Totonno's Pizzeria in Coney Island is still not open, despite a fairly definite article in the NY Post on Dec. 1 that stated it would open in two weeks. The piece said to call (718) 372-8606 to check on the exact opening day. Only that number is still disconnected.
Plus, Totonno's owner Lawrence Ciminieri told Slice: "Put it this way," he said, "Come the new year, we'll be open."
They sure know how to string it out on Neptune Avenue.
UPDATE: A reader reports: "I drove by there yesterday and it looks very close to opening - there were people coming in and out."
New York magazine has the scoop that the long-closed fire victim, Totonno's, will reopen..."soon." The piece is interesting in that it tells us a lot about the fire and damage that we didn't know before.
Louise Ciminieri is squinting at the ceiling and frowning. “This is annoying me right now,” she says. The rectangular area in question, roughly four by three feet, is slightly in front of the hulking brick-lined, coal-fired oven that has produced, since 1924, arguably the greatest pizzas in New York City: Totonno’s... The original tin walls and ceiling survived, except for this rectangle. Louise could buy new tin to line it and no one would know. But if she couldn’t have the original, better to leave it bare. “This is New York,” she says, gesturing around the room. “Some things shouldn’t change.”...
The fire gods spared the dining room: The vintage framed photos of everyone from Joe DiMaggio to Lou Reed are in storage, along with the tables and chairs. The two narrow booths are intact. ...
I ask about the recipes for the incomparable dough and tomato sauce, whether they were written down and lost in the blaze. She shoots me a disbelieving look I remember from my first visit to Totonno’s... Now she doesn’t answer my question about the recipes being at risk in the fire. She merely points to her head.
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."
As of July 19. Is the Coney Island summer to pass without this sacred pizzeria reopening?
UPDATE: Slice has the new opening date as late August.
It looks like Coney Island will have to muddle along for half the summer without Totonno's pizzeria.
The classic old pizza joint has been shuttered since a fire in mid-March. At the time, the owner Lawrence Ciminieri pledged the place would reopen in a month's time. A walk-by on May 11, however, found the place this closed. A call to Totonno's Manhattan locations revealed that mid-July is now the target unveiled. Let's hope so. Coney, so denuded of its many former attractions, needs its world-class pie.
A fire has ravaged Totonno's, the irreplaceable Coney Island pizzeria, causing extensive damage. According to the fire department, the fire broke out between the roof and ceiling around 8:45 a.m. on Saturday. Three firefighters suffered minor injuries.
The folks at the Slice blog called Totonno's owner Lawrence Ciminieri, who said "Everything is going to be fine. The fire broke out in the coal storage area when we were closed. It must have been ignited by something backed up in the oven. The back two rooms are gone. The dining room is fine. The oven will have to be re-bricked, but that is something we do every few years anyway. I think we'll be back open in a month."
The news about the dining room is critical, as the eating area is a virtual museum of New York pizzeria-dom, and couldn't readily be replicated.
What Totonno's Looked Like Before the Fire
I usually cap my visits to Coney Island with a visit to Totonno's pizzeria, and opening day 2007 was no exception. The pizza was great and quickly turned out, as usual. Owner Louise Ciminieri was curt and grumpy, as usual. I arrived just at the right time, around 1 PM, for ten minutes later all the tables were filled and there was a largish, none-too-pleased mob outside waiting for food. I took a few shots while waiting for my small plain pie.
Reviews of this place always emphasize the pizza, saying the shop offers nothing in the way of atmosphere. For my money, these image give the lie to that assertion. Modern pizzerias kill themselves trying to duplicate old-school decor like this.
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