Scarano still up to his old tricks

From the Brooklyn Paper:

On Friday, the city blocked Grimaldi’s from moving to its new location next door after the owner apparently tried to install a coal-fired oven under the cover of darkness.

Frank Ciolli was supposed to relocate his famed pie shop this week after losing his lease and setting the stage for an unexpected comeback by 80-year-old pizza king Patsy Grimaldi, the venerable pizzaiolo who will reclaim the ultra-rare coal oven that he sold to Ciolli in 1998.

Ciolli couldn’t be reached for comment, but Marcello Pervido, who owns the new Grimaldi’s location at 1 Front St. assured pie lovers that the joint would open with a dual gas and coal cooker soon.

“Everything was done legitimately,” Pervido said. “It was just a mistake on the part of the architect in filing the papers — that’s all it was.”

But this “mistake” was not the work of a mere “architect,” but the firm of Robert Scarano, the so-called starchitect of the New Brooklyn, who is best known for his modern designs and for being stripped of his right to certify his own plans after a long history of falsifying documents.

Ciolli claimed that he hired Scarano to apply for a construction permit — but Scarano apparently only asked the city to approve the installation of a “pizza oven”; he never mentioned using coal.

Scarano maintains that Ciolli really was installing a gas oven that simply uses coal for flavor.

“Unfortunately, he wasn’t finished and instead of telling everyone, he blamed my firm so we resigned,” Scarano said. “I wish him good luck. … And hope he makes better pizza there.”

Image from Curbed