NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – The owners of the popular Manhattan pizza joint Prince Street Pizza have stepped down from daily operations after racist comments resurfaced online.
Father and son Frank and Dominic Morano are stepping down “due to their respective involvement in a series of offensive comments made to customers across Yelp and other platforms,” the pizzeria said in a statement, adding that the current manager will take over full operational responsibility.
The statement said the pizzeria “unequivocally denounces all forms of racism, injustice, inequality and bigotry.”
“There is nothing okay about the comments I made on Yelp,” Frank Morano said in the statement. “I take full responsibility and wholeheartedly apologize to our customers, especially our Asian community. All of our customers are family to us, and you deserve so much better. I am stepping down because it’s the right thing to do.”
According to the statement, Frank Morano was involved in a “heated and racially charged exchange” with a customer on Yelp, while Dominic Morano “posted highly insensitive content regarding Black Lