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Breaking: Patsy Grimaldi Coming Out of Retirement

Posted by Adam Kuban, November 28, 2006 at 6:02 PM

A Slice tipster just gave us some news: Patsy Grimaldi (right) is coming out of retirement to run a pizza joint at the new Aviator Sports & Recreation complex at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

What's that you ask? Grimaldi was retired? Wha?

Yeah. A few years ago, he sold the eponymous pizzeria that sits under the Brooklyn Bridge and has been in semiretirement since, retaining a partnership—with Sean McHugh—in the Hoboken branch, the day-to-day operations of which he leaves to Mr. McHugh.

Our tipster tells us that Mr. Grimaldi and his wife, Carol, will run the pizzeria, which is located in the "Brooklyn Hall of Fame Food Court," and that this will be something completely different for Mr. Grimaldi. First, he's doing slices, which he's never done before. Second, the oven is not coal-fired; it's a Wood Stone gas-fired, brick-lined oven.

Word is that Mr. Grimaldi has the go-ahead from the current Grimaldi's to call it Grimaldi's at Aviator, thus avoiding any naming controversy, a subject that Patsy is familiar with from his run-in with the group that owns the Patsy's Pizzeria mini chain in Manhattan.

Our tipster was at Aviator Sports Complex for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the food court and says that Mr. Grimaldi was scheduled to make his first pies in the newly delivered oven shortly after the pomp and circumstance subsided.

We'll bring you more as this story develops...

Coal Miner: Patsy Grimaldi hangs on to nearly lost art of cooking with coal [Pizza Today]
A Menu from Grimaldi's Hoboken [Slice Archives]
All Grimaldi's entries [Slice Archives]

Photograph from PMQ.com

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