Frankies Olive Oil: What Frankies 457 Actually Sells
Frankies olive oil is sold by Frankies 457, and the first useful thing to know is what kind of company that is. It is not a grower who opened a restaurant. It is a Brooklyn restaurant group — founded by two chefs both called Frank — that later put its name on a range of Italian pantry goods. The oil itself is made in Sicily, in partnership with another family, and the brand says so openly on its own about page. That distinction matters more than it sounds, because chef-founded and restaurant-founded brands are exactly where shoppers tend to assume a grove that is not there. Here is who they are, who mills the oil, and what the label does and does not tell you.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- Frankies 457 is a restaurant name first. The "457" is a street number — 457 Court Street, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn — and the restaurant site describes Frankies Spuntino as having served Italian-American food there "for nearly two decades".
- The founders are Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo. The brand's own about page calls them "legendary new york chefs" and describes Frankies 457 as "a specialty foods brand committed to introducing america to italian ingredients of the highest quality".
- The oil is Sicilian and milled with a partner family. The same page states the brand is based in "carroll gardens, brooklyn, and selinunte, sicily", and that the oil is "made in partnership with the legendary Asaro family".
- There are only three oils. An organic extra virgin made from Nocellara del Belice; an everyday extra virgin blending Nocellara del Belice, Biancolilla and Cerasuola; and a Calabrian chilli oil, which is a flavoured condiment rather than a plain extra virgin.
- No chemistry and no harvest date are published for the oils. Across the brand's own pages there is no acidity figure, peroxide value, K-coefficient or polyphenol count for any Frankies oil, and no crush date or crop year. That is the norm for the category, not a singular failing.
- The organic EVOO bottle carries a superlative we are not going to repeat as fact. The label describes it as the greatest olive oil in the world. That is the brand's own wording; it is not a verifiable claim, and we report it rather than endorse it.
- Sidr & Stone's oil answers a different question — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest near Marrakech, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Frankies 457 Is a Restaurant Group First
The number in the name is an address. Frankies 457 Spuntino sits at 457 Court Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and the group's restaurant site describes it as "the pioneering Brooklyn restaurant" and as having served its Italian-American cooking there for "nearly two decades". Its own about page credits "its beloved chef-owners, Frank Castronovo and Frank Falcinelli".
The group is now four rooms. Alongside the original are F&F Pizzeria at 459 Court Street, Franks Wine Bar on the same block, and Frankies Nashville, which the site describes as the first restaurant opened outside New York City, in 2023. The packaged-goods business trades separately as Frankies Specialty Foods LLC.
None of this is a criticism, and it is worth saying why it matters anyway. A restaurant brand's authority is real — these are people who have used a lot of olive oil, critically, for a long time. It is simply a different kind of authority from a grower's, and the label will not always make the difference obvious.
Who Actually Mills the Oil
The brand answers this itself, in capitals, on its about page: the oil is "made in partnership with the legendary Asaro family, the first and last word in Sicilian olive oil production". The olives are described as grown and harvested at Selinunte, on the south-western coast of Sicily, which the page calls "home of the frankies farm", and the process is summarised as "harvested, cold-pressed, and packaged in the birthplace of the industry".
So the model is a partnership: a Brooklyn brand, a Sicilian grower-miller, and an oil bottled in Sicily and shipped to the United States. That is a perfectly ordinary and often excellent arrangement — it is how a great many chef and restaurant brands are built, and it puts the fruit and the mill in the same place, which is the part that matters most for freshness.
What it does not give you is a single traceable grove. "Selinunte" is a locality, not a field, and the partner's own certifications and specifications are not reproduced on the Frankies site. If grove-level traceability is what you are after, that is the honest limit of the model, and it is the same limit our piece on single-estate olive oil sets out in general terms.
The Three Oils, and the Olives They Name
The range is small and the descriptions are specific about variety, which is more than many brands manage. Naming the cultivar is genuinely useful information: it tells you the style to expect before you open the bottle.
| Product | What it is | Olives named | Origin stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic EVOO | Extra virgin, described as fully organic | Nocellara del Belice, single variety | Grown and harvested in Selinunte, Sicily |
| Everyday Oil | Extra virgin, a three-variety blend | Nocellara del Belice, Biancolilla, Cerasuola | Grown and harvested in Selinunte, Sicily |
| Calabrian Chili Oil | Flavoured condiment, not a plain extra virgin | Three named chillies plus Frankies extra virgin olive oil | Chillies Calabrian and Etnean; oil as above |
Nocellara del Belice is worth knowing. It is best known as a table olive — the plump bright-green Castelvetrano in the deli tub is the same cultivar — and as an oil it tends towards the green, grassy, tomato-leaf end with a moderate rather than fierce bitterness. Biancolilla is softer and more almondy; Cerasuola is the more assertive of the three. A blend of all three is a deliberately rounded everyday oil rather than a showpiece.
