Barboncino, a beloved wood-fired pizzeria in Crown Heights, will close at the end of February 2024, impacted by financial strains exacerbated by rising costs and decreased sales. Co-owners Jesse Shapell and Emma Walton expressed their sadness over the closure, highlighting their efforts to maintain the business's viability since taking over in 2022. The establishment once became the only unionized pizzeria in NYC, but it now symbolizes the challenges faced by small restaurants versus larger chains. Workers united to advocate for the community and sustainable pricing for locals, but ultimately, their efforts were not enough to save 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 across NYC in the last year, Barboncino was not immune to the effects of rising costs and diminished sales.
Even at one of the best places to work, these things can happen to you and you're in this very precarious position.
What we are doing is not about Barboncino specifically as much as it is about the restaurant industry itself.
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.
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