Totonno's in 2026

Is Totonno's still open in 2026?

Yes, on weekends. The pizzeria's own site lists Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and says "takeout only". The indoor dining room has been closed since before Time Out New York's December 2025 report.

Time Out described the setup as takeout and delivery on weekends, with indoor dining closed. The Totonno's site points to Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats and Slice for online orders, and NYC Tourism also lists it as weekend afternoons, takeout and delivery. Weekdays are dark. Don't ride out on a Thursday.

The menu is short: two 14-inch pies, a Traditional with mozzarella, tomato, grated cheese and oil, and a White without the tomato. No slices, and famously no pineapple. Time Out added one practical change: Totonno's now takes credit cards. Call 718-372-8606 before you leave if the weather or a holiday weekend makes you unsure.

Is Totonno's for sale?

Yes, still. The family first said in May 2024 that it was looking for a buyer or investor, tried again in December 2025, and Antoinette Balzano told the New York Post she had more than 200 inquiries. No sale has been announced.

The owners are the founder's grandchildren: Antoinette Balzano, her sister Louise "Cookie" Ciminieri and their brother Frank Balzano. There is no fourth generation ready to take the oven. "At our age and our health, we can't do this ourselves," Balzano told the Post. Brooklyn Magazine reported in January 2026 that she had found at least one candidate she liked, and PMQ Pizza quoted her the same month: "I think this is going to be the year."

What she wants from a buyer is old-fashioned. Brooklyn Magazine says the family is vetting people for character as much as price, and Time Out says the right buyer must keep Totonno's methods, menu and meaning. Balzano's own words: someone with "a passion for history". The coal oven has been repaired over the years but never replaced. That matters, because new coal ovens do not pass the city's current environmental rules; the old ones are grandfathered. A buyer who tore it out could never put another one in.

What is the history of Totonno's?

Antonio "Totonno" Pero, an Italian immigrant who had worked at Lombardi's in Manhattan, opened on Neptune Avenue in 1924. The family calls it the oldest continually run family-owned pizzeria in the United States.

Lombardi's, on Spring Street, holds a 1905 licence and long called itself America's first pizzeria. Pero made pies there before he set up his own coal oven in Coney Island, which is why Totonno's is often filed under the same family tree. Brooklyn Paper carried the "oldest continually run family-owned" claim in 2021; Wikipedia notes the wider "first pizzeria" debate is messy, with Papa's Tomato Pies in Trenton claiming the longest continuous run.

The run has not been smooth. A fire in 2009 closed it. Hurricane Sandy flooded the shop in 2012, and it took until January 2013 to reopen. COVID closed it again through much of 2020 and 2021. Each time the family came back with the same thin pie and the same nine tables. Zagat once summed it up, as NYC Tourism still quotes: "Only God makes better pizza." Our guide to the oldest pizza places in Brooklyn puts it next to L&B, Di Fara and Grimaldi's.

How do you plan a visit to Totonno's?

Go on a Saturday or Sunday soon after noon, take the D, F, N or Q to Coney Island-Stillwell Av, and walk a few blocks inland to Neptune Avenue. Order a whole pie to go and eat it by the beach.

• Getting there: all four lines end at Coney Island-Stillwell Av, per the MTA timetables. Totonno's is a few blocks inland, up past Mermaid Avenue on Neptune Avenue, a few minutes on foot.
• Timing: Totonno's bakes until the dough runs out, and on a sunny weekend it does run out. Early afternoon is safer than 5 p.m.
• Ordering: whole pies only. One 14-inch Traditional feeds two people with room for a hot dog later. Order ahead on the apps if you want to walk straight in and out.
• Where to eat: with no tables inside, take the box to the boardwalk. Pies are thin, so they travel well for a few blocks and badly for an hour on the train.
• Bad weather: this is a beach neighborhood. In wind and rain, eat in the car or plan the trip for another weekend.

What else is near Totonno's in Coney Island?

The boardwalk and beach, Luna Park and the Cyclone, the New York Aquarium and Nathan's Famous by the station. For more pizza, L&B Spumoni Gardens on 86th Street and Di Fara in Midwood make a southern Brooklyn trio.

Luna Park opened its 2026 season on 28 and 29 March with the usual Cyclone christening, and it runs as a warm-weather park; check its own calendar in late autumn, when rides wind down. The boardwalk and beach are free all year, and a cold, bright November afternoon is honestly a good time to eat pizza on a bench there.

If you came this far for pizza, keep going. L&B Spumoni Gardens on 86th Street, a Barbati family business since 1939, is the place for a Sicilian square and a cup of spumoni. Di Fara, at Avenue J and East 15th Street in Midwood, has served slices and whole pies since 1965. Three stops, three styles, one long and happy afternoon.

Where else can you eat a classic Brooklyn coal-oven pie?

Under the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO: Juliana's at 19 Old Fulton Street and Grimaldi's at 1 Front Street both bake in coal ovens, seven days a week. Both sell whole pies only and pause the oven in the afternoon.

Juliana's closes from 3:15 to 4 p.m. to stoke its oven, Grimaldi's pauses pizza from 4 to 5 p.m. Plan around those breaks and either is an easy weekday fix when Totonno's is shut. Our Grimaldi's vs Juliana's guide explains how the same man founded both.

A guided walk is the other answer. The Cobble Hill pizza walk visits three pizzerias in three styles, including a Neapolitan pizzeria and one of the only slice shops with a coal-fired oven; the listing does not name the stops, and they can change. In Williamsburg, the four-slice crawl covers a gas-oven New York slice, a coal-fired blend and a grandma slice.

Three pizzerias, three styles, cheese pies only, and a guide who knows the people at the ovens.

★ 4.5 · 2.5 hours · from $65

Explore the Brooklyn pizza walk → Tour details

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