80-year-old Pizza King Patsy Grimaldi Returns to Brooklyn Pizzeria

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria under the Manhattan Bridge overpass in Dumbo has been going through a rent dispute with its landlord and decided to move around the corner to a new location. Now that landlord announced his new tenant: Patsy Grimaldi. Haute Living explains.

The landlord, Mr. Waxman, who owns the space of former Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Dumbo told the press that he was keeping his restaurant’s coal oven and promised a “very popular pizza establishment.” Turns out, he had 80-year-old pizza king Patsy Grimaldi in mind, who made his name at the very same Brooklyn pizzeria in 1990.

Confused? Keep in mind that in 1998 Patsy Grimaldi sold his pizzeria (Grimaldi’s Pizzeria) to its current owner Frank Coilli. To keep things separate, the new place will not be called Grimaldi’s or Patsy’s. Instead, the new pizzeria will be called Juliana’s after Patsy Grimaldi’s late mother. The restaurant is scheduled to open in March 2012.

When Patsy Grimaldi sold his pizzeria to Coilli, he reportedly regretted it. “A year after I sold Grimaldi’s, I was very sorry. So when Mr. Waxman called me and asked if I wanted to come back, I thought I was dreaming. I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough.”

Back in 1990 when Patsy Grimaldi first opened his Dumbo restaurant, he called it Patsy’s, after his uncle Patsy Lancieri’s East Harlem pizzeria where he had worked growing up. In 1995 he was forced to change the restaurant’s name to Grimaldi’s after new owners took the East Harlem pizzeria and name.

The current Grimaldi’s (owned by Coilli) should be up and running at it’s new location at 1 Front Street around November 29.

Source: Gothamist

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