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November 29, 2025 • 15 mins

Francesco is the Designer and Owner of Florence Osteria and DaMichelea.  They will be opening an Italian, a French and a Japanese restaurant in February in Hotel Figueroa. Take a listen!

 

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
You're listening to KFI EM six forty the four Report
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Let me teach you a len, Me teach you had it, Condam,
Marron Natan, Let me teach you at it. It's it's
a calm arge. Let me teach you had.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let me out of KFI AM six forty alive everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. Hey, everybody, it's the four Report,
all Things Food, beverage and beyond. I am your friendly
neighborhood Fork reporter Neil Savedra. How do you do? Happy
Saturday to you. It's a beautiful day today. Possibility of
some rain maybe on Wednesday or so, but things have

(01:03):
been really, really lovely after that last storm. I hope
you're enjoying the day because we get together here every
single Saturday for three hours just to celebrate food, the
people that make it, the culture behind it, of course,
cooking at home, going out to eat, and celebrating food
every chance you get. I want to remind you the
fifteenth annual KFI Pastathon is here and you can donate

(01:26):
at any time at KFIAM six forty dot com slash Pastathon.
Now you can donate different ways. You can just straight
donate there at the website. You can also donate at
places like Wild Fork Foods a location near you. There's
eleven locations here in southern California. When you go in,

(01:48):
just say KFI Pastathon at checkout. Fifteen percent off your
purchase will be donated to the KFI Pastathon. That's huge,
smart and final. You can donate any amount at any
store in California, Arizona, and Nevada until the seventh of December, Wendy's,
any so col Wendy's location through the seventh of December

(02:08):
as well, including if you give five dollars or more,
they'll give you a coupon book for free food. I
mean it's worth more than the five bucks you're donating.
And also don't forget that Handle and I are doing
a special auction item that you can bid on. It
is a backyard barbecue.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I will be broadcasting live on a Saturday, I think
in March at Bill Handel's home and you can get
an invite if you're the highest bidder for you plus
one and we'll have food catered from Anaheim White House,
including some pitmasters and some chefs making food there really

(02:49):
a once in a lifetime thing. When's last time Handle
invited anybody he liked, let alone a perfect stranger to
his home. So very cool opportunity. You can do that
at KFIM six to forty dot Comla Pastathon as well.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
This chef has I've not seen for some time, and
he hasn't been on the show for a while. But
we're gonna catch up with Francisco Zimone. How are you,
my friend. It's nice to see you, hi, Neil. It's
been a minute, you know, and it's good to see
you as well. You know, you leave a great impression
because you have this wonderful passion for food and the

(03:25):
restaurant industry and hospitality. And you're quintessentially the type of
person I think about when I think of a good
restaurant tour because of that passion.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So it's really nice to see you.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, it's really an honor, what an introduction. I
feel extremely happy to have made such impression on you.
Oh yes, you know, for me, it's you know Italian
diabey simple.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
You know, we when.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
We go to dinner lunch and we just sit down
and we're enjoying food and a few minutes later bite
that has changed our life. We start talking about what
we're having the day after. Oh, yes, so that's all
we live for. We live for food. So and it's
easy because you know, in US you have this big

(04:18):
thing about family, and in the town like Los Angeles,
it's not that easy to you know, it's different from
New York. Well, you walk around, you meet people. Here,
you go, you get in your car, you go from
point A to point B. You call people to make appointments,
and then you meet them at the Russians. So restaurants

(04:39):
are really a place that has become an extension of
your house.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
And I leave it exactly like that.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, and it shows, you know. It's funny. We were
in March. We were in Italy and when it went
to visit some friends outside of Milan, and it was
the first time we had been in their home and
had food with them, and they cooked for us. We've

(05:05):
been to restaurants together. They come visit us here, we
visit them there, and it was that really big. They're like,
I can't believe we're all together having a meal in
our home.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
And it does.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
It's a power there's something so connective about food. We're
you know, we're gonna take some news right here. We
come back, let's talk about what you're doing now, exciting news,
what you've got going on, and how the restaurants are
doing and all of that.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
When we return. Go nowhere, you're.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demand
from KFI Am six forty.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Hey, everybody, it's the Fork Report, all things food, beverage
and beyond. I'm your well Fed host, Neil Savadra.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
How do you do?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Just catching up with Chef Francisco zimon A many restaurants now,
you came originally brought your world famous pizza to Los Angeles,
to Hollywood, and you keep growing with new locations. So
bring us up to speed with your different properties now

(06:12):
and your most recent one.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
At the hotel. Yes, so okay.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
So after the first ressent in Holliwood in twenty nineteen,
then we opened in Santa Barbara and New York and
Long Beach on Belmont Shore, we made a few antiquavieteria
and then last year twenty twenty four, at the end
of twenty four I opened the first osteria on Beverly

(06:44):
Boulevard Beverly and sweetser called Florence So Stadium and Piano Bar,
so you can listen to.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Live jazz music while leading great atmosphere, wonderful food, the
meatballs that I just brought to you.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
And then we opened a small one because we wanted
to try a different kind of scenario where like, you know,
more forty fifty seats so you can grab and go,
just sit down quaint like a little apartment. You know,
My restaurants are all pretty big, and just to see

(07:17):
how things are. But of course this year for Los
Angeles has been so difficult. We're keeping it as a family.
We're keeping it very tight, and we're expecting to open
another Florence So Steady downtown in the Hotel Figaroa, which
is right across from the Crypto Arena and the great location,

