The owner of the Grimaldi’s pizza name and restaurant chain is expanding his “no slices” empire in Kips Bay at 462 Second Avenue, most recently home to one of two now-closed Manhattan outposts of Coney Island’s famous coal-oven pie joint Totonno’s. “We have a lease, we just put up some signage, and we’ll be opening soon,” Frank Ciolli tells Crain’s. The Health Department closed the Kips Bay restaurant in January of 2011 after a 94-point inspection, and it shuttered for good last spring. The announcement comes just as Patsy Grimaldi, the 81-year-old pizzaiolo who no longer has any financial interest in the Patsy’s and Grimaldi’s restaurant chains that are named after him, puts the finishing touches on Juliana’s, his newest pizza endeavor in Brooklyn. [Crain’s, Earlier, Related]
