Monday, February 1, 2021

With Gino Sorbillo bowing out, there's another pizzeria slated for 334 Bowery

A "temporarily closed for renovation" sign arrived at the Gino Sorbillo outpost at 334 Bowery between Great Jones and Bond in early January.

It didn't seem likely that the first U.S. pizzeria from "the Neapolitan celebrity super-chef" Gino Sorbillo was going to reopen amid the pandemic. At the time, there wasn't any message about a closure on the pizzeria's social media...  and their website was offline ... and the phone went to a random voice mailbox. 

Turns out applicants, named as William Fung and Steve Fung, appeared before Community Board 2 last fall for a new liquor license for the space and sidewalk cafe. 

There's now an SLA notice on the front window...
The application, found here, notes that this will be a 
"artisanal neighborhood pizzeria" with hours of noon to midnight.

This hyped Gino Sorbillo outpost arrived here in November 2017

The address was previously a carousel of pizza-tapas concepts between November 2014 and June 2015 ... this is when the address was divided into two spaces, where we had Forcella, Espoleta, Gia Trattoria, Slice of Naples, SRO and Bowery Pizza over the six-month period. 

2 comments:

Giovanni said...

Welcome to The Bowery, where so many dreams go to die. Back in 2015 when I posted here that SRO Pizza, which was the speakeasy $38 pre-fixe pizza spot, was doomed to fail, the owner replied to me that they had in fact expanded due to overcrowding on weekends.

Yet they were gone within months. Imagine that: A pizza place on the Bowery called SRO. Coming soon: Flophouse Flapjacks by IHop. Sadly, SRO’s last Instagram post was 267 weeks, or more than five years ago, on an account that lasted less than a year. When Gino Sorbillo opened here I predicted the same fate, but somehow they lasted a whole three years before closing shop. Even having Mayor DeBlasio eating piazza at their grand opening didn’t help, but maybe inviting an Italian American who is known for eating pizza with a fork and knife wasn’t such a brilliant PR move after all.

Pricey pizza spots like the half dozen spots that have tried and failed at this location belong in upscale malls in Singapore or Macau, not on the Bowery. If the Bowery can barely support these businesses during good times there is no way it can do so during a pandemic. If only Waffle House would open a spot down here, it would probably be packed 24 hours a day.

Grieve said...

Hi Giovanni... you accidentally posted this in the 3rd & B'zaar post... I moved it here but lost the link to your name...