Frankie’s, once a brief pop-up in Kask Kitchen last year, is now semi-permanently established in the space, running two weeks of every month (with the other two being reserved for other pop-ups and events). This is music to my chicken-and-waffle loving ears, having been to that initial pop-up and been salivating over the prospect of ever having it again ever since. This is a trip long in the planning with Tom, trying to co-ordinate our availability with Frankie’s itself, but here we finally are. It is sheer indulgence in comfort food form, filling a gap that genuinely I don’t think anywhere in Bristol is doing right now. The menu is straightforward - four variants on chicken and waffles, and a few sides. In this instance, Tom and I are not looking for variety, and go for the maple syrup variant each. No regrets: a smooth, uncrystalline waffle topped with three generous pieces of fried chicken, the meat juicy and tender but maintaining its coating perfectly. A rich maple syrup is cut through with chilli jam and a heavenly bacon butter that implores you to spread it evenly such that every bite has some, but yet also to concentrate it on a single bite such that you might fully experience its depth of flavour. We completely needlessly pair this with the frickles and the parm million layer potato, drenched in marinara sauce, pesto, and parmesan - needless but necessary nonetheless. For dessert, the zeppole, fluffy Italian donuts served with, in our case, one portion of strawberries, raspberries, whipped cream, and Italian meringue, and one portion of whipped marscapone, coffee syrup, and caramel, making a glorious tiramisu-esque concoction. My body absolutely crashed about 90 minutes later, but it was so worth it.