'It's a big expense': Iconic NYC pizzeria slams the city's coal pizza oven crackdown after spending $150K to upgrade equipment — says it’s 'not fair to the smaller places'

The financial implications of this mandate can be substantial, as detailed by Kevin Jackson, general manager of John's of Bleecker Street, an emblematic NYC pizzeria established more than a century ago.

“We had about $150,000 worth of expense,” Jackson revealed in a recent interview with Fox Business.

He elaborated on the complexity of the task, noting that compliance involves more than merely affixing a scrubber on top of the oven flue.

“Our flue wasn't the right width, so we had to change our whole two, six-story flues, we had to change from 14 inches to 18 inches. You have to put the scrubber up top, that involves punching through a brick wall, which, in a 100-year-old building, I can assure you needs engineers and all kinds of different construction people just to do the punch through the wall. So it's a big expense,” he explained.

‘Well-intentioned law’

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection is enforcing this regulation as part of a broader effort to combat climate change as well as to improve air quality. In public documentation, DEP framed these new rules as in response to health concerns, with a goal of reducing “particulate matter released into the environment, which is a known cause of asthma and other respiratory complications.”

Jackson acknowledged the goal of this new regulation, calling it a “well-intentioned law.” However, he has reservations about its effectiveness.

“All restaurants that have coal ovens use a coal called anthracite coal. It is a high carbon type of coal, almost particulate free,” he explained. “So to include coal ovens in this legislation, it misses the mark … but it is what it is. The city, they're mandating it and we've done it.”

Higher menu prices

Many restaurant owners have recently drawn a connection between regulatory pressures and higher menu prices. For the century-old pizzeria in New York City, this financial challenge is equally pressing.