(07:37):
super brand new hotel, one hundred years old hotel that
has been renovated six years ago.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
And I got to.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Become the operator for Hotail, and we're launching a Florence
by the water right above the pool. And then we're
looking at the Japanese my first Japanese restaurant.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
Wow. Obviously I'm not the chef.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
But that's exciting to oversee that kind of thing with
the different cultures and insights there. That's got to be
fun as someone who loves to cook, to see how that,
you know, bringing something new there.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
The idea, I mean Italians and Japanese from you know,
Nepolitans like us. We love crudo, we love fruit. And
Los Angeles he's a town where flavors are really so good,
from Korea to absolutely every kind of cuisine, and I
think the Japanese one has always had a pretty big
in flux on me, and I've always felt like them.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
I spent all this money for sushi. I she don't
want That makes it a little bit easier. Best passion
is I want this.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
I can go once a week, twice a week and
get a discount, and you know.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
That is the best reason above it. Oh my god,
how about you.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
We're talking about your meatballs. What makes a great meatball?
Because that that that is something that is simple.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Not easy. You know they're easy not I don't.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Know that that's having very interesting because the one that
we brought to the one that we do with Florence
are without tomato sauce. So this is a big deal.
So Normally kids don't like meat bowls and a tomato sauce.
I didn't, so I wanted my mom to always make
me meat bowls with just grated cheese, fried, fried, and

(09:30):
then and then in the other that's.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Where that comes. So it looks like a burger, but
it's around okay.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
And and what we did is we do it with
a wagyu meat so you can taste it.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Oh, yes, there's no tomato sauce.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Then we add mozzarellagiano charlottes and a little bit of
salt and pepper, extravaginallyve oil. We fry them and then
we put it in the oven to get to get
the oil out, and then it gets served the medium. Well,

(10:08):
so tiny little bit uncooked. Tiny damn, it's so good.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
I bet you people just drove off the road listening
to you describe that.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
That is just an insane you know.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
It's like imagine what imagine if you have you know,
like it's a meatball, is a one bite two bites
or if if you want right, and you know, it's
these got the sapidity of a burger, but it's got
all these flavors of the cheese that we put inside.
I'm telling you, if you go on Google and say

(10:42):
Florence osteria, the first thing that comes after that is
Florenzo Stadia meat balls.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
It's just like good. That's the bit. That's the thing
when you make, when you make.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Food for yourself a passion your elf. First, it's gonna
translate to people because the look on your face, Yeah,
talking about that, you know it's like you in describing
it is there gonna be people that want to go
there to get the meat.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
I'm gonna tell you a couple of things that you're
gonna flip. It's gonna be so cool. Right, So you
know that we never put tomato sauce next to the calamie, right,
Americans love to put their calamari into a spicy tomato sauce.
We only put a lemon two reasons. The first reason

(11:32):
is because it's fish with lemon is amazing. But even
before that, the lemon is put there so that you
can actually see the difference in color from the fried
and the lemon. If what you're frying and what you're
eating is dark, that oil has not been cleaned, you

(11:54):
should never eat any calamira. And if anything that is
fried that is not blue. Now, if you get meat
balls in a restaurant, tomato meatballs, they're being cooked a
long time before, and if you don't eat it, we'll
put it in the fridge and then tomorrow we'll warm

(12:16):
it up again. And then if you don't need it,
we'll put it in the fridge and then we'll warm
it up again when we do the meatballs of Florence
done damn moment. If you will go to a Russian
then you want a lasagna, don't take it. If you
want to go to a Russian to get an egg
plant permegena, do not get it. When you see something

(12:37):
that is cut in a square that basically means has
been done in a big pan, then whatever is salt,
you sell it and use it. Whatever is no salt,
because in the fridge we warm it up. Tomorrow we
warm itt up again. So you want to have fresh food.
And that's what I do. That's why I love what

(12:59):
I do, is because there's so many restaurants. You got
so much choice. You know.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
My choice is that I have a four year old child.
I heats there every night, and I want to make
sure it's free. You know, it's our life.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Chef where can people find out what you're doing and
how to get their hands on that fresh, fresh food.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I mean they can come and eat and time they want,
and they can just say that they hurt you exactly.
But you know, of course we have all the social
media possible. We're doing Christmas Eve, we're doing a New
Year's Eve party, and we're just really taking it easy.
We want people to fill no stress, there's no hour

(13:46):
and a half, just coming and gout.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Wow, so much going on.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
You can find out more Francesco Zimone on Instagram and
of course so I'm looking at These are all for
your different plate places for but for Florenceosaria dot com.
You can find out more there and see those gorgeous
meatballs for yourself.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
But we should try and now that's.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
What I want, now, more meatballs. Good to see you,
my friends. Always bring this great energy about you and
your passion for food. And who doesn't love an Italian
accent to boot.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
I mean I loved your voice walking in. I was like, okay, guy,
well why he does his job, thank you, But it's
attached to this face. Your voice is attached to that face.
Look at that man.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Let's take you. We will poor people be next to you?
Thank you so much. Good to see you in the
in the new year.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Let's get together again and talk about some more about
the food in the restaurant.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
I would really I'd love to have you guys that.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
You know we're gonna launch the new restaurant at the
figure out I in February.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Well, let's have you back.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Let's make stick hook that up with Kayla and we'll
have you back to talk about that the.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Launch of that. I love you great, Thank you so much.
Nice to see you, my friend. Happy holidays. It is
the Fork Report. I'm Neil Savedra.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Neil Savedra on
demand from KFI a M six forty
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