Sisters celebrate Frankie's Pizza on Bird Road's Valentine Anniversary

Two sisters are honoring their late parents who opened Frankie's Pizza on Bird Road and their's pizza shop's 55th anniversary with a documentary Sunday

BY JONATHAN DAVILA
© 2010 Miami Herald

For Roxanne and Renee Pasquarella, Valentine's Day is bittersweet. But it doesn't have anything to do with bad romantic memories.

It's because Valentine's Day is the day their late parents, Frank and Doreen Pasquarella, opened Frankie's Pizza, billed as Miami's oldest pizza shop, in 1955.

"It's bittersweet because we're missing two team members now," said Renee, 47, the younger of the two sisters.

Nonetheless, the Pasquarella sisters, who now run the Westchester pizza shop at 9118 Bird Rd., are celebrating the restaurant's 55th anniversary today. They're offering cake to their customers and hosting four showings of a 45-minute documentary made about their late father: Following Frank: Saucy Intonation's of Miami's Pizza King. The first showing is at 5:55, a nod to the 55th anniversary, with the three proceeding showings at 6:55, 7:55 and 8:55.

PMQ Magizine - Frankie's Pizza
© 2008 PMQ Magazine
After young Frank Pasquarella and his wife, Noreen, visited Miami on their honeymoon, they fell in love with the city and decided to relocate from Ohio and open a pizzeria. On Valentine’s Day in 1955, Frankie’s Pizza opened in southwest Miami; two years later, it moved to its current spot, a building on Bird Road that formerly housed a small grocery.