Franciosi Brothers hoping second pizzeria finds recipe for success

John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
Anthony and Dominic Franciosi have expanded their operations and are optimistic that their recipe of success at the business’ Oak Creek location will deliver at Franciosi Brothers Tap and Table a new pizzeria at 105 W Jefferson Ave. in Hayden.
“I feel there’s a lot of similarities between Oak Creek and Hayden,” Anthony Franciosi said. “We just want to serve the community, and that’s what we love about Oak Creek; you’re really serving your friends and neighbors.”
The Franciosi Brothers opened its first location at 112 W. Main Street in Oak Creek in June 2020, and added the Hayden location, Franciosi Tap and Table on Oct. 8. The location has been the site of Sk8 Church’s “The Block” the past couple of years and was the home of Wolf Mountain Pizza prior to that.
Franciosi said that the new location will also feature fresh ingredients including Wisconsin mozzarella, and San Marzano tomatoes, but he said the Oak Creek location will continue to offer a true New Jersey hand tossed crust while the new location will feature an East Coast tavern style crust.
“It’s a little different style of pizza,” Franciosi said. “We are going to use a similar dough recipe, but it’s really thin and very crispy.”
The Hayden spot has 60 seats in the main space, plus an additional 50 seats in a banquet area. The Franciosi’s added a new bar area and will feature award-winning beer created by the Franciosi’s family friends who own Ratio Beerworks out of Denver.
“We have four taps all by our friends from Ratio Beerworks,” Franciosi said. “Anyone who’s been in our Oak Creek location knows their beer well.”
The menu, which was designed by chef Sean Yeats, will also offer a selection of pizzas ranging from a cheese to the chicken, bacon, ranch pizza. Customers can also enjoy the meatballs created using the Franciosi family recipe, and Yeats has added the short rib and garlic cream pizza, which has become very popular.
“He’s doing a braised short rib that he is shredding and putting on a pizza,” Franciosi said. “That seems to be the star of the menu right now. It is Chianti-braised short rib pizza on a garlic white sauce.”
The new location, which was most recently an indoor skate park, has been completely renovated and has five large screen televisions, and has NFL Sunday Ticket so customers can watch all the big football games this season as well as baseball, hockey, basketball and other sports options.
“We are big football fans,” Franciosi said. “So we are thrilled to bring pizza, beer and football — and obviously, hockey season has started now. Customers will have the ability to watch all the big games.”
Franciosi said the stores are using an online ordering platform at toasttab.com/haydenpizza, so that people who might be on the way home to Craig can order in advance and then pick up a pie on their way through town. He said Franciosi Brothers in Oak Creek has been able to tie into the community, and his hope is that the new location will be able to follow suit. Franciosi is hoping to collaborate with the Farmers Market that takes place on Thursday evening just outside during the summer.
“The Hayden farmers market has been really successful for them up there on Thursday evenings, and we’ll be right next to them,” Franciosi said. “We’re trying to work out how we can kind of collaborate with them in some sort of beer garden type of thing.”
The new location is open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
“We opened with masks on and it was that way for like the first over a year, maybe a little more,” Franciosi said of the 2020 opening in Oak Creek. “The community has looked out for us, and we’ve tried to put out a really high quality product, and that’s working for us.”
John F. Russell is the business reporter at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.

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