The famous outlet from down south in Sydney, it puts the diner in control for the kind of pizza that they want to have. Sick of the takeaway places only allowing you up to 4 items on each make your own pizza (and double one item makes up for 2 of those)? That ends here, where the pizza arrives even quicker and you see it made right in front of you. What a great concept, and making it tailored to individual tastes. This takes place at Eagle Street Pier, and like every worker has their unique outlook - they get their unique spin on the great equaliser of pizza.
After managing to make a WhatsApp group for fellow Zomato users in Brisbane, some news was spreading about a Fratelli's Famous being opened up within Brisbane. From what I know, this was the first time that I consciously had heard about it, and being curious it was not long before I was searching up about it. That was apparently on opening day during lunch time, but some things went awry and opening had to be later on into the evening.
Anyways, jump forward about a week and I have arranged to meet a couple of folk from that group for dinner, or something happened and there was a crossover arranged between me and a couple of other members. After having so many positive interactions with MB, it was finally great to be meeting him for once - and his girlfriend (Mandy Bernadette) came along in tow.
It is right at the tail end of Eagle Street Pier - which made the two others talk around in circles for a while (still met up, that's important) - and the curvature of the shopping space suits it. This feels partially like a live kitchen. A real pattern of black and white is chosen, from the roof being patterned, to the simplicity of the menu boards, which truly feels like an Italian place. Lots of seating is al fresco, and contrasting to what Eagle Street Pier usually implies, this is really laid back and casual. Everything is laid out on the table that is needed - salt, pepper and serviettes with a small plan for each table. They know what they are doing.
This time around, the service could have definitely been a bit better. While they have the easy aspects down pact - that is being friendly, and managing to get things done both quickly and efficiently. However, these were definitely some greenhorns that we had on our hands - which became apparent later on in the night as the second order was stuffed up and came to the table late. Also, between MB and I the two pizzas near the end were somehow switched around at the end stage. Anyways, the lucky thing for both all involved is that both of us split the pizzas and gave each other half. It was no fault of the management, who was lovely and she had something else to say to the staff. I am one that likes to look at silver linings, and there definitely was that there. With a bit of a slow point in getting to the dessert areas, the manager gave managed to arrange the loyalty cards in each of our favour and it was a lovely gesture. Touch wood that this is able to straighten it out and make a more professional experience in the future. I say all this because I generally think it was not bad service, and the way it is designed is perfect for all. The manager was one lovely lady, and even gave us cutlery and "plates" (the pizza pans) for the dessert course. Otherwise, that was going to be messy. The smaller, technical details including cleaning up the tables, was definitely underway.
While we are on the subject of the service, the method of it is not bad but the way that it is set up is asinine. For short folk like me, you have to yell through the gaps in the panels - and loud music does not help either - which also was not so good with having greenhorns on site. For a set up that is meant to have everything done really quickly and to go, this certain puts a spanner in the works as lots of patrons will have been yelling their choices several times already.
The menu is really simple. It is all about pizzas here, for the most part all up to the consumer. If you really are indecisive, they have a few ready-to-make ones just available by name. The basic process of it is to chose the kind of base you want as well as size - two sizes, two fixed costs - then the sauce you want, followed up by the cheeses, then all the meats, then the other kinds of items like vegetables et al, followed up by seasonings, and after it gets cooked, the optional finishing garnishes complete it all. There might be some salads on the menu there somewhere. You know, to be all healthy and that kind of cr..... salad sucks. They also don't stop there, with the pizzas getting the dessert and breakfast treatment.
Much like all the items listed on the website, it varies according to availability what drinks there are. It could be iced tea, several kinds of sodas, thickshakes, coffee, and sparkling water. It really is a crap-shoot what is there (kind of a disappointment that there was no coffee at this stage). What I had was an iced tea, mango and passionfruit flavour. This was cold and sweet, not much else to it.
Each one of us ordered a pizza, make your own.
First up was MB, who simply got the lot on his pizza without even looking plus a whole lot of chilli oil. From what I recall, he got a sourdough base and the green sauce (which is like a basil and pine nut pesto). Just, everything that was there he got on his pizza until about the end - at the end there was some rocket and more chili put on it.
For the one that I had it was a sourdough base with the red sauce. Going from there, I went mad on the cheese at first. There was parmesan, gorgonzola, and mozzarella that formed the based of my pizza. The old carnivore is still alive, so the meat really outweighed the other items - for flesh there was pancetta, Italian sausage, meatballs, spicy salami, jalapenos, olives, and roasted garlic then chili oil and oregano before it was cooked in the oven. Afterwards, some olive oil, parmesan and chili oil finished off the job.
As for Mandy, the pizza that she was got a Napolitana base with white sauce, choosing mozzarella, parmesan and scamorza as the cheeses, then topping it off with Italian sausage, pancetta and chorizo as meats, then for extras roasted garlic, cherry tomatoes, roasted pineapple and pinenuts before having a sprinkle of olive oil before getting cooked, and right before serving getting fresh rocket and basil to garnish it.
All of these pizzas were half decent, and definitely fresh. Maybe the dough out to have had a bit more care, or maybe the pizzas required a little more cooking since that amount of time still had it contain that odd raw texture. MB's was ... different. There were all sorts of flavours from the way that he went about it, getting everything on it. That had the sweetness of pineapple, the tartness of mushrooms, and all kinds of meat. The cheeses were melted well, and there was quite a bit of a hit from the basil pesto. However, with this urging to make it spicy it really didn't come through. Can't aruge with the portion size, all three times.
Mine was also good, and it got the added dimension of making a creamy texture from gorgonzola that made for a strong and distinct flavour. All the meats were well cooked, a little bit of heat came through with the jalapenos and chili oil, plus the hit of garlic each time is something utterly irresistible. Also the olives added a bit more needed dimension in a very meat-and-cheese heavy pizza - that's what you get for me being in the driver's seat.
Mandy's one was probably the best, or at least most well-balanced. The meats were good as usual, smokey and flavoursome, the cheeses were mild and there was a nice touch from each of the other items on her pizza - sweetness with pineapple, the distinct bite of the roasted pinenuts, fresh juiciness of the cherry tomato, and roasted garlic needs no more. It was a tad lighter than the other two as well.
After all of that, the next post of business was whether or not to get dessert. Well, knowing me by now that kind of stuff would not even be alluded to if the answer was not yes. With little pausing after finishing the pizzas off, it was hot put it to ordering the sweets. Both Mandy and I went up and got both choices - a banana calzone, and a strawberry pizza.
Now these are also good, and all three of us possibly agreed it beat the main course. The Nutella pizza was simple, with a dough base and strawberries put on top before having a generous drizzle of Nutella and icing sugar over it. What was noted was that the strawberries were a bit over-ripe, and aside from that it was good - so much Nutella that the teeth needed a second clean from that alone; it was thick, sticky and delicious. The icing sugar is just icing on the cake.
Better yet was the banana calzone. The size of this was more than enough for three people, and needed a knife and fork to cut it open. Inside it was caramalised banana, and Nutella which makes for one delicious and sickly-sweet combination. Mixing in with it was some hazelnut crunch, which combined well. Completing it all was some sweet icing sugar, a second drizzle of Nutella, and potentially having a huge dentist bill. Worth it in the end.
I can't vouch for how Fraelli's has worked all the way south, so there is no way to compare how it is going up here. In thinking of it from a completely new perspective, there is definitely a lot of potential with how this on goes. People are already familiar with how a sandwich is able to be made according to their tastes, so naturally there other kinds of food stuff should be able to adapt to that same method.
Additionally, it was great to meet two new people. Both MB and Mandy are some of the friendliest folk that I have ever met, being really outgoing and extroverted which is just fantastic to see. They shared an enthusiasm for food, were very open and quite social. It is quite some luck finding a person like this, but it was like scoring double with these two lovely folk. Hopefully this is only the first time I meet up with them. Many more of these arrangements are imminent.
TL;DR: Is it enough of a sell to say that you are in free reign to design the pizza you want to eat? That is Fratelli's in a nut shell. I certainly won't give them any sort of fail mark just yet. It is in the early stages of development, and as per usual there are kinks in the armour to iron out. The idea behind it is actually not too bad, and hopefully its operations can run smoothly. When it is able to get a good team behind it, and enough of a good press, they can make an excellent turnover rate considering the business hours and all that. The night's was not as good as it could have been, with a combination of operations needing some refinement and maybe a little more cooking for the pizzas. Other than that, with a little bit of blooming luck Brisbane can start getting the novel aspect of Fratelli's to be even more known than now.
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