The neighborhood of Crown Heights is losing another neighborhood staple.
The famed pizzeria, Barboncino is set to shut its doors at the end of the month. The restaurant first opened its doors in 2011 and its specialized in making wood-fire pizza for its customers. Co-owners, Jesse Shapell and Emma Walton released a statement on their decision to close the restaurant.
“We came to Barboncino to restore its viability as a business and to ensure that it could last for years to come. But unfortunately, like so many other restaurants and bars that closed actress NYC in the last year, Barboncino was not immune to the effects of rising costs and diminished sales. We are truly saddened, but will always remember Barboncino with love.”
Walton and Shapell took over the restaurant from its original owner, Ron Brown, in 2022. A year later, Barboncino Workers United, a union, was formed, and the workers came together to fight for higher wages and worker protections.
In 2023, on their employees said in an interview, “Even at one of the best places to work, these things can happen to you and you’re in this very precarious position.” Another one added, “What we are doing is not about Barboncino specifically as much as it is about the restaurant industry itself.”
After receiving an email about the closure, Barboncino Workers United wrote in a statement, “Our community, one we have worked to preserve and improve, is being dismantled at the hands of absent owners that have repeatedly ignored our needs.”
The statement also spoke about keeping the prices in the restaurant manageable instead of “pricing out the neighborhood locals who helped build the restaurant into what it is.”
The staff has since started a GoFundMe and has raised more than $6,000. Barboncino will close its doors on February 28th.