John and Jeff Freightenburgh are back to making gourmet pizza, this time in a new joint which differs in one important way from their last kitchen: This one has no wheels.
The proprietors of the mobile, wood-oven Pizza Rig have parked their converted Chevy truck and settled into Ironwood, a new restaurant at 125 E. Seneca St., Manlius. They opened Thanksgiving week in a completely remodeled and handsomely appointed space in the building next to the Manlius Art Cinema.
As customers enter the dual-level pub, they get a feel for the theme with husky wood and metal tables, rustic hardwood flooring and ductwork crisscrossing the ceiling. At the far end, flaming logs are visible inside the imported brick oven, baking the pizzas at temperatures as high as 900 degrees. The whimsical décor features a sculpture of New York license plates, green tile kitchen walls and a wall-length mural in the lower dining room.
“We did all the designing, all the interior finishes,” says owner John Freightenburgh, whose business partner is his son Jeff. The mural was done by {former Syracuse New Times contributor} Dan Dippel. He’s an unbelievable artist in the city. We were lucky to get him to do this.”
Prior to the renovation, the restaurant space, which seats 75, was most recently an office building. “We were searching for a permanent location since we saw how popular the truck was,” Freightenburgh recalls. “It wasn’t until this building’s owner, a guy named Russ Brownback from Cazenovia, bought this building, he came to me and wanted to put something in this building. The two of us got together and came up with this. The room we’re sitting in now was just storage, stacked to the ceiling with boxes. We gutted it and totally renovated the entire building.”
Beyond the bar and counter, both topped by shellacked pennies, the kitchen is open and customers can watch pizzas being licked by flames. “This is a Marra Forni oven that I had shipped from Italy,” Freightenburgh explains. “The shipping probably cost more than the oven. It’s handmade out of brick, so it’s a true brick-oven, wood-fired pizza. We only burn wood, we don’t burn any gas.”
In addition to the 12-inch pies, priced from $10 to $15 and made to order, the menu features salads ($7 to $9) and seven flavors of gelato ($3.75). “Everything here is fresh,” Freightenburgh assures. “We make our own gelato here, we stretch our own mozzarella cheese every day and of course we make our own dough and sauce. Everything is fresh. I don’t even have a freezer in the building and we don’t have any fryers. We’re leaning toward the healthier pizza place.”
“We have a hostess who seats you and waitress service,” Freightenburgh says. “That’s all we do. We don’t do takeout orders or slices. Some people are upset about that; they think if you open a restaurant you have to have takeout, especially if it’s pizza. But when we fill this dining room up with 75 people and we turn it over four times a night, we don’t have any ability to do any kind of takeout. We’re going to take care of the diners.”
With the Manlius Art Cinema just a few steps away, the new place has been plenty busy, especially on weekends. On Mondays through Saturdays they’re open from 4 to 10 p.m. “We do a Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. where we have a local artist come in and play guitar and sing,” Freightenburgh explains, “and we do an entirely different menu with breakfast pizza, loaded baked potato and soup. It’s different just for Sundays.”
As for their popular Pizza Rig business, the owners haven’t entirely given up the seasonal pizzeria-on-the-road life. “We’re booking parties already for next year,” Freightenburgh concedes. “We’ll use it more for catering. I don’t think we’ll be out on the street much, it’ll be mostly private parties. It’s a nice bonus: The truck will promote the restaurant and the restaurant can promote the truck.”
First impression: This place has overpriced,oily pizza. That was our first experience. Second impression: We live in a family friendly town and they a the most unfriendly restaurant to families with kids! We had terrible food the first time we were there and decided to try back again. We were asked to leave because we brought baby food in for my 9 month old and chicken nuggets for my 2 year old who I well know won't touch pizza. I figured a restaurant would want families especially on a night when only 4 tables were occupied. We were avidly trying to support the local town and give the restaurant a second chance. Oh, well. Good luck selling expensive pizza to families in Manlius. Beautiful building and nice furniture. Hope you fail so someone else can buy you out.