Park Slope's Pizzatown Struggles With Uncertainty, City Headaches

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN – Mario Minissale has run his Park Slope pizzeria since 1988 and has, with the exception of major holidays, always found a way to keep his doors open. But in the six months since the coronavirus pandemic hit, Minissale – like other New York restaurant owners – has struggled to maintain any sense of normalcy.

So when Minissale spent $5,000 to build an outdoor dining space in front of his Fifth Ave. Pizzatown a month ago, he did so as a way to help support his four employees, who have been hit hard financially due to the ongoing pandemic, which forced the pizzeria to close for two months earlier this year.

But now, Minissale has been threatened with fines up to $10,000 from the New York Department of Transportation due to violations the city said he is guilty of because his outdoor space occupies too much real estate.

Minissale said he has received two notices of violation from the city and is now left to contemplate whether he will be forced to tear down the outdoor space that includes four tables, spaced six feet apart, and that has provided only a 5 percent uptick in business. While the increase has been minimal, the space for which he applied for and received two permits to operate within, has made a difference for a businessman who has always relied on indoor dining for the majority of his income.

Now, eight months since he says he last gave himself a pay check, Minissale worries about what could come next as he questions whether his investment in outdoor dining space was worth the trouble.

“In a different time, I would have been bankrupt,” Minissale told Patch on Thursday. “I would have been done.”

As his indoor space sits empty until restaurants are permitted to open up to 25 percent capacity later this month, Minissale — who has been in the restaurant business for 43 years — is making do as best he can. There are days when the father of four's business makes only a couple hundred dollars. But after being closed for two months due to the pandemic, Minissale says he remains loyal to his staff, even if it means paying them out of his own pocket.

So his issues with the city, which issued him the permits to build the outdoor space in the first place, have created high levels of frustration. Like many other small business owners, Minissale hoped that the pandemic would only impact his business temporarily. But when weeks turned into months, including the eight weeks when the iron gate at the entrance to Pizzatown stayed locked, Minissale grew more anxious as uncertainty continued to mount and his business continued to suffer.

Pizzatown has never offered delivery service, which has limited the restaurant’s business to pick-up until Minissale was convinced to open up the outdoor space despite his concerns it wasn’t worth the hassle. As he also owns the storefront next to his restaurant, a building which houses an optician, Minissale believed he was entitled to use the sidewalk space in front of both properties.

He says he has permits to use both, but the city says his existing liquor license only covers the restaurant property – meaning that's the only premise he can serve on.

Minissale received a cease and desist order from the Department of Transportation, which threatened him with fines if he didn’t stop serving customers in the space directly next to Pizzatown. The city is insisting that Minissale limit his service to just the two tables that sit directly in front of Pizzatown.

Despite attempts to help from the Park Slope Business Improvement District that have seemingly gone nowhere, Minissale is running out of patience, which is testing his loyalty to the neighborhood.

“It makes me feel like I shouldn’t be there anymore,” he said. “The city doesn’t care. …It’s heart-breaking .

He added: “All I know is that I need help. Someone needs to help the businessperson because it doesn’t look like the city cares.”

Pizzatown is one of the original businesses to call Park Slope's Fifth Ave. home, so much so that The Wall Street Journal called the pizzeria a “staple of the neighborhood” in a story earlier this year.

Now Minissale says that even after a portion of his indoor business is allowed to resume at a quarter of capacity and perhaps at 50 percent in November if the coronavirus positivity rate levels off, he questions how much longer he can survive.

With tensions already running high, Mark Caserta, the executive director of the Park Slope Fifth Ave. Business Improvement District, says added pressure from the city isn’t helping at a time when he believes city officials should be doing all they can to encourage business owners like Minissale.

While he acknowledges that certain rules and restrictions apply to business owners and their outdoor dining spaces, Caserta said they should not cripple businesses.

“The point of these programs (allowing for outdoor dining) is to help save businesses – not put them out of business,” Caserta told Patch. “I think (business owners) are all appreciative of the opportunity to have outdoor dining, but the struggle is so real and difficult between rent and mortgages and the cost of doing business that every day is a new challenge and this another example.

“Let’s just let people survive and get through this and keep as many businesses in business and let them find their way through this.”