Mamma Mia!
Historic Big Apple pizzerias might be forced to hand out mounds of dough under a proposed city edict targeting polluting coal- and wood-fired ovens, The Post has learned.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has drawn up recent regulations that may require restaurants which have used the baking method for many years to cut carbon emissions by up to 75%.
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood and coal-fired stoves are a few of the biggest sources of harmful pollution in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” DEP spokesman Ted Timbers said in a Sunday statement. “This common sense rule, developed in partnership with the restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires an expert assessment of whether an emission control installation is possible.”
The rule could require pizzerias that had such ovens installed before May 2016 to buy expensive emission control equipment – the owner of 1 Brooklyn establishment said he had already spent $20,000 on an air filter system pending a recent mandate.
“Oh yeah, that is an enormous expense!” said Paul Giannoni, owner of Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint. “It is not nearly the fee of installation, it is also about maintenance. I actually have to pay someone to do it, to go there every few weeks and flush it, and, , do maintenance.
![Hot pizza straight from the wood-fired oven at Fornino Pizzeria in Greenpoint.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/062523PIZZA1GPM.jpg?w=1024)
Giannoni added that while the air filter is “expensive and an enormous hassle”, it also has some benefits.
“My neighbors are much happier. For years a man got here to me complaining about smoke entering into his apartment, and I have never seen him since I installed the scrubber.
Other iconic pizzerias battling the warmth include Lombardi’s in Little Italy, Arturo’s in Soho, John’s of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Patsy’s in Turtle Bay and the Upper West Side, and Grimaldi’s near Brooklyn Bridge – which pride themselves on baking pies in ovens fired with coal and wood.
A city official said fewer than 100 restaurants shall be affected in total.
One pizza restaurateur who requested anonymity told The Post that delicate negotiations are currently underway with DEP officials over whether to include or exempt dozens of coal and wood-fired pizzerias from the mandate.
He said politicians and bureaucrats should stop messing with their shell.
“It is a mandate with no money and it’s going to cost us a fortune, not to mention ruining the taste of the pizza and completely destroying the product,” rages the restaurateur who has a coal-fired oven.
![Exterior of Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/062523GRIMALDIS7GPM.jpg?w=1024)
“When you fuck with the temperature within the oven, you alter the taste. This pipe, this chimney, is sized to create the proper updraft, maintain the proper temperature, it’s art and science. You’re taking away the charcoal, the thing that makes pizza taste great, you kill it,” he claimed.
“And for what? Do you actually think you are changing the environment with those eight or nine pizza ovens?!” added the restaurateur.
Some crunchy customers also told city officials not to tamper with their piece.
“I’m all for responsible environmental practices, but tell Al Gore to take one less private jet or something. Give me a break!” said Brooklyn Heights resident Saavi Sharma, a 32-year-old financier who brought her parents and cousin from India for his or her first slice at Grimaldi’s, referring to the previous vp and climate change activist.
“I bragged about this pizza to my family for about five years,” Sharma said Sunday. Don’t mess with it!”
Giannoni of Paulie Gee’s said that, contrary to claims, the air scrubbers won’t affect the flavour quality or texture of the cakes.
“If someone is trying to say that putting the scrubber in changes the taste of the pizza, they are only trying to save $20,000. No, it doesn’t affect what happens within the oven,” he said.
“No, it didn’t change the taste. It didn’t change the pizza. It hasn’t modified our product in any respect.”
![Manuel Cazales is finishing two pizzas straight from the wood-fired oven at Fornino Pizzeria in Greenpoint.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/062523PIZZA5GPM.jpg?w=1024)
Under this mandate, restaurants with coal and wood-fired ovens must hire an engineer or architect to assess the feasibility of putting in emission control devices to achieve a 75% reduction in particulate emissions.
If this report concludes that a discount of 75% or more can’t be achieved or that no emission controls will be installed, it should discover any emission controls that would achieve a discount of not less than 25% or explain why no emission controls can’t be installed.
The restaurant will give you the chance to apply for a derogation or exemption, but must provide evidence of difficulties.
DEP’s recent rules are according to 2015 Local #38 approved by former Mayor Bill de Blasio – who was widely ridiculed after being shown eating a bit with a fork and knife – and the City Council.
DEP officials said the problem of developing practical rules without negatively impacting restaurants – and the COVID-19 pandemic – has delayed motion until now.
The department said it consulted an advisory committee of restaurateurs to develop the rule.
“The Advisory Committee and DEP were unable to finalize the regulations at the moment due to the problem of drafting regulations addressing the technical and price issues related to the installation of emission control devices,” department officials explained.
“For instance, the prices of controlling existing cooking stoves will be difficult to manage since the spaces where these cooking stoves operate are sometimes aging structures that weren’t designed to accommodate emission control devices,” officials said. “As well as, many sites that use existing cooktop ovens will not be owned by cooktop operators, and changes required to install such appliances require owner approval.”
![Exterior of Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/062523GRIMALDIS3GPM.jpg?w=1024)
The primary pizzerias in New York and the US used coal-fired ovens, which were cheaper than wood.
But they burn more oxygen, require more room, and are frequently built into the muse of a constructing.
Chrome steel pizza ovens got here onto the market within the Nineteen Forties with the arrival of natural gas, and only a few recent restaurants used coal or wood fired ovens.
Other urban pizzerias using such ovens include Fornino’s in Williamsburg and Motorino, which even have locations within the Brooklyn neighborhood in addition to the East Village and Upper West Side.
Lombardi’s, which opened in 1905 and claims to be America’s first American pizzeria, boasts on its website of “beautiful pizza baked in a coal oven in a smoky crust.”
John’s of Bleecker Street has been in business for over a century, including since 1929 in its current location, and states on its website that “an indicator … A representative of the restaurant confirmed that a coal-burning stove was installed prior to 2016.”
Meanwhile, “Mancini’s Wood-Fired Pizza” in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, can also need to install a fume containment device. It has an old wood-burning stove, an worker said.
One young customer, 8-year-old Alexander Dumas, loved his first wood-fired pizza on Sunday at Fornino’s.
“That is the second best pizza I’ve ever had! I’ve had Domino’s and Papa Johns before and this is healthier. I feel that is a superb thing,” said Dumas, oblivious to the controversy.