Di Fara’s full menu will return after a decade-long hiatus.
Di Fara’s Pizza announced on Facebook that it will expand the delicious Italian enterprise by opening a takeout joint just a few doors down from the long-time Avenue J pizza Mecca, which will restore long-lost menu items that were cut to make room for the hordes of hungry pizza fans who made the lines at Di Fara’s as legendary as the pies.
“We cut everything off the menu [except pizza] about 10 years ago due to the high volume of the pizza requests,” said Margaret DeMarco, daughter of legendary pizzario and Di Fara’s owner Dom DeMarco. “We’d have a two hour wait for pizza, and there’d be the one person who just wanted an Italian ice, so we cut that too.”
Di Fara workers have suffered the complaints of food fans for years, who lamented the loss of the restaurant’s beloved meatballs and chicken parm ever since they were axed to ease the pie lines, but Dom and his daughter were recently approached by the landlord of a closed-down shawarma shop, which proved the perfect location to revive the long-dormant Italian dishes that foodies crave.
“So, we have a lot of locals who have been angry at us, but an opportunity came about, because there was a little take out store that became available,” said DeMarco. “It already had a stove, and the landlord approached us with an offer,” said DeMarco.
The takeout joint at 1012 E. 15th St. will debut in the next few weeks with all the original menu items — except Italian ices, which will be included along with some fresh additions after the new spot has a chance to get on its feet.
“My siblings and I do a lot of cooking at home, so we’ve developed some new meals that will be added in the future,” said DeMarco. “It’ll probably begin with just our old Italian menu, and as we go along we’ll update it and offer some new take out items.”
The big revelation comes on the heels of the most notorious day for unlikely news — April 1 — but DeMarco assures fans this is no prank.
“The main reason for doing this is because so many people have been requesting it for years, but that hasn’t stopped a ton of people asking me if it’s an April Fool’s joke,” he said. “I just tell them, ‘With all the work I have, I don’t have time to be pulling pranks.’ ”
Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
