Pizzalina Owner Shares Frustrations of Opening a Restaurant

For San Anselmo’s Louise Franz, preparing for the September opening of her new Pizzalina pizzeria and wine bar in San Anselmo’s Red Hill Shopping Center has been no easy feat.

Her blog, which was featured yesterday on Inside Scoop SF, highlights just how tricky opening the restaurant has been with a mix of what Franz categorizes as "before and after pictures, funny antidotes (anecdotes), hair-pulling rants, praise, prayer and swearing (not necessarily in that order), recipes, invitations and special gifts."

It sounds as if some of Franz’s major frustrations, especially with the Marin County Health Department, have subsided for now. Yesterday on her blog, Franz wrote that her architect and her are taking approved plans to the city of San Anselmo today for the building permit application: 

 “Major monument.  Hopefully we'll have our Building Permit in hand in 2-4 weeks.  Now I just have to figure out how to get some more money in the bank quick, seeing as I've already blown over budget on the architect/permit fees!  Lord, encamp your angels all around me.....”

Franz, who has lived in San Anselmo for 25 years, has worked at Picco in Larkspur and Rosso in Santa Rosa.  According to Inside Scoop, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana has certified her as a pizzaiolo. 

Pizzalina will be located at 914 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., a space that last housed a for 25 years until it . Last October, Patch what they'd like to see in the space and a few commentors mentioned pizza.