The chilli oil is a condiment and is labelled as one, which is the right way round. For where flavoured oils sit relative to plain grades, our guide to what extra virgin olive oil actually is covers the definitions.
What the Label Declares — and What It Leaves Out
We read every page on the brand's own site before writing this, including all three oil pages, the pantry pages and the blog, because a negative is only worth asserting if you have looked where the number would live. Here is the result, set against our own position on the same rows.
| What a buyer wants | Frankies 457 | Sidr & Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Country and locality of origin | Published — Selinunte, Sicily | Published — single grove outside Marrakech, Morocco |
| Olive variety | Published — named per oil | Not published as a cultivar name |
| Grade | Published — extra virgin | Published — extra virgin, unfiltered |
| Harvest or crush date | Not published | Not published; a single harvest each season |
| Free acidity (%) | Not published | Not published |
| Peroxide value, K232, K270 | Not published | Not published |
| Total polyphenols (mg/kg) | Not published | Not published |
| Organic certification | Described as "fully organic"; no certifier named in body copy | Organically grown; no formal certificate, and we do not claim one |
Two rows deserve a sentence each rather than a shrug. On organic status, the phrase used for the flagship oil is "a fully organic olive oil", and we could not find a certifying body or certificate number named anywhere in the site's body copy; the only "USDA Organic" wording we found appears in the alt text describing a pasta packet, not an oil. That is likely just a website gap rather than anything more — the seal will be on the physical bottle if it is certified — but a buyer shopping online cannot verify it from the site.
On dates, there is a small irony worth flagging kindly. The brand's own blog advises readers to "check for a harvest date to ensure freshness" — advice we entirely agree with — while no harvest date is printed for its own oils on the site. Again, that is the category norm; almost nobody at this scale publishes one online. It is simply the single most useful thing that could be added.
One further note, kept deliberately short: some of the brand's blog posts make general health-outcome statements about olive oil. We do not echo other companies' health claims and are not reproducing them here.
The Superlative on the Bottle
The organic extra virgin's front label describes it as the greatest olive oil in the world, and the about page repeats the phrase. We are reporting that as the brand's own wording, and we are not repeating it as a fact, for the same reason we refuse the equivalent claim about our own oil: there is no test that settles it.
What would make a superlative checkable is narrower and duller. A named competition, a year, a category, and a placing — all four — is a claim a reader can go and verify. The oil pages do carry a row of award medallions, but no competition is named in text on the page, so a shopper cannot check what was won, in what year, or for which harvest.
This is a category habit rather than a Frankies habit, and it is why our own "Why Sidr & Stone" section below deliberately stops short of ranking anything.
Three Fair Objections
"Does it matter that chefs, not farmers, own the brand?" For flavour, not much — a good partner mill is a good partner mill. For traceability, yes: the brand mediates between you and the grower, so the information you get is whatever the brand chooses to publish rather than whatever the mill measures.
"Isn't 'no published chemistry' just you setting a bar nobody clears?" It would be, if we cleared it ourselves. We do not — our polyphenol row above reads "Not published" too, and will until we have lab work we can show. The point of the table is not to win it; it is to let a reader see the whole category is quiet on the same rows.
"Is a Nocellara oil actually any good?" Yes, on its own terms — it is a rounded, green, moderately bitter style that suits a table rather than a lectern. Whether it suits you depends on whether you want restraint or intensity, which is the real question behind most "best olive oil" searches. Our guide to the best store-bought olive oil works through that choice at the shelf, and our piece on Sicilian olive oil covers the island's varieties in full.
How to Buy a Chef-Founded Olive Oil Well
Restaurant and chef brands are a distinct shopping problem, because the thing you are being sold is partly a reputation and partly a liquid. These five checks separate the two, and none of them requires expertise.
| What to check | Why it matters for a chef brand | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Who actually mills it | Tells you whether the brand grows, commissions or simply labels | The about or story page — Frankies names the Asaro family |
| A named locality, not just a country | "Product of Italy" can mean blended imports; a town cannot | Product description — Frankies states Selinunte, Sicily |
| The cultivar | Sets the flavour style before you open it | Front or back label |
| A harvest or crush date | The single strongest freshness signal; a chef's endorsement is not one | Neck or back label — not published here |
| What an award actually says | A medallion with no competition, year or category named is unverifiable | Product page — look for all four details together |
Beyond that the usual disciplines apply: dark glass or tin, a size you will finish within a season of opening, and somewhere cool and dark to keep it. Our guide to choosing a quality olive oil works through the full checklist.
