Century-old NYC pizzeria seeks new owners after family left without heir: ‘It’s very hard to let go’

It’s a cold slice of reality.

The third-generation owners of Totonno’s, a century-old Brooklyn pizzeria that credits itself with being among the first to bring pizza to the US, say they’re ready to put the place up for sale since there’s no one left to run the family business.

The historic Coney Island shop is one of the oldest family-owned pizzerias in the country, drawing tourists from “all over the world” — and the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Michael Bloomberg, Robert DeNiro and Rob Reiner, co-owner Antoinette Balzano told The Post.

But the James Beard Award-winning institution can only move forward with a new owner, since Balzano and her sister, co-owner Louise “Cookie” Ciminieri, don’t have any younger relatives to inherit it.

“At our age and our health, we can’t do this ourselves,” Balzano, 74, the shop’s bookkeeper and a retired public school teacher, told The Post.

The decision was made this summer, Ciminieri, 81, said.

“I’m old, very old. How much more can you do?,” said the shopkeeper, whose 85-year-old brother, Frank Balzano, also co-owns the pizzeria.

The owners’ grandfather, Anthony “Totonno” Pero, immigrated from Naples to Manhattan at the turn of the century to work in what became America’s first licensed pizzeria at Lombardi’s in Little Italy.

“He brought pizza to America: without him, there would be no pizza,” Balzano said, adding that it was his idea to start serving pizzas at Lombardi’s, which began as a grocery store.

Pero opened his own store, Totonno’s, on Neptune Avenue in 1924.

Ciminieri’s son Lawrence, 59, was set to run the business, Balzano recounted. But he tragically fell ill during the pandemic and later became confined to a wheelchair.

Since assuming caretaking duties and subsequently reducing staff, the business has since been delivery and pickup-only and just open on weekends.

“That was never a thought, to close [the store],” a tearful Balzano said. “I think this is going to be the year – it has to be, whether it be a sale or partnership – something has to be done.

“Totonno’s was always my child, it was my baby. It’s very hard to let go.”

The Staten Island resident said she’s received more than 200 inquiries from interested investors, at least one of which is a promising lead for the future of the pizzeria.

“I have somebody that I really would love,” she said, noting the anonymous investor recently opened up a restaurant venture in Manhattan. 

The longtime bookkeeper, above all else, wants the new owners “to understand the blood, sweat, tears that went into the business.”

“Someone who has a passion for history, and would want to keep everything as close as possible to the meaning of Totonno’s,” she added.

“Our life was those nine tables in that store.”