Totonno's Reopening Delayed Again, Of Course

It was the Coney Island summer without Totonno's.

When we didn't hear anything from the pizzeria by Aug. 31, which suffered a fire in March, and has promised to reopen every month since then, we knew something was up.

Sure enough, Slice reports that owner-pizzaman Lawrence Ciminieri says it'll be late September or early October before the place opens its doors again.

Why the delay? After the fire, Ciminieri said, his family had two choices: rebuild from scratch or salvage what was there. The initial reports from the architect Ciminieri consulted with indicated that the building was sound enough to salvage, but once crews started renovation, city inspectors found more damage than expected. It turns out that the building needs to be shored up to support the weight of the oven and the coal used to fire it.

"It would have been easier to just knock the place down and start over," Ciminieri said, "but we're already in the middle of this [renovation] and just have to finish now."