COURIER L 4 IFE, AUG. 23-29, 2019
Check, please!
Iconic Park Slope eatery asks locals
to bankroll much needed renovation
Dizzy’s owner Matheo Pisciotta launched a GoFundMe campaign on Aug. 19 to help with
renovations to the 21-year-old Park Slope diner. Photo by Aidan Graham
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
An iconic Park Slope diner is looking
to renovate — and the owner wants locals
to pick up the tab!
Dizzy’s Diner — which has served
cakes and coffee out of the same Ninth
Street and Eight Avenue street storefront
since 1997 — launched a Go-
FundMe campaign on Aug. 19 to bankroll
a much needed upgrade, which the
owner said could mean life or death for
the neighborhood eatery.
“We’ve been here for over 20 years,
and I want to be here for another 10 —
but I can’t be here the way it is now,”
said Matheo Pisciotta.
Pisciotta is aiming to hit an ambitious
fundraising goal of $20,000,
which will help fi nance construction
of a new dining room layout, a modern
paint job, stylish new fl ooring, and
more.
“It’ll still have the diner feel, but we
want to create a fresh new vibe. We’re
going to do some new tiling, and a new
fl oor,” he said. “And no more bright
colors — that might have been good 15
years ago, but we want it to we want to
make it a little more modern.”
Pisciotta shuttered Dizzy’s Fifth
Avenue counterpart in 2017, and used
the savings to fund some minor upgrades
to the Ninth Street location, but
says he doesn’t have the dough to fi nish
the job, and is hoping the generosity
of locals will help plug the gap.
“It’s a big job, and we just kept putting
it off because there wasn’t enough
Pisciotta is asking locals to help fund renovations
at the Ninth Street diner, but said
the mechanical horse out front will stay.
Matheo Pisciotta
money to do it,” he said. “I was planning
on doing it all myself... but the Go-
FundMe would provide some breathing
room.”
Pisciotta says he’s considering special
rewards for substantial contributors
— like an honorary plaque on a
bar stool, or discounted diner grub —
but nothing has been fi nalized yet.
For now, Pisciotta hopes the eatery’s
long history in Park Slope will
move people to contribute to the fundraising
effort and help bankrolling the
renovation work.
“I never thought it would become
such a part of the community, and such
a part of the neighborhood,” he said.