NEW YORK (AP) - The tax department shut a beloved New York City pizza place, but the mayor vowed Wednesday to help save it.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tweet ed Wednesday that Brooklyn’s Di Fara Pizza “MUST be saved.”
“I’m ready to do anything I can to get them reopened - as are thousands of New York City pizza-lovers,” de Blasio tweeted. “My team and I are looking into how we can help resolve this situation.”
Di Fara has been a foodie favorite since it opened in 1965. Fans travel from around the world for its pizzas made with pristine ingredients.
But the New York state tax department slapped a bright yellow “seized” sign on Di Fara on Tuesday. A department spokesman told the Daily News the pizzeria owes $167,506 in state taxes.
Di Fara, which is known as much for its dingy ambience as its tangy sauce, has been shut down in the past for city health code violations but has always reopened.
Margaret Mieles, the daughter of 82-year-old Di Fara owner Domenico De Marco, says the family will settle its debt and reopen this time as well. “I think once my voice gets to the right person in the tax office, it’ll be OK,” Mieles told the Daily News.
De Blasio, who is pursuing a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, courted pizza controversy before when he was photographed eating a slice with a knife and fork in 2014.
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