SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Photo via ny.eater.com

I have to admit, I am a little wary of writing this article. The daily lines to get a slice of Di Fara’s incredibly perfect pizza are already so long that I am loath to spread the word of the new spinoff spot located just a few doors down (1012 East 15th Street) that features an expanded menu. Still, if the food is just as good as Di Fara’s, no amount of ink spilled will stop foodies from flocking to Avenue J in Midwood.

According to a report by NY Eater, MD Kitchen is officially open for business, offering an expanded menu of delicious Italian foods that Di Fara used to feature before pizza became the only menu item.

Opened by the children of pizza master Dominic DeMarco, MD Kitchen will be serving up everything from pasta dishes, salads, heroes, sandwiches, wings, fries and hot dogs. The name MD Kitchen was humorously explained by Dominic’s daughter Maggie DeMarco on a Facebook entry.

“Mama DeMarco’s for our mom, Mikey DeMarco for our nephew, Maggie DeMarco for me? What it does not mean is medical doctor.”

Personally I don’t care what it stands for, I will be heading over ASAP to see how the new menu stacks up to the incredible pizza experience just a few doors down.

Posted this morning on Di Fara’s Facebook page:

[Di Fara] is happy to announce that several doors down we will be opening a tiny take out place offering all our old menu items that so many have been missing. We will have pasta, heros, salad and more.We expect to open mid April. All our products will use the finest and freshest ingredients as we always do at Difara….please, no questions at this time…Will update as we see fit ! Thank you….Happy April !

Eater, which was the first to report on this off-shoot of the current Di Fara’s location (1424 Avenue J), notes that it will be the first time in at least 10 years since Di Fara sold pasta dishes.

Mmmm…

Totonno’s (1524 Neptune Avenue) was one of the unluckiest businesses that felt Superstorm Sandy’s wrath late last October. Already struggling to pay off a loan from a 2009 fire that shuttered its doors, the destructive force of Sandy nearly sank the famed pizza place for good.

Well, thanks to some timely donations from world famous chef Daniel Patterson and a vow from the owners to reopen “no matter what,” Totonno’s will be serving out its delicious steamy pizzas as they have now officially reopened, according to a report by Grub Street.

Grub Street heard the news via owner Louise “Cookie” Ciminieri’s excited voice-mail message left this past Sunday.

Buongiorno! Today is Sunday, March 24, Palm Sunday, and we hope that you are happy to hear because we’re very happy to tell you that we’re opening Totonno’s today, our regular hours noon to 8 p.m. We hope that you are well. We love you. We look forward to seeing you at Totonno’s. God bless. Arrivederci!

Great news for Cookie, Coney Island and pizza lovers everywhere. Here’s hoping Totonno’s future is one free of major disasters for years to come.

The celebrated and beloved Totonno’s Pizzeria (1524 Neptune Avenue) has had a rough couple years in keeping its doors open. First they were hit by a fire in 2009, and more recently they were knocked out of commission by Superstorm Sandy. Still closed months after the storm struck, owners Cookie Cimineri and Antoinette Balzano have struggled to acquire the loans needed to reopen, according to a report by Serious Eats.

(UPDATE [January 17, 2013]: Totonno’s told New York Daily News that they vow to reopen, no matter what the odds.)

Apparently, Totonno’s is the victim of bad timing when it came to the loan application process. Totonno’s is still paying off the $200,000 in loans they took on from their 2009 fire, and because of this, the NYC Business Development Corporation’s denied the pizzeria’s $25,ooo loan request.

“They have to go by the last year,” Antoinette explained to Serious Eats, speaking of financial records and the loan application process. “For the last 2 years, we’ve been paying off the $200,000 loan from the fire.”

Totonno’s also applied for a $150,000 loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA), but have yet to hear back from them.

All hope for Totonno’s hasn’t been lost yet, as Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz took it upon himself to get the pizzeria’s NYCBDC loan request re-reviewed.

Still, the path to reopening Totonno’s again is not easy. Antoinette lamented to Serious Eats about her dealings with unreliable mold inspectors and contractors who are draining her money but not her will.

“The last [contractor], he was a con artist. My sister didn’t get 3 cents for 11 months. How do you live when you have bills to pay? A family to feed?Totonno’s doesn’t make a lot of money. It’s about passion.”

Here’s hoping the pizza gods do all they can to keeping the city’s best pizza coming out of the oven.

