Fortina Armonk – Delicious Food Chronicles from a New Yorker

Fortina in Armonk, NY- December Challenge 2 of 17, Buzzing Flies Accompanied Our Brunch

Fortina is a very popular restaurant in my hometown. The three prior visits yielded much happiness and fulfilled tummies. See my Fortina posts, click here for my first experience, here for the pizza and here for the Rye Brook location. However, this Fall brunch visit is rather different, unfortunately. To quote my 11-year-old, “Even the flies are trying to get out of here.” The restaurant was loud with music and buzzing sounds of flies. We could not bat the flies away quick enough.

Really? Multiple flies buzzing in our ears and above our food in a restaurant that charges $21 for a small pizza? Shame on you, Fortina.
WOOD-FIRED POLPO with white bean, olives, salumi vinaigrette. Decent octopus. The white beans were ok. The wood-fired anything in Fortina is usually good.
HAM AND EGGS with prosciutto, soft poached egg, crispy potatoes, parm. Looked interesting and tasted salty. My daughter found it not worth eating. She picked at the crispy prosciutto and potatoes and skipped the poached egg completely. THE LUIGI BIANCO pizza with burrata, robiolona, parmesan, black truffle. This had been my favorite of Fortina. It kind of was still fine but the constant swatting of the flies did not enhance my enjoyment.
Here is the bill, $60. Probably would have been justifiable without the flies. We finished our food as quickly as possible. In fact, ate only less than half and ran out of the restaurant.

Do you think I should have asked them to swat the flies for us? Don’t forget to bring your fly swatter when you go eat at Fortina’s. Buon appetito!

This experience took place at

Fortina Armonk
17 Maple Ave
Armonk, NY 10504
(914) 273-0900

Frankie & Fanucci’s Pizzaria in Mamaroneck, NY – A Happy Spring Lunch with an Average Wood-Fired Pizza

An Italian friend and I went to Frankie & Fanucci’s Pizzeria for a quick lunch. My honey boo boo monkey bird has been going to Frankie & Fanucci’s with her grandparents for years and this was my first time there. Given all the tall tales I have heard, I had high hopes for Frankie & Fanucci’s. I like pizza. I like wood oven, brick oven, and coal-fired pizzas. As long as it is well made, I will like it.

As always, I started out with a Classic Margherita with fresh mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes sauce, and bail. This was average. The crust was not thin and was not crispy. In fact, it was a little moist. My friend and I spent quite a lot of time talking about other better pizza places in Westchester or even the one down the street, called Sal’s (no frills pizzeria that turns out NY and Sicilian styled slices for decades).

Wood-fired Cauliflower: whipped ricotta, rosemary flatbread. This was also average. The aspect of having cauliflower at lunch was exciting for me but the execution was lacking in the whipped ricotta and rosemary flatbread. Very one note.

This entire lunch reminded me of one of my experiences in Fortina in Armonk where I ordered almost identical dishes: pizza and wood-dire cauliflowers. The satisfaction was high and certainly not average. See my post on Fortuna, click here.

I felt a little like an idiot for having selected Frankie & Fanucci’s to dine with an Italian… However, the best part of my lunch that day was sitting outside for the first time this Spring with the sun hitting on my face. Happy Spring, my friends.

This experience took place at

Frankie & Fanucci’s Pizzeria
301 Mamaroneck Ave,
Mamaroneck, NY 10543
(914) 630-4360

Fortina in Armonk, NY – Straight Forward Italian Food, Cooked in Wood-Fired Ovens

Fortina is an Italian food and pizza restaurant and a relative newcomer to the Armonk restaurant scene. It opened in May 2014. As an Armonk resident, I watched people flood to the restaurant and I heard my friends’ reviews after they went there. I did not go to Fortina until December last year and was very pleasantly surprised by how good the food is and how vibrant the bar scene is.

I was there during a weeknight after 8pm. The place was packed with couples, families, and friends. First thing I noticed when I entered the restaurant was how many good-looking men were at the bar. That is not typical of Armonk. 🙂 I also noticed many good-looking women with their friends at the tables; now, that’s Armonk!

The wait staff was friendly and quick to respond. The music played was the 80s with large screen TVs on the wall. The atmosphere was very lively and loud. It’s not so great if you want an intimate conversation but it is great for large party socialization.

Classic Margherita – tomato, basil, mozzarella. Since this was my first time, I wanted something simple and classic just in case they screw it up. I went for the margherita pizza. It was so much better than expected. Wood-fired oven is KING. The pizza was very yummy and was shared happily.

Tortelloni – sweet potato, brown butter, pecans, parmesan. This was lovely. The sweet potato inside the tortelloni was just sweet enough to satisfy and left a desire to eat a second mouth full. Well done, Fortina.

Fortina really lived up to their slogan – Straight Forward Italian Food, Cooked in Wood-Fired Ovens. It was good. I would recommend it for simple eating and for meeting new people at the bar. 🙂

This experience took place at

Fortina Pizza
17 Maple Ave
Armonk, NY 10504
914 273 0900
FortinaPizza@Gmail.com

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