Francesca Pizza & Pasta

While I did not dive into the affiliation that squared has with Francesca’s, the ghost kitchen making these Detroit in the Elmwood Park spot is absolutely incredible and textbook for this style with one of the best exterior cheese walls you’ll ever come across. Only offered in my preferred 10x14 size I was able to dominate the entire square due to how freakishly light each slice is. There’s an extreme crunch to all exterior surfaces but the interior is fluffy and melds seamlessly to the blanket of molten abundant cheese that has pull for days. Topping the tasty cheese is a healthy amount of sauce for this style which is bonus points for me that has a bit of zip possibly some red pepper flakes added in and has a nice amount of pecorino sprinkled about the pie with shredded basil and the “lifestyle” topping of choice charred roni cups. This place regularly sells out as I pre ordered two pies for Saturday afternoon on Tuesday so be sure to check out their site and IG to plan ahead. If you love you some killer Detroit pizza this is must try!!!

Friday night, National Pizza Day, up from Florida to visit, Francesca’s was the call based on the scores. Small shop, but very obvious, they move a lot of pizzas. We went with the Grandma, for some reason, they didn’t have a traditional Sicilian pie. It was by excellent. We were chatting away, and between the three of us, we smoked through 8 slices. Everything was fresh, just the right amounts, could have spent 2 minutes more in the oven, but don’t let that stop you. Staff was very friendly and efficient, we ate there, not the greatest of atmosphere, and the additional salad was… ehhh. Wished they would have had an antipasto salad, or anything better than a handful of Romain with 5 tomato slices. But… this is a keeper, El Prez would have had the regular, solid pizza shop, I recommend giving it a try. That’s the review…

The Detroit style is awesome!

Crisp good

Plain slice: good undercarriage, tasty crunchy crust, decent sauce. 7.6 (family members and close friends must have put up those high scores. It’s good but it’s not Patsies) Bonus White slice: very good. 7.6

Really good slice! Crispy slightly charred undercarriage, good ratios on tasty sauce : cheese. Bonus: super close to the office.

💎HIDDEN GEM ALERT💎 You might not find a more perfect balance of sauce and cheese on a pizza anywhere, not to mention a near flawless crisp on the dough and crust without being burnt. Nothing fancy about this pie, it’s just straight great. With outstanding flavor emanating from the sauce, cheese & dough, this pizza has the “it factor,” when you know after just one bite you’re eating excellence. This pie is thinnish, rather light but as solid of a standard pizza as you will ever find. In the same way that Joe’s in Manhattan is the quintessential NY pizza, a similar basic greatness in its simplicity makes Francesca’s a quintessential NJ pie. Flavorful sauce, incredibly tasty dough, the cheese is the only ingredient holding it back from the 9s; not to say it’s bad, it’s just not particularly terrific cheese worthy of pushing this pie into elite territory. No gimmicks here, nothing flashy, just pizza that tastes like really good pizza. Truly a hidden gem among Jersey pies that deserves more recognition.

Extremely solid pizza, good balance of sauce and cheese. Crust is perfect and no flop.

Thin and average

This pizza is great, thin, crispy, light...as you see it is gone.