FRATM

When you walk into FRATM in downtown San Rafael, the first thing you notice is the gleaming floors and windows. That is, if you haven’t already taken in the hulk of a pizza oven in the prep area. Made of concrete and lava rocks and weighing in at 5 tons, it’s a Stefano Ferrara Forni, “the Ferrari of pizza ovens,” says owner Angelo Sannino of Doppio Zero fame. The Neapolitan born and raised Sannino keeps the Neapolitan-crafted oven at a cozy 800 to 850F, the better to make Neapolitan pizza with, my dear. (Pizzas requires a single minute in an oven that hot to achieve ideal puffy-crustiness.) 

​

Of course there is pizza and Marin is lucky enough to have a dedicated white pie – Noci & Funghi, made with walnut cream, porcini and crumbled prosciutto. For those “no carb, no gluten” days, there’s an only-in-Marin braised short rib with fingerling potatoes, a few salads, plates of cured meats and cheeses, and vegetable-forward appetizers like beets with burrata and toasted hazelnuts and octopus with wild arugula.