Our Christmas break has extended one day beyond what was planned due to employee illness.  We apologize for any inconvenience this creates.  Please enjoy the remainder of the holiday season and make plans to visit us soon!  We anticipate reopening for business on December 28th.

It’s a semi-known fact that yours truly tutors the SAT for a major test prep company to supplement his income.  I’ve got nothing negative to say about the experience, but lately I’ve developed this strange problem.  I can’t write more than three complete sentences without reverting to a multiple choice format.  I can’t contr…

1) At a certain restaurant 1/3 of the diners paid for their meals in cash, 1/2 paid with a credit card, and the remaining 16 washed dishes in exchange for their food. If the person to your right is eating red meat, you think to yourself:
A) How unhealthy; I’m a vegetarian!
B) How deplorable; I’m a vegan!
C) How delicious; Can I have some?
D) How compelling; Is that beef grass-fed?
E) 96

2) This website as a whole suggests that the management of Franktuary believes raw milk to be:
A) A dangerous substance that should be banned in Pennsylvania
B) Essential to the underground Amish economy
C) Vital for healthy digestive flora
D) Ideal for cheese making
E) Far less scary, yet far less subsidized than HFCS

Seriously, if you know a high schooler in need of help with his test prep, you should talk to me.  It just so happens that in addition to my post as a tutor I’m also the Community Relationship Developer for Kaplan’s pre-college programs in western Pennsylvania.  Shoot an email to tim.tobitsch@kaplan.com.

Yours truly has just booked a research trip via the MegaBus over MLK weekend. It’s time to try some authentic poutine from the source. Quebec, here I come!

For love of squeaky curds and the exploration of gravies,
Franktuary

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!  We’re closed today and won’t be open again until Monday.

We’re also getting rid of our phone line at the end of the month.  We no longer need a phone line to accept credit cards and the majority of calls we receive are aggravating solicitations that occur while we’re in the middle of our work day.  So, if you’re among the people who actually use our phone number in an attempt to support our business, please accept my apologies for the inconvenience we may be creating for you.

We still want your business and ask that you direct future inquiries to emailus-at-franktuary-dot-com.  If you have a serious interest in Franktuary I’d be happy to pass along my mobile number after reading your email.  Thanks in advance for your future business and understanding our need to curtail junk messages in whatever form they may occur!

It’s November, and that means you can raise money for men’s health at Franktuary!

The Movember movement has been encouraging men to grow a moustache during the month of November for the last 7 years, raising over $7.5 million for men’s health and cancer prevention research. Movember partners with the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LiveStrong, the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Can you help? YES! Do you have to grow that stache yourself? NO!

- Donate at Franktuary. Movember donation box located near the register.
- Buy a moustache. Furry staches come in three easy-to-adhere styles and wax staches come in grape flavor. Tape or chew your way to a decorated face! All proceeds benefit Movember.
- Wear a moustache. Men and women alike, flash your stache at the register and we’ll donate 10% of your purchase total to Movember.

Grow it and show it!

On Saturday October 29 Clarion River Organics and Chef Justin Severino are teaming up to host a 5-course barn dinner. Additional information can be found on Farm to Table Pittsburgh’s Facebook Page.

Just in case delectable local and organic cuisine prepared by one of our region’s most gifted chefs and presented in a unique setting that intimately connects the diner to his food doesn’t provide sufficient incentive to attend, know that proceeds from this dinner will go toward subsidizing CSA shares of low income families.

Nonetheless, earlier today one friend told me he couldn’t make it because “all the Halloween parties are on that night.”  Really?  There are people out there who actually think this way?

Trust me, this is way better than any Halloween party you’re thinking about attending on the 29th.  For starters, a sumptuous natural 5-course harvest dinner clearly trumps a holiday that in its current form primarily exists to promote excessive consumption of highly processed sugars.  Second, everyone knows the coolest Halloween parties are actually held on Halloween, even when that means partying on a Monday night!  Third, while I acknowledge that dressing up can be fun, I’m sure you can wear a costume to this dinner if you’d like.  Lastly, a harvest dinner and Halloween each in their own way celebrate the life cycle, specifically the end of that cycle, or death.  I’ll take the way the former views and celebrates this topic over the latter any day of the week.

Okay, so all the logic in the above paragraph isn’t changing your mind?  Let’s level with one another.  The real reason you likely don’t want to miss your Halloween party is that it’s an excuse for you to be both drunk and socially acceptable simultaneously.  Did I mention there are local spirits featured at this dinner??  And dinner is at 5:30!  What kind of self-styled socialite can’t attend a dinner at 5:30 and also make the Halloween party rounds???

So, what are you waiting for?  Sign up and join me at the table!  While I’ve never attended a barn dinner before,  the reports I’ve heard from people who have are nothing short of glowing.

Visit franktuary.com/foodtruck for the current truck schedule! Emailus-at-franktuary-dot-com to book the truck!

Seriously people, it’s a great place to be, especially if you buy lunch.  I promise you this.  Franktuary smells much better than Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan currently does.  Hands down, it’s a better hangout.  Plus, at the risk of being presumptuous, when you support a business that operates in a manner of which you approve, you’re definitively taking part in change for the better.

If you ask me, choosing to support businesses that get things right is a much better plan than hanging out on a corner and demanding that other people make changes to improve your life.  While I sympathize with some of what Occupy Wall Street stands for, I think the protestors have a strategy made up of a whole lot more madness than method.

So, start your own movement!  Support a business that stands for something you believe in.  It need not be Franktuary, but I’ll certainly like you more if it is!  Or take it a step further.  Get crazy and start a business of your own.  Good luck with the paperwork!

You’d think that as a hot dog shoppe bun makers would want to work with you.  Not so much, at least in this town.

Having said that, I’m pleased to report that we are now one full week into a relationship with a new bread company and it’s going rather smoothly.

I only hope you enjoy our new buns as much as I enjoy not having to pick up and fit as many as 1,000 hot dog rolls into my Toyota Corolla (with other inventory) at one time!

Franktuary wholeheartedly endorses the signing of this petition. Please give it your consideration.

Food Democracy Now Petition!

At Franktuary, we know that grass-fed beef really is healthier than its mainstream less naturally raised counterpart. We also believe that regardless of whether you choose to drink it, selling raw milk should not be a crime. We believe that allowing individuals and companies the ability to patent seeds is a very dangerous idea. We believe that the option to avoid food products with GMO ingredients should not be a difficult one to choose. Help put an end to the madness that is the current state of our FDA, which opposes every belief and claim I’ve made in this paragraph.

Still not convinced? Here’s a word from Food Democracy Now!, the people behind this petition.

“Last week we sent out an urgent alert calling for the resignation of FDA Food Safety Czar Michael Taylor because of the agency’s inappropriate focus on small family farms that sell raw milk being caught up in armed raids while giant factory farm food safety violators like Jack DeCoster – the man responsible for last year’s massive egg recall that sickened 1,900 people- are getting away without so much as a fine.

This type of disproportionate response to risk and scope of violations that punishes tiny family farm operations with excessive scrutiny and fines, while allowing dangerous factory farm conditions off scot-free clearly indicates that this administration is on the wrong track when it comes to protecting our nation’s food supply.

Incredibly, more than 24,000 farmers and citizens signed the call for Taylor’s resignation in the first 24 hours, but we need more Food Democracy Now! members to help drive the message home to President Obama and officials in his administration. Help us reach 50,000 voices for real change at the FDA. It’s time for a change in this administration, one that puts people’s health over corporate profits.”