Why Sidr & Stone
We write about other brands because readers are researching them, and because an honest account is more useful than either a hymn or a hatchet job. Frankies 457 has done the harder half of the job: it names the country, the locality, the partner and the cultivars. Our own oil is built to answer the two questions that remain.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco, with no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives them.
- Organically grown — without synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides. We do not hold formal organic certification and do not claim it.
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch, picked when the fruit is ready.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma and polyphenols preserved by pressing quickly and without added heat.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, so it may carry a little natural sediment, which is normal.
- 100% natural — one ingredient, olive oil, and nothing else.
- 500 ml dark glass with a gold label — protective packaging in a size built to be finished fresh.
- Halal certified, with 10% of profits given to charity.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the greatest olive oil in the world — that is precisely the claim this article declines to repeat about anyone. What we will say is that ours is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, that we do not yet publish a polyphenol figure and will not imply one, and that we would rather be checkable than superlative.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Frankies olive oil?
It is the olive oil line of Frankies 457, a Brooklyn specialty foods brand founded by the chefs Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo. The oil is made from Sicilian olives grown and harvested at Selinunte, in partnership with the Asaro family.
What does the 457 in Frankies 457 mean?
It is the street number of the original restaurant, Frankies 457 Spuntino, at 457 Court Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The food brand took its name from the restaurant rather than the other way round.
Who makes Frankies 457 olive oil?
The brand states the oil is made in partnership with the Asaro family in Sicily, and that it is harvested, cold-pressed and packaged there. Frankies 457 is the brand owner and the packaged-goods business trades as Frankies Specialty Foods LLC.
What olives is Frankies olive oil made from?
The organic extra virgin is made from Nocellara del Belice, a single variety better known as a table olive. The Everyday Oil blends Nocellara del Belice with Biancolilla and Cerasuola. Both are described as grown and harvested in Selinunte, Sicily.
Is Frankies olive oil organic?
One of the two extra virgins is described by the brand as "a fully organic olive oil". No certifying body or certificate number is named in the site's body copy, so an online shopper cannot verify the certification from the website alone; check the seal on the physical bottle.
Does Frankies publish a harvest date or acidity figure?
Not on its own site. We checked all three oil pages, the pantry pages and the blog and found no acidity, peroxide, K-coefficient or polyphenol figure, and no crush date or crop year for any Frankies oil. That is the ordinary position for the category rather than an outlier.
Where can you buy Frankies olive oil?
Direct from the brand's own online shop, and at its Brooklyn restaurants. Whichever route you take, prefer a retailer with quick turnover and buy a size you will finish within a few months of opening.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
Restaurant-founded olive oil is a category where the story does most of the work, and Frankies 457 has a genuinely good one: two chefs, a Court Street dining room of nearly twenty years, and a Sicilian partnership they name rather than hide. On the things a label can actually verify — country, locality, partner, variety, grade — they are more forthcoming than a lot of the shelf.
Where the story stops is the same place it stops for almost everyone: no date, no numbers. We are in that position ourselves and have said so in the table above rather than pretending otherwise. Until the category starts printing a harvest date, that one line remains the cheapest and largest improvement any olive oil brand could make.
So buy it for what it is — a rounded Sicilian oil chosen by people who cook with it every night — and judge it the way you would judge any bottle: open it, taste it, and see whether it still smells green.
Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and pressed within hours of harvest — is available to pre-order as a limited single-harvest batch. Estimated shipping from November 2026. Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Our extra virgin olive oil is grown organically on our own single-estate farm on the plains outside Marrakech: we control every step from tree to bottle, and no synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers are used. It is not yet certified organic — certification is in progress, and we will publish it as soon as it comes through.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited Single-Harvest Batch →
Disclaimer: This article describes Frankies 457 and Frankies Specialty Foods LLC as they published themselves on frankies457.com and frankiesspuntino.com at the time of writing; ranges, certifications, label wording and site content may change, and readers should check current sources. Comparisons are made in good faith and in fair terms. References to Frankies 457 and to the Asaro family describe general observations and are not affiliated with or endorsed by either. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.