By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-24 17:54:44 | Updated at 2024-11-26 00:43:16
1 day ago
When the soot hits your eye from a big pizza pie, that’s a problem.
An Upper West Side brick-oven pizza joint says it will soon be switching from wood-burning to natural gas, ending the steady stream of black smoke that has been plaguing its neighbors for years.
The change is expected to provide long-awaited relief for residents of a Columbus Avenue co-op facing Motorino Pizzeria’s chimney — a set-up they say has left thick billowing smoke blanketing their outdoor patios in black soot and forced them to keep their windows shuttered in the daytime since the Manhattan restaurant opened seven years ago.
“I don’t want the smoke near my kids or for them to, of course, breathe that. I think it’s very bad,” said a resident who told The Post she has been shuttering her windows around 10:30 a.m. every day — an hour before Motorino opens for business — to block the smog from entering her apartment.
The mom, who asked to remain anonymous, said she visited the pizzeria numerous times throughout the years to complain.
“He offered us free pizza. I don’t even like the pizza, to be honest,” the woman said of a pizzeria worker.
Pizzeria owner Mathieu Palombino told The Post he is in the process of equipping his pizza oven with gas power, which should help alleviate the smoke in the coming weeks.
He emphasized that his business is legally compliant but that he is willing to do the switch to make his neighbors happy.
“We don’t want to be at war with our neighbors. We don’t want anybody to be upset,” Palombino said.
The planned change was apparently brought on by a Gothamist article last month that publicized the Neapolitan-style pizza chain’s alleged filthy impact on its neighbors.
For years, black smog from the oven would waft smoke and soot through the east-facing windows of 102 W. 85th St., residents said, leaving behind a grimy layer on their furniture and clothes.
“We’ve sent many pictures to the owner of the store saying, ‘Look, this is what’s getting on my furniture outside and all the smoke,'” said a resident who declined to give her name.
Another resident who uses her apartment as a pied-à-terre during her bimonthly visits to New York City said she finds a fresh coat of black soot covering her windowsills each time she returns to the unit.
“I’m thinking about getting an air purifier,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.
“Some of them capture really fine particles. So I’m thinking about getting one for the apartment just because maybe that could help.”
Palombino said he has made multiple efforts to curb the smoggy nuisance over the years, including repositioning the chimney flume so it would face away from the co-op’s windows.
He said he also installed a pollution control system last spring that reduces particle matter by up to 97% as part of new city emissions rules.
But the complaints failed to slow down.
“There was just no way around it, so we decided to go ahead and change to gas,” Palombino said.
The Motorino owner, who runs two other Manhattan locations, first revealed the change to neighbors at a meeting last month, said a representative for state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal’s office.
Palombino is waiting for a city Department of Buildings inspection to finalize the change but is hopeful it will be under way before December.
But the owner assured his loyal customers that they don’t have to worry — the switch won’t impact the eatery’s Neapolitan-style pies.
“It’s the same Neopolitan oven that came from Naples. It’s just that instead of being powered by wood burning, it’ll be powered by gas,” Palombino said.
