There are pizza events, and then there are “how the hell did they get all these people in one backyard at the same time?” pizza events. The F&F Pizza Sessions falls firmly into the second category.
This summer, Brooklyn’s F&F Pizzeria and Frankies 457 Spuntino, owned by Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli, will turn their restaurants’ backyard garden into the Avengers: Endgame of pizza collaboration dinners, bringing together an absolutely stacked lineup of pizza royalty, culinary icons and international heavy hitters for a four-part series that somehow feels both wildly ambitious and weirdly intimate at the same time.
The events will take place on June 15, July 7, July 21 and September 1. Check out the full schedule here.
Related: How Wylie Dufresne Became One of New York’s Most Fascinating Pizza Makers
You’ve got Chris Bianco teaming up with the gang from Frank Pepe’s. Mark Iacono of Lucali sharing the stage with Modern Apizza. Sally’s Apizza paired with Wylie Dufresne of Stretch Pizza, which sounds less like a pizza event and more like a lost episode of No Reservations that Anthony Bourdain would’ve narrated noir-style while chain-smoking in a dimly lit booth in the corner. Then there’s Daniel Pearson of Paris sensation Oobatz making his first-ever New York City appearance alongside pizzaiolos from New Haven institution Zuppardi’s and Argentine culinary star Fernando Trocca.
That’s the pizza equivalent of when I took all my action figures from different franchises and made them Battle Royale it in the sandbox over who controlled the garden hose waterfall. A precious resource, that.
What makes the F&F Pizza Sessions genuinely cool isn’t just the names involved, though. Pizza culture has evolved into this massive ecosystem of regional pride, obsessive technique and social media tribal warfare. People argue New York versus New Haven while New Jersey hatches schemes in the background to claim the title of world’s best. Events like this cut through all of that nonsense for one simple reason: Everybody’s cooking together.
Or as the two Franks explained in a press release: “Some people swear by New York-style pizza, while others will tell you that it’s New Haven or nothing. This summer, we’re out to prove that you can have both—and then some…We can’t wait to spend our summer celebrating in the Frankies garden with some of the best pizza on earth.”
There’s something refreshing about seeing all of these pizza legends step outside their own four walls and collaborate instead of compete. Nobody’s trying to win a medal or destroy another city’s pizza identity. It’s just great operators, chefs and pizzaiolos getting together in a backyard, making food for people who want to spend a summer night the way summer nights are supposed to work: hanging out in a backyard, balancing pizza on paper plates and talking about good food with good people.
And that backyard setting matters. F&F and the Franks have a knack for making hospitality feel personal instead of manufactured. This isn’t some convention center food festival where you spend three hours in line for a two-bite sample while getting elbowed by a guy wearing a “Pizza Is Life” shirt he definitely bought online at 2 a.m. The whole thing feels more like a giant neighborhood cookout that accidentally invited some of the best pizza makers on Earth.
The fact that a portion of ticket sales benefits Slice Out Hunger makes the whole series land even better. Pizza has always had this unique ability to bring people together, whether it’s at a birthday party, a late-night kitchen hang or during moments when communities genuinely need help. Slice Out Hunger has spent years turning pizza into a vehicle for feeding people nationwide, and having an event like this support that mission adds real substance to the spectacle.
Of course, none of this means tickets will be easy to get. If anything, reading this lineup feels like hearing your favorite band is playing a tiny club instead of an arena. Except instead of Pearl Jam, it’s Chris Bianco and Frank Pepe’s melting everyone’s faces off with coal-fired pizza.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, May 20 at 12 p.m. through Blackbird at blackbird.xyz/ff. Admission is $125 per session, with optional afterparty access available for an additional $50. Imagine a Wayne’s World Backstage Pass GIF here and Party On!