THE BITE: Connie’s Pizza (3845 Nostrand Avenue) is one of the survivors of Sheepshead Bay. With Pathmark closed and a Subway shop located almost next door, it has to be.

Enticed by a large sign in the window offering $5 heros, I ventured in for lunch and ordered.

Find out how it was, and why certain shenanigans are ruining the restaurant’s reputation.

Marine J & L Pizzeria opened recently at 3033 Avenue V, replacing what was the second location of Sofia Pizza, which opened in late 2010.

We’re not quite sure how long this has been open, having just been spotted by reader nolastname. However, the Health Department inspected the place in March, so the new owners have been operating the location since then at the very least.

THE BITE: I can’t remember the last time I had a calzone. I’m struggling to remember the last time I had one and the only memory that comes back is a date with Dorothy in my senior year in high school. I remember making some fairly crude comments about the calzone. But, hey, they worked. Let’s just say that it was a memorable date.

Back to today. Calzones are and Italian version of stuffed bread. They are made from pizza dough, traditionally stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella cheeses, baked and served with marinara sauce on the side. Many pizza places in the area will add pepperoni or sausages as well. It’s really up to the chef as there are no fixed rules. At Pizza Cardo, 1730 Jerome Avenue, they offer up five different calzones from four cheese to sauteed vegetables. I chose a spinach and mushroom calzone, $8, for my dining experience.
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THE BITE: Anthony’s Place over on Ave X claims to have invented garlic knots. Now I don’t know if that’s true, but they do make some good garlic knots. However, Five Brother’s Pizza, 2650 Coney Island Avenue, has just upped the game.

In a move so simple that I’m amazed that no one has thought about this before, Five Brother’s takes the lowly garlic knot, slices it open and makes a ham and cheese sandwich out of it. What a fantastic concept. In keeping with the food world’s obsession for sliders, for only 75 cents, they have created the first garlic knot slider. Another foodstuff invented in Brooklyn!

Now, I don’t know definitively if Five Brother’s is offering the only garlic knot slider on the planet, but this is the first I’ve seen of it in my travels. I am a little disappointed by the limited selection as they currently offer only ham and American cheese sliders, but, hey, great inventions take time to develop.

I would love to see the offering expand to a greater variety of cold cuts and cheeses. I am hoping that they create sliders more in the tradition of an Italian Salumeria by offering a wide variety of Italian cured meats, sausages, salami, prosciutto, and various types of bologna.

To me, the perfect slider would consist of some extra sharp provolone, topped with Prosciutto di Parma and sun dried tomatoes. What’s yours?

Five Brother’s Pizza, Pasta and Grill, 2650 Coney Island Avenue, (718) 648-1600.

The Bite is Sheepshead Bites’ weekly column where we explore the foodstuffs of Sheepshead Bay. Each week we check out a different offering from one of the many restaurants, delis, food carts, bakeries, butchers, fish mongers, or grocers in our neighborhood. If it’s edible, we’ll take a bite.

The signs for Cafe Apple Grill went up Tuesday, giving neighbors the first sight of what will replace Chipp Neapolitan Pizzeria at 2971 Ocean Avenue.

Reader James Griffin snapped the photo and tipped us off to the new sign, and asked that we throw in a plug for his new website www.shuttereuphoria.com. So… www.shuttereuphoria.com, www.shuttereuphoria.com, www.shuttereuphoria.com!

That’ll be $250, Griffin…

Chipp Neapolitan Pizzeria, which was co-owned by Lenny “The Russian” Veltman of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, closed in October after only seven months. We spotted the for sale announcement on Craigslist in June. At that time, co-owner Rus Gor told us that a dispute between the partners led to the sale.

After it sold we stopped by, and Gor and Veltman were both there with the new owner – who told us it would be a Russian-Uzbeki restaurant.

Now we’ve got Cafe Apple Grill, and we can spend the next few weeks until it opens wondering if it’s a cafe or a grill.

Oh, and www.shuttereuphoria.com.

Source: Wikipedia Commons

Oh no! The city’s best pizzeria, Di Fara’s Pizza in Midwood, was shuttered by Department of Health inspectors yesterday after racking up 67 violation points.

Of course, it’s not a surprise to most familiar with the 1424 Avenue J location. The venerable pizzeria makes most fanatics feel torn. On the one hand: what a pizza! On the other: at $5 a slice, couldn’t you gussy the place up a bit?

Apparently the Health Department agreed with the assessment, and it’s not the first time. It was shut down at least two other times as recently as 2007. Here’s the run down of the latest violations.

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