Famed Coney Island pizzeria Totonno’s could be open in a matter of weeks, giving discriminating eaters across the borough reason to rejoice.
According to the pizza-centric blog Slice, the shop will re-open its doors in late September or early October.
Shop owner Lawrence Ciminieri said renovations to the restaurant, which suffered extensive damage in a fire last March, stalled after city inspectors found damage far worse than was expected. The building, located at 1524 Neptune Avenue, was reportedly so compromised that it couldn’t support the weight of the oven and its coal.
“It would have been easier to just knock the place down and start over,” Ciminieri told the blog, “but we’re already in the middle of this [renovation] and just have to finish now.” He said the shop would be open no later than October.
While Ciminieri could not be reached at press time, Gigi, a manager at Totonno’s on Second Avenue and 26th Street in Manhattan, said the Brooklyn shop would be open “before Christmas.”
While diners can still go to Totonno’s in Manhattan, it is the Brooklyn shop that is considered “the museum,” as Ciminieri famously calls it. In fact, every pie man that works for the family business is trained at the Neptune Avenue location, receiving an apprenticeship in coal oven wizardry.
