BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Boards now cover up the windows of Frankie, Johnnie and Luigi Too, but the popular Italian restaurant plans to reopen in 2023 in a brand-new building with apartments for memory care patients on top.
The mission-style building at 939 El Camino Real in Mountain View will be demolished and developed into three stories, with the restaurant and two retail spaces on the ground floor.
The restaurant has operated in Mountain View since 1956.
The second and third level will be home for up to 60 residents with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other age-related memory issues. Senior living company Calson Management will manage the units.
The kitchen will serve both the restaurant and the memory care facility, and people walking by will be able to look in, the plans say.
The restaurant has won several awards for its pizza and is an institution in town, but businesses had slowed during the pandemic.
Owner John D’Ambrosio Jr., the nephew of the founder, spearheaded the project.
The building will be 35 feet tall and have about 38,953 square feet of space, with a 5,833 square-foot footprint for the restaurant and shops.
I’ll be curious to see how they are when they re-open. For decades FJL was a Mountain View staple, but in recent years it’d really fallen downhill. They went from being the best Italian place in the are to not even being able to handle basic stuff, like just getting To Go orders correct.
Let’s hope when they re-open they do so with someone different (and more importantly, *competent*) managing the place.
Experienced retail and restaurant staff is really hard to come by right now.Be patient with your favorite places while they refind their footing.
Can’t wait to get some of that stromboli Pizza in 2023!