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Di Fara, the famed Brooklyn pizzeria that claims a space in many people's hearts, has been closed since Monday after failing five of the last six Department of Health restaurant inspections. Now, the media has flocked to get sad reactions from customers. The NY Times talks to a Brooklyn College student, who says, "I come twice a week, at least. This is the best pizza. I don't want to find a new place."
The violations included rodent infestation as well as preparing food without gloves. Owner Dominic DeMarco does not wear gloves, and his son told amNY, "My dad has a thing where he just can't make pizza while wearing gloves... For him, pizza is a very hands-on experience." Yeah - and the pizza is going into a super-hot oven. Pizza blog Slice created a waiver of liability for eating at Di Fara - we'd sign it!
The DeMarcos are awaiting a tribunal (!), scheduled for June 14. DeMarco's daughter told the Times that though they provided a food safety certificate, it wasn't recognized because it was a photocopy. Slice, which has long loved Di Fara, believes this might be a silver lining, given that there's been a problem lately - burnt crusts - writing, "Maybe this break will give Di Fara some time to adjust the oven and fix whatever needs it."
Do you think Di Fara's will re-open? And here are DOH inspection results, save for the most recent one.
Photograph taken at DiFara's by tud5000 on Flickr
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rodent infestations aside, as long as they're washing their hands, what does it matter that they're not using gloves?
i once ate at a sandwich place (part of a chain) that makes it employees wear gloves. when i saw an employee pick a scab on his arm and then make a sandwich, i decided to never eat there again. the fact that he was wearing food service gloves was of little comfort.
He is touching the food with his bare hands AFTER it comes out of the oven, but who cares, I'm sure it's the rodent feces that makes it all taste so good. Now everyone can sign a waiver & eat shit.
proper hand washing is much more important than mandatory glove wearing. Gloves get contaminated as quickly as hands. It is impossible to put gloves on and not contaminat the gloves if your hands are dirty.
How many times have you seen in a deli someone preparing a sandwich with gloves and then ringing up the cash register and handling money and then back to the sandwiches with the same gloves.
if you research the food safety sites they too are adamant about proper hand washing as opposed to gloves. All these restaurants with no soap in the bathrooms. Grand central station is a perfect example. All the food court people use the bathroom , soap is frequently empty and the hand driers dont work.
And then there are places where the employees do wear gloves. They handle cash then they handle exposed food immediately afterward. Some people just don't get it.
The loss of DiFara's would be a loss for Brooklyn and for New York City, in general. I've been to pizza joints in suburban Philadelphia and in Southern Florida where, after identifying myself as being from Brooklyn, I am asked whether I've ever eaten at Di Fara's. I usually tell them about my visit on a 96 degree summer day: the internal temperature of the restaurant must have been 125 and the wait for a pizza was nearly an hour. Was it worth it? You bet.
This is absolutely becoming too much. I've heard they are chasing the vendors from the Red Hook ball fields, too. We'll be left with only a Red Lobster soon enough. Hey, Hungry NYC! Wake up, let's do something!
So let me get this straight... here's this guy, he's been making amazing pizza for longer than most of us have been alive, the only thing people leave his pizza parlor with is a smile and a full belly, he's been doing one thing very very well for all these years, and now we're going to give him grief for *not wearing gloves*??? WTF??? I know a lot of old-school pizza joints where if you asked the pizza guys why they're not wearing gloves the best you can hope for is getting laughed out on your ass.
Yeah, yeah, health, health, whatever. You know how these things used to take care of themselves? When someone went there and got sick everyone knew about it and they went out of business. Yeah, it's old-school, yeah it's not perfect, but if no one's walking out of DiFara's getting sick, do we really have to ride this guy for not wearing gloves?
For Pete's sake, let the man do what God put him on this earth to do.
I used to chuckle when I heard the term "nanny state" now I'm not so sure.
by the way...
look at di fara in that above photo.
look at how he's in his own quiet world working on his latest masterpiece.
beautiful!
To be fair, I don't think it is really about him not wearing gloves. That's just one item in his failing score. Sounds like the rodent infestation and the perceived lack of compliance is the dealbreaker.
It deserves to close. I was there 3 weeks ago. It was filthy. Sauce and flour dripped on the floor and counter. A pile of dough sat on the prep counter in front whie Demarco was in the back for 20 minutes.
He may make good pizza-I couldn't try it because I won't wait 45 minutes-but it isn't needed. There are plenty of better pizzerias in Brooklyn.
Anybody ever try Nino's on Court St??
I have no sympathy for the place. Dominic DeMarco knows that the DOH rules require him to wear gloves, yet he won't follow them. Tough.
it really is not that hard to follow basic sanitary procedures, and it's quite obvious that they have neither the common sense nor desire to do so.
boycott this place and go to taco bell instead.
Dough sat for 20 minutes on the counter?! Well then let's bulldoze the place! Sigh......
As commenters have mentioned, it can't be because he's not wearing gloves while prepping food. What cooks/chefs do you know wear gloves while cooking? Serving may be a whole other issue.
And to again concur with others - bare hands I can deal with (as long as its not Seinfeld-episode bathroom action) but rat turds are a different story.
Fr: "Still Not Amused" I agree with the policy of wearing gloves while handling food . I stop eating pizza years ago because of this . I once asked a guy preparing a pie why he wasn't wearing gloves and he told me that it affected the way he makes pizza . I would rather have a good slice of pizza rather then the best slice if it meant the person preparing the pie wore gloves protecting me from whatever . You can't compromise safety in favor of perfection . The city needs to enforce this rule at all restaurants citywide ! Hell, I can remember back in the days there was a deli around my way where the guy making the sandwiches had cuts on his hands and nobody complained . I said something about this one day and the next day the guy was wearing about five band-aids covering the cuts on his hands . Who knows what that guy had in his blood stream, OR why he had so many cuts on his hands . I stopped buy from that store a while before that occurrence . I just never felt comfortable watching him prepare food, Even if I wasn't eating it .
I just don't believe that the food you get from flyblown "salad bars" and grotty little chicken or chinese places that never get shut is safer than the places like this that get screwed over. The DOH cares more about its artificial point system than they do about food poisoning.
Does any top class restaurant force super star chefs to wear plastic gloves? do you see any cooking shows on TV where the celebrity chefs wear plastic gloves? nope. It is just petty, they are just pissed that someone filmed rats at one of the cities stinking junk food chains, it made them look bad, and they are taking it out on independent operators rather than chains that have political clout.
Right... this place shuts down for not wearing gloves yet I sat there and watched a guy prep a hamburger (raw) throw it on the grill and then, with the same gloves on, start prepping my bun, lettuce, and tomato. But yeah, gloves are the answer.
Rodent infestation, on the other hand, yeah that's gotta be fixed.
I was there 3 weeks ago. It was filthy. Sauce and flour dripped on the floor and counter. A pile of dough sat on the prep counter in front whie Demarco was in the back for 20 minutes.
How many things wrong here. First, pizza dough doesn't spoil in 20 minutes. It's water, flour, olive oil, and yeast. Second, flour is purposely left on the counter so the dough doesn't stick to the counter... it also occassionally gets on the floor. Third, and most surprisingly, sauce on the floor doesn't affect the quality of the food.
Fr: "Still Not Amused" Just a side note to all who seemingly have no qualms with the "Not wearing of gloves " . You all do realize that we all shed a couple of layers of skin everyday . Just think, That's someones flesh Ur ingesting when you eat food prepared by those not wearing gloves . Secondly, Just because a person preparing food doesn't have a visible cut , OR soar on their hands doesn't mean they don't ! Sometimes you can cut yourself and the cuts not deep enough to rupture the deeper layers of the skin to create an open wound . This happens commonly with "Paper-cuts", & "Finger pricks" .
entitlement here,
first off, places everywhere are being shut down by the DOH, be it top restaurants or Grotty take out places.
Places get shut down, then re-open when they pass their inspection. It appears this place had many chances to correct it's violations. It's not like the DOH didn't give them a chance, They failed five out of six inspections.
The lack of glove use does not bother me. However, having rat poo evident inside an already filthy restaurant is unappetizing. DeMarco might be passionate about his pizza but he should care about his restaurant as well. He has a successful business thus, he can afford to hire someone to keep the place clean. His stubborness is leading to his demise.
This is so sad! In the past year I've been to so many of the best pizzerias: Patsy's (uptown and downtown), Grimaldi's, Lombardi's, Una Pizza Napoletano, Totonno's, Two Boots, Forino, Ray's, Not Ray's, and Koronet. I have to say that DiFara's is hands down my favorite.
The two hour wait was beyond unnerving, but the pizza blew my mind. I've been meaning to go back, and I really hope I get the chance.
as far as this pizza place goes, it's clealry not about the infractions or the gloves, but the fact that he is blowing off the DOH and as any self righteous and self respecting bureaucracy will do, he will be punished for non compliance. this seems to be perfectly in character for a crusty old italian bastard from brooklyn. gloves are retarded, rats are bad, but you've gotta play the game.
BUT, the main issue in the comments here is this: all these phobic psychos who post about skin layers and microscopic cuts etc. should just move into an airtight quaratine cell at their favorite local hospital and LEAVE THE REST OF US SANE PEOPLE ALONE. you are ruining not just the culinary world, but the entire experience of life as we know it. just seal yourselves in a giant ziploc bag full of purel and go away.
people have been making pizza, bread, cooking food etc, without latex gloves for tens of thousands of years and doing it just fine. your paranoid delusional victim mentality that the world is full of nasty things that are out to get you has created a vicious cycle.
people who think this way tend to get sick more often than others who dont
A) because they have weakened themselves by trying to live aseptically, and ESPECIALLY
B) thy believe they will get sick so much that they do (psychosomatosis) and
C) they are addicted to being victims because they want people to pay attention to them, coddle them, and feel sorry for them.
please, step outside, take a deep breath (by the way, the air you breathe every day is full of vaporized dog, cat, pigeon, rat, mouse fly, ant beetle shit and piss, and much much more! yummy!), and start living like a natural normal creature.
hey, it's ok to get sick once in a while! this concept of perfection as far as health goes is completely delusional an insane. you know what, just save us all some time and kill yourselves, you are clearly not enjoying your mortal experience on earth anyway.
SP - god, someone with sanity! What, did these people's mothers wear plastic gloves while they prepared their meals for them when they were little kids?
Seriously, SP, you hit the nail on the proverbial head. Bravo for calling out these paranoid hypochondriacs.
Listen folks, you live in NYC, shedding skin is the LEAST of the problem of what goes in your mouth. And you all know WHY your kids are allergic to so many things? It's because things are much more sanitary now than ever, rather than the contrary.
SP for president!
hes not very crusty..hes actually pretty mellow
best pizza ive ever had.