Frankies 925 Spuntino | Nashville

Review

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Frankies 925 Spuntino takes the approach that most Italian restaurants abandon — doing a few things very well rather than covering the entire map of the cuisine. The pasta tastes like pasta: the dough is developed correctly, the shapes are cooked to the right bite, the sauces are built from real ingredients with actual time behind them. The pizza has the char and structure that comes from a properly hot oven and dough with real fermentation.

The room is warm and casual in the way Italian restaurants are supposed to be — a place where the conversation matters as much as the food, where lingering is encouraged rather than managed. The wine list skews Italian and interesting within that. The kitchen has the confidence to serve simple food well rather than dressing it up to justify the price.

The pasta is properly made and properly sauced. The pizza has real fermentation and char. The room is warm and casual in the way Italian restaurants are supposed to be.

The Italian restaurant category is one of the most crowded in any American city, which means the ones that rise above it tend to do so by focusing on a few things done very well rather than trying to cover the whole map of the cuisine. Frankie's takes that approach.

The pasta is made with the intention of tasting like pasta — the kind of thing that gets lost in translation when a kitchen is more focused on presentation than on the food itself. The pizza has the char and structure that comes from a properly hot oven and dough with actual fermentation behind it.

The room is warm and casual in the way Italian restaurants are supposed to be — a place where the conversation is as important as the food, where lingering is encouraged rather than tolerated. The wine list skews Italian, naturally, and skews interesting within that.

Frankie's is the kind of neighborhood Italian spot that any neighborhood should want.