Introducing Chef Franco Pollini
Enology Wine Bar & Bistro is proud to introduce Chef Franco Pollini, who now leads our kitchen in Saint James.
Franco brings 25 years of cooking in some of New York’s most demanding rooms, and a lifetime before that at the family stove. He also brings a new menu, built from the first plate to sit beside the glass.
Long Island Born, Raised at the Stove
Franco was born and raised on Long Island, a second-generation American. His parents were the first: his father Italian, his mother with family roots in South America and the Caribbean.
He found the kitchen early, cooking beside his Nonna and his Nana: two grandmothers, two traditions, one stove. Years of school followed, in both science and art, and in the end both led him back to where he started.
Twenty-Five Years in New York Kitchens
Over the last 25 years Franco has cooked in some remarkable rooms, each with its own pace and its own standard:
- Four Food Studio, Melville
- PRIME American Kitchen & Bar, Huntington
- Yankee Stadium, the Bronx
- db bistro, for Daniel Boulud, Manhattan
- The Grand Banks, Tribeca
Since the pandemic, he has turned the relationships built over those years into projects of his own, most recently Sunset Club at Tappen Beach and Frankie’s Table in Commack.
The New Menu
Franco’s entrées are built for a real dinner and a serious bottle: a USDA Prime NY strip with fries and au poivre, sole meunière in brown butter with lemon and capers, pappardelle with braised lamb ragù, a free-range chicken breast over creamy polenta with wild mushrooms, and an 8 oz burger with Brie and caramelized onions.
Around them sit the plates made for sharing over a bottle: charred octopus over crushed fingerling potatoes, the whipped ricotta tartine, flatbreads, and a charcuterie board for the table.
Come Taste It
Chef Franco’s menu is on now at Enology, 412 North Country Road in Saint James. Meet Chef Franco, see the full menu, or reserve a table and let the kitchen and the cellar take care of the evening.
From the Page to the Glass
Reading about it is one thing. Reserve a table and taste it for yourself.