Top 5 at the 2025 International Pizza Challenge
LOOK MOM! NO HANDS!
Courtesy: WKBN First News
When we opened Franky’s Pizza & Delicatessen in downtown Warren just six months ago (time flies when you’re having fun), our dream was simple: bring bold, handcrafted flavors and honest-to-goodness Italian cooking to our hometown.
This Spring, that dream took us all the way to Las Vegas, NV—and straight into the winner’s circle.
At the 2025 International Pizza Challenge, our very own Franky’s chef/owner Benjamin Hoover (and company) earned 5th place in the Sicilian-style pizza division with our signature Spicy Pepperoni pizza.
a pizza with attitude
Our spicy pepperoni Sicilian starts with our house-made dough, stretched and fermented every day and baked in a deep steel pan until it rises, yielding a perfectly airy, golden, crispy-edged crust. It’s got the chew, the CRUNCH, and the structure to handle serious flavor.
From there, we layer on our scratch-made house-blend tomato sauce, a generous blanket of premium mozzarella, capicola, and local crispy, cupped pepperoni—finished with a drizzle of our house Italian chili crunch oil for a kick of heat and savory spice.
It’s heat, richness, crunch, chew, and attitude—exactly the kind of pie that turns heads on a competition floor packed with pizzaioli from around the globe. It’s everything we love about Sicilian-style pizza: bold, rich, unapologetically thick, and meant to be savored with both hands and a stack of napkins.
We’re not saying we invented the Italian chili crunch oil idea, but if you see it on other menus in the area this year, you’ll know where the idea came from…
a real sangwich!
Not to be outdone, our Countach sandwich landed 13th place in the Itailan Sandwich Championship.
Built on our paffuto (that’s Italian for “chubby”) house-baked deli roll, the Countach is a high-performance machine of flavor: crispy breaded chicken cutlet, silky Prosciutto di Parma, creamy fresh mozzarella, sweet roasted red peppers, baby arugula for bite, and a house-made combo of basil pesto and mayo slathered on both sides of the roll.
It’s warm, inspired, melty, savory, and stacked like a Lamborghini engine block. A deli sandwich built like an exotic car—with the flavor to match.
This year’s competition saw over 260 chefs from Italy, Mexico, Japan, and all over the U.S., each bringing their A-game (or in some cases, throwing pans in the kitchen and yelling expletives in Italian, haha.) We’re honored to compete among the best in the world and represent Warren, our beloved home.
You don’t need a plane ticket to Las Vegas to taste what all the fuss is about—both the award-winning spicy pepperoni Sicilian and the Countach are available right here at Franky’s every day we’re open.
Let’s keep going. Let’s keep growing. And let’s keep making pizza that punches above its weight.
— The Franky’s Team
