March Madness: Pizza Edition, Courtesy of Franny’s
The first and last time we were able to muster up any excitement about basketball was during our senior year at S.U., when the Orangemen won the NCAA Championship, and we were swept away in a crowd of rowdy collegians, alternately rioting and vomiting all around the resiliently snow-crusted campus.
But pizza? That’s kept us blissfully, obsessively, and consistently occupied on many a Monday night since then. Naturally, perennial Park Slope favorite, Franny’s, feels us, which is why they’re co-opting the nifty brackets idea generally associated with March Madness, and swapping in creatively constructed pies for top-seeded college teams.
They’re debuting a special menu — a Sweet 16, if you will — of never before seen pizzas on Monday, March 17th, each conceptualized by a different member of the kitchen staff (they’re all listed anonymously, guaranteeing that even owner Francine Stephens doesn’t get preferential ranking). At the close of service, that number will reduce by half based on sales, followed by an Elite 8 match on Tuesday and the Final Four on Wednesday, culminating in the Championship Pizza Showdown on Thursday night.
So will the “Capt. Beefheart” with cabbage, beef heart, onions and horseradish crème fraiche run away with the big prize (the honor of remaining on Franny’s regular menu through the end of the month) or will it be “The Radichulous,” with pork shoulder, radicchio, garlic, and grana padano? Does it really matter? When all of the players are delicious pizzas, instead of entitled, Division 1 basketball teams, everyone wins.
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