News arrives today of a twist in the Grimaldi’s pizza drama that apparently had Post headline writers in a tizzy: In a piece titled “Grimaldi’s Seeks $lice of Landlord,” the paper reports that Grimaldi’s owner Frank Ciolli — who was sued by his landlord for a supposed failure to pay rent — is now countersuing, saying that landlords “refused to accept his rent payments” and are simply out to “steal his coal-burning brick ovens.” We called Grimaldi’s manager Gina Peluso, who did not seem terribly interested in the drama.
“I don’t have any of the details,” she said, following up with, “Yeah, supposedly there might be a countersuit or whatever … honestly, I don’t really care … It doesn’t affect business at all.” Peluso said her primary interest was that the people in that line outside get fed. We also asked about the long-drawn-out opening of Grimaldi’s Chelsea. Peluso told us it’d happen in “two weeks.”
