Instagram’s favorite “horny Italian uncle” is at it again. Chef Frank Prisinzano, the plain-talking Italian chef known for his expletive-fueled rants on bad food and the chefs who serve it, is currently planning a brand new concept to debut alongside his latest restaurant Lil’ Frankie’s.
Lil’ Frankie’s Grocery is Frank’s newest project, and he’s expected to open it right next to Lil Frankie’s at 21 First Avenue. Envisioned as a combination café and grocery store, Frank is still finalizing all the details as he plays with the concept in his head.
An extraordinarily gifted chef, Frank currently operates three different restaurants in Manhattan – Supper, Lil Frankie’s, and Frank Restaurant. Frank is particularly well known for his Instagram account, where he shares general cooking tips alongside life advice and his various philosophical reflections. Known in particular for his many comparisons between food and sex, Frank has acquired a cult following of fans enamored with his sincerity and frank speech.
Frank is notorious for his refusal to use a recipe – if you ever ask him for a recipe he’ll tell you in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t use one. Rather than give his fans a list of ingredients and instructions for putting them together, Frank prefers to more generally teach them how to cook and let them experiment. Everybody has a different palate, and as a chef he believes that you should work from your own experience and intuition and never be afraid to experiment. Frank sees his Instagram followers as his students, and while he might be tough on them sometimes it’s all just to teach them how to be better chefs.
For a chef with such intense opinions on ingredients, a grocery store is the perfect opportunity for him to expose the more mundane civilians to the wonderful world of cooking. Frank personally promises that he will not allow an ingredient on his shelf unless he loves it himself. He sees this new store as an exciting opportunity to curate a shopping experience that can’t be found elsewhere. How many personally curated grocery stores do you know about?
Frank describes his latest project as a service – the way he describes all of his cooking. An evolution of his Instagram teachings, the new store is a service to all his fans who have been trying to learn his techniques but may have struggled with a lack of access to the proper resources. Lil Frankie’s Grocery is a store by someone who loves to cook for people who love to cook. Keep an eye on the store’s Instagram for further updates, and be sure to follow Frank for cooking tips and tricks.
