The tax department shut a beloved New York City pizza place, but the mayor vowed Wednesday to help save it.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted Wednesday that Brooklyn’s Di Fara Pizza “MUST be saved.” The pizza shop is located on Avenue J and East 15th Street in the heart of Flatbush.
“I’m ready to do anything I can to get them reopened — as are thousands of New York City pizza-lovers,” de Blasio tweeted. “My team and I are looking into how we can help resolve this situation.”
Di Fara has been a foodie favorite since it opened in 1965. Fans travel from around the world for its pizzas made with pristine ingredients.
But the New York state tax department slapped a bright yellow “seized” sign on Di Fara on Tuesday. A department spokesman told the Daily News the pizzeria owes $167,506 in state taxes.
Di Fara is THE best pizza place in New York City. It MUST be saved. I’m ready to do anything I can to get them reopened — as are thousands of New York City pizza-lovers.
My team and I are looking into how we can help resolve this situation. https://t.co/oL1jKxpgh5
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) August 21, 2019
Di Fara, which is known as much for its dingy ambience as its tangy sauce, has been shut down in the past for city health code violations but has always reopened.
Margaret Mieles, the daughter of 82-year-old Di Fara owner Domenico De Marco, says the family will settle its debt and reopen this time as well. “I think once my voice gets to the right person in the tax office, it’ll be OK,” Mieles told the Daily News.
De Blasio, who is pursuing a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, courted pizza controversy before when he was photographed eating a slice with a knife and fork in 2014.
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(AP)
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12 Responses
That treif pizza joint has loooong outgrown this neighborhood. When they opened it had a huge Italian community in the area. Virtually all the Italians are now looong gone. The business they get from tourists or people out of the area especially coming in for them is very far from enough to keep them profitable. The neighborhood today largely only eats kosher, something they don’t cater to thus keeping the locals away from them.
All the owner of the pizza shop has to do is pay the taxes owed and they can reopen. It’s very simple and there’s no reason for the Mayor to get involved.
Can you explain why you call this UTTER INSANITY? So you don’t like the mayor, but what is he doing wrong by giving a shout out to his favorite pizza store, to try and save it. Stop nitpicking on everything the mayor does.
Dear Mayor De Blowhole – here’s a brilliant idea: You and Gov. Kumquat lower government taxes and fees to sustainable levels.
With the wonderful friendship between the Gov and the mayor, there will be no protektzia here.
Does a 2nd grader concoct these headlines?
They serve pizza with forks?
Ah yid is right
They have another location in Williamsburg which is still open.
Mr Mayor, maybe work in the pizza shop
ah yid, are you a new reader of YWN? Whoever writes the headlines is not shy about injecting his opinions about almost everything. He’s also not too good at spelling.
Now of course, if the owner had a last name like Rubashkin, Goldberg, or Schwartz, the sanctimonious pontificators here would be calling for the death penalty. But it’s only a goy. Oh well. No sweat. All’s good.