the summer business. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. I'm excited. How tough is Cost of Goods right now? It is out of control. Like most pizzerias that I've seen, I don't have this yet. I probably should adopt it. I've seen most menus just be like, price is subject to change at any given point, whenever, right now, always.

20:21And I feel like when I see it, it makes me proud because I'm like, good, you guys are advocating for yourself. We've done some gradual price hiking. I've kept it as modern as I can. A lot of that being because when it's not summertime, it's our regulars and our locals. And there's, you know, financially, Highlands in that area has a lot of, what do you call it? You know, there's very high wealth. There's very— Disparity in income classes. Disparity is the word I'm looking for. I think a pizzeria like Franny's should be accessible to everybody, you know, as best as possible. There should be something for every single person in the community, for kids, for teenagers.

20:59So I'm trying to be as conservative as I can with my price increases. but I also have to run the business. Yeah, it's intense. It's wild. Yeah, the cost increasing and finding that right pricing is such a challenge. And trying to avoid going to Restaurant Depot too much. Oh my gosh. My personal health. Your personal health. Where do you want to be in five years? Let's see. Well, by then, in five years, I would love to see Franny's still rolling, still pushing it out, still being a staple in our area of the Jersey Shore. And if I could really say what I want, I want to see Franny's up and down the Jersey Shore, at least in a smaller capacity, something I've been kicking around for a while that could be potentially like a beach kiosk style or like the bungalow style pizzerias that you see.

21:54This is my dream and this is my goal. Well, the Grandma Slice is iconic in the area. You've gotten awards for it. You've been recognized for it. Yeah. So I'd like to push that a little bit further. I also find it to be something that I could do that wouldn't be as all encompassing as a full sit down restaurant, which is huge staff and, you know, all something that is a little bit more manageable to move into the retirement years. Yeah. Oh, the retirement years. Well, I'm saying that now. Eventually. Eventually. Five years is good. Let's do it. Maya, on This Is Taste, we asked our guests about the discerning taste.

22:29so to close this interview here's a little rapid fire fast and furious taste check are you ready? I'm ready let's do it your favorite Italian American dish hands down pesto oof yeah and not only just basil pesto but I think I love it for you know ramp pesto basil pesto pistachio pesto pistachio parsley pesto anything that you can just put and make taste that good and also you feel good about using the ingredients yeah it's a great clean out the fridge no doubt we can talk about that we do the best drink with pizza Chilled Lambrusco. Yeah. Hard agree. We have a story I'll link to in the show notes.