The bountiful menu of the restaurant, which was opened in 1965 by Frank Gagliano Sr., is filled with traditional Italian and seafood favorites, such as Frank's Famous Italian Stuffed Artichoke, muffalettas, chicken Marsala, red beans and rice, pasta dishes, blackened catfish and po-boys ranging from roast beef to veal cutlet to Mediterranean veggies on Italian twist bread. There also are elegant dishes such as shrimp, crawfish or combination seafood Gagliano, in which a choice of delicacies is sauteed in butter with fresh basil, garlic, green onions and special secret seasonings before it is placed over angel hair pasta and topped with Romano cheese.
"We're known for our seafood and Italian food," says Frank Gagliano Jr., who with his three brothers and a sister took over the business from his father 23 years ago. "We're
all culinary chefs, and there's always one or two of us here. We get a lot
of locals -- people who have been coming for 15 to 20 years -- and also tourists
who come back to town every year and eat with us. On Mardi Gras, especially,
for 30-something years, we've seen the same faces. It makes you feel good."
It's also good for business. When it first opened near the French Market in the mid-60s, Frank's was a slight storefront deli serving muffalettas and po-boys to Vieux Carre residents, local business people, the courthouse crowd and seamen. After a decade as a sandwich shop, it expanded its menu to include sit-down Italian dinners and in the 1980s became known for its seafood creations. The restaurant now seats about 122 diners in a small downstairs dining room and a larger one upstairs as well as a balcony that overlooks busy Decatur Street. The dining spot also has a generous wine list and a well-stocked bar.
A couple of years ago, Frank's Restaurant also started selling bottled products
made from its original recipes, including hot sauce, jalapeno sauce, garlic
sauce and steak sauce as well as bottled Italian olive salad. The business
also does overnight shipping of muffalettas and stuffed artichokes, much of
it through its Web site. That enterprise also has proved successful. "It's doing very well," says Frank Jr. "We
sell 250 to 300 jars of olive salad a week. A lot of it goes out of town."
For the Gagliano family, feeding people is in their blood, an avocation as
well as a vocation. "When I'm off, I like to try new things," Frank Jr. says. "I like to cook for my wife." Other leisure time is spent with relatives, including his siblings and their families. "We're
always together even when we're not at the restaurant. We get together two
or three times a week. My mother still cooks for us."
For Frank Jr., much of the fun of the restaurant business is connecting with
customers through good food and watching them fall in love with New Orleans
cuisine. "We get people here from all over the world and they invite us to look them up if we're ever in their town," he says. "Sometimes we do that É and it's a lot of fun." Being
in the French Quarter, Frank's also gets traffic from celebrities visiting
the city, such as a recent dinner hour spent with actor Dan Aykroyd, who occasionally
visits a friend who lives near the restaurant.
"When you grow up in (the restaurant business) as a youngster, you fall in love with what you do," he says. "My
father started this business selling good food more than 30 years ago. We're
trying to keep the tradition alive."
Marriage Counseling
Events of Elegance (394-9490; www.eventsofelegance.com), a consulting and party planning business, has found a better way to help bridal couples decide how to stage the perfect wedding.
Unlike traditional bridal fashion shows or trade shows where couples receive brochures full of information but little insight about how to use it, Events of Elegances' trademarked Engaging Moments event is designed to allow bridal couples to talk personally with local wedding professionals and vendors in a no-pressure environment and receive advice about planning a hassle-free and memorable wedding.
Engaging Moments is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 2 at Hampton Inn & Suites
(5150 Mounes St., Harahan, 394-9490). Admission is $5; seating is limited and
early registration is recommended.
