FRANK'S LUNCH
SERVICE
Frank Rubino

Publication Date: September 27th, 2025
112pp / paperback
ISBN 9781946583413

New collection from New Jersey poet, Frank Rubino. These poems harken back to Rubino's childhood spent working in his father's luncheonette. Steeped in family and community, they are written in a straightforward manner, permitting unanticipated magical moments to leap suddenly off the page. Through close attention to the language of work, the poems transcend autobiography to take a universal perspective on what it means to stick with friends and family, and to carry on together.

Praise for Frank's Lunch Service: 

"Frank's Lunch Service is a memoir told the way life is actually experienced: as a progression of prominent places, momentous memories, pivotal insights—at times chronological, other times kaleidoscopic.” — Anton Yakovlev

"Blackballed from the Honor Society, wearing a Bradlee’s hoodie with no logo, it’s teenage Frank, working in his family’s diner on wheels. His father’s favorite comedies are Roadrunner cartoons. His mother woodburned “Love, Mom,” into the back of his guitar. If you want the real Jersey, it’s here…” — Bob Holman

ABOUT FRANK RUBINO — Frank Rubino has been published in The Platform Review, DQM, Thimble, Chaleur, Caliban, The World, Little Light, and Vending Machine, and was the featured poet in The Red Wheelbarrow 14. He co-hosts the Red Wheelbarrow Poets workshop every Tuesday night and co-edits the group's yearly anthology. He works in technology and lives in New Jersey with his wife, children, and cats.