UPDATE: This post was updated at 5:50 p.m. to reflect that the pizza shop reopened its doors for business.
Employees from Zappitelli’s on Madison arrived to work Friday morning and found a padlock and a notice from the city forcing the business to close until it resolved building code violations.
The pizza shop on Madison Avenue — that recently announced it was closing its doors by the end of the year — was required to remove the dining room tables.
Per city code, the business does not have public restrooms, therefore it cannot allow dining room seating.
“We’re allowed to have tables, but not people dining in,” said Zappitelli's on Madison Avenue owner Adam Carroll.
Once the tables were taken out, the business reopened at around 4:40 p.m.
“I’ve decided to turn the tables into artwork and sell them,” Carroll said.
Dru Siley, the city’s director of building and housing, said the business was given a notice that it would have to close until the tables were removed.
“This has been going on for year,” he said. “We’re willing to work them if they want to do what needs to be done and add restrooms.”
“We think Zappitelli’s is great,” Siley added. “We’ve been working hard to resolve this, unfortunately they’ve been unwilling to take any action.”
A court case is pending in Lakewood Municipal Court on the issue.
In August, Carroll announced that the business would close is doors by the end of the year, citing a general lack of parking in the area.
A dispute with the neighbors didn’t help the situation.
I don't have a desire to go to that clothing store but I don't make bad remarks about it. Let the ones who like it go there and the same for Zapps.
Perhaps you should take your obvious personal agenda elsewhere. Zap's has quality food and are really friendly people. It's a shame you are so angry and bitter.
Hopefully people can see the blatantly obvious attempts by a very small group to continuously post negative posts about zeppatellis. Fact Is they DID beat Angelo's (who i absolutly love) and dozens of other pizza local shops. Fact is when you talk to people that actually have ordered from them, the food is fantastic! Fact is I have ordered dozens of times and I am willing to wait for a grat fresh dough pizza. This is dominoes with pre- made dough and bagged and canned ingredients. Fact is that anyone who has ever had a pizza delivered by their employees know they are extremely polite and never close to being rude. That whole story reeks of an agenda! Fact is that I cannot believe someone who claims a pizza was delivered to their door 15 min. After ordering. So they took the order, put together the pizza with fresh dough, cooked it, and including travel time, had it at your door in 15 min? Hmmmm Like the kids say " ya, right" Makes me think that John and others with an agenda use multiple names to make multiple posts that blatantly slander a great family run business.
Re-read johns post, he say that free parking was taken away AFTER the owner and employees were given tickets for not paying the meters. Sounds like free parking was already taken away. Nafel never makes any sense. Zeppatellis has a bad neighbor but imagine how the poor family living next to Johnny boy feels!!! LOL
I can tell you that Zappitelli's had all their employees taking up all the metered parking all day, which was handled by city parking enforcement. We now do not have free 15 minute parking. My mother and I have put A LOT of time and money into our store and take A LOT of pride in our business. I am sick of being put in the middle of Zappitelli's own problems. I am trying to run my own business and do not want to be involved with Zappitelli's closing -- it has NOTHING to do with my mother, my business or myself. I would appreciate it if everyone stopped bringing "THE NEIGHBORS" (which is my store) into this situation. My business does everything by the books, I'd love for anyone to come see. I am not responsible for others actions, and for others not running their business properly. Thank you.
I can tell you that Zappitelli's had all their employees taking up all the metered parking all day, which was handled by city parking enforcement. We now do not have free 15 minute parking. My mother and I have put A LOT of time and money into our store and take A LOT of pride in our business. I am sick of being put in the middle of Zappitelli's own problems. I am trying to run my own business and do not want to be involved with Zappitelli's closing -- it has NOTHING to do with my mother, my business or myself. I would appreciate it if everyone stopped bringing "THE NEIGHBORS" (which is my store) into this situation. My business does everything by the books, I'd love for anyone to come see. I am not responsible for others actions, and for others not running their business properly. Thank you.
I am the owner of MODA, Zappitelli's neighbors. I would appreciate it if you did not include my business in articles about Zappitelli's. Even though you do not say MODA directly, it is assumed by everyone who reads these articles. My business has nothing to do with them not following city codes, or their customers receiving parking tickets. My customers have received tickets as well but you don't see articles about that. I do not want to be associated with their problems. I take a lot of pride in my business and I run my business by the books. People are saying bad things about the "neighbors" in these comments because these articles are saying we are the problem. WE ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. I have plenty of pictures showing their employees taking up the metered parking. Please feel free to ask for them. A dispute with my business has nothing to do with their business closing. Please do not say things that are not true. You do not know the whole story and I don't want to be associated with their business anymore. Thank you very much. Gabrielle McKernan
How may out of business owners would do that?...most would just refund the money.