Grimaldi’s Moving to 1 Front Street

By on November 21, 2011 11:43 am in DUMBO, News, Real Estate

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Grimaldi’s Pizzeria has solved two problems by moving to 1 Front Street – a contentious relationship with its landlord and the cycle of truly lousy tenants at the historic cast iron building:

Brooklyn Paper: “We’re moving into a bigger, nicer, and cleaner facility,” said Gina Peluso, daughter of owner Frank Ciolli. “It will be nice to have a little more room.”

Grimaldi’s will serve its final pie at its current location on Nov. 28, then open one day later open in 1 Front St. — a former bank turned bar and lounge. The eatery will take over the first floor, while the second floor will remain a nightclub.

[via DUMBONYC]

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  • Pierrepont

    Any word on whether they will get to install in coal oven in that new space? Unlike the current location, I am certain Landmarks will keep a watchful eye on this building.

  • Pierrepont

    Apologies for the mangled grammar above. (Sheesh. Need coffee.)

  • Y

    Still cash only? Very curious how this move will work out for them.

  • David G

    I don’t understand how they are going to move their coal oven next door. That is something that can’t be built new. It has to be grandfathered into the building under the law. Not sure if I’d go to the new one.

  • Heightsman

    This seems strange. Kind of like the landlord said good-bye on short notice and the only alternative was to sweet talk the guy next door into renting one floor of his/her place as a temp. measure. I agree the coal oven can’t possibly be coming over. Need more details.

    PS: The first floor of 1 Front is even smaller than current location with the bar being the focal point.

  • Henry

    Do locals really care? It is a place for tourists only. There are much better pizza places elsewhere.

  • Knight

    Personally, I’d rather go to Ignazio’s, but Grimaldi’s does bring over a lot of tourists who also patronize other local businesses in and around Dumbo.

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    We never go to Grimaldi’s anymore. We prefer John’s on Bleeker Street or Adrienne’s on Stone St.

  • CrankyOne

    Never that big a fan of Grimaldi’s pizza. It’s not bad but I like Ignazio’s and a whole bunch of other places better.

  • Elmer Fudd

    Grimaldi’s don’t serve wabbit pizza.

  • Daffy Duck

    David Copperfield don’t need no buildings permit to move a coal oven next door. Magic!

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    me,
    I have eaten at Totonno’s in Coney Island and although the pizza is good, we never made the trip back a second time. We’d rather go to John’s on Bleeker. We have eaten at Grimaldi’s a few times but I hate the fact that the tables are so close together and of course an hour wait on line does not appeal to me at all.

  • PJL

    It’s good pizza, but ordered a pie to take out a couple of weeks ago and they gave it to us on cardboard covered with a paper bag (i.e., no pizza box!!). It was a chilly and rainy night, so pizza was cold by the time we got it home… still pretty good, but definitely not worth the wait and their noticeable disregard for their customers….

  • Monty

    @PJL, that paper cover thing is what they always do. Been that way for as long as I can remember. Haven’t eaten there in a long time, but it really was great. Better than John’s or Lombardi’s IMO. That being said, if you’re really a pizza snob then there is pretty much nothing in New York that can match up to the best pizza in Italy. Can’t explain why, but it’s just so much better over there.

  • http://j lois
  • Drew

    Sure hope it is Motorino moving into the old space. We need them back in BK.

  • resident

    Without the coal fired oven, is there any point to going to Grimaldi’s? I know that for a while now it’s been the cool thing to do to bash Grimaldi’s as simply being a tourist trap. But when you went there and they got your pizza right, it was still amazing. Their consistency has just gotten worse. But without the coal fired oven, give me Sam’s any day.

    It’ll be interesting to see what goes in there. I fear a restaurant like Patsy’s Pizzeria taking it over, making three nearly identical pizza places in that block and a half along the water. Of established places, i would love a Motorino or Artichoke or the like to give another style pizza place down there. It would also be nice if you didn’t have to get a full pie and could get a couple slices to go and sit in the park.

  • Wrennie

    I’m surprised no one has mentioned Lucali’s.

  • Matthew Parker

    Lucali’s is quite good–perhaps in the top 3, with a big caveat–don’t go when they first open each day as the oven hasn’t yet reached infernal temperatures necessary for truly transcendent pizza ecstasy. I’ve learned this from repeated visits to Lucali.

    Sam’s is also quite good, and I feel often overlooked.

    As a native Brooklynite, I grew up walking distance from DiFara in Midwood, and also need to put that in a top 3 NYC pizza. However, I saw a NY Post article today saying they are again having DOH problems. But Dom is a national treasure. Just don’t go too hungry, because he makes pies at the speed of molasses.

  • stuart

    i really don’t understand pizza snobs. It’s like potato chip snobs. Get a clue: it’s all junk food!

  • Matthew Parker

    If you have to ask, you’ll never know.

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    stuart,
    I took my two nieces to Grimaldi about five years ago.
    They are from a small town south of Buffalo.
    My niece asked me “what kind of cheese is this?”.
    Can you imagine what kind of cheese is on the pizza in the suburbs of Buffalo if she didn’t recognize mozzarella?
    Both my husband and I love pizza and why should we settle for mediocre pizza when there’s such good pizza to be had in Brooklyn, Manhattan, etc. If that makes us pizza snobs, then so be it!

  • DUMBO DUDE !

    There pizza is good,but L&B Spumoni Gardens is the best !

  • Andrew Porter

    Not one single cell-phone or nail salon place on that entire stretch. Amazing.

    I’ve always liked Fascati’s, but my diet nowadays means I have pizza about every 2-3 years. The story is more interesting from a real-estate perspective.