Our friend Frankie Janisch has had a rough couple of years. A former performer and business manager at the ImprovOlympic, his real passion was food (though he combined both loves in his Taint shows and his stints on the Food Network.) Back in 2001 he opened his own restaurant and small theater -- Frankie J's on Broadway (with the MethaDome Theater -- named after the methadone clinic the space was for a while) -- and immediately ran into trouble with the Sheet Metal Workers Union. And then there was the ongoing, would-be-funny-if-it-wasn't-my-friend, fiasco of trying to get his liquor license on a dry block.

Well, after giving it the good fight for far longer than most of us would last, Frankie J's has been closed for the last couple of months. Shaun had a drink with Frankie last night and wanted me to pass this along:

Frankie is doing well. The restaurant and theatre closed. Yes. All the bureaucratic paperwork and city rules and "shenanigans" going on in the city caught up with him. He thanks all the well wishes he has gotten. He is avoiding e-mail and phone for a while. But he hears about the support and is grateful. BUT Frankie is not gone. Frankie will be back in the spring with more and bigger things. Watch for things coming this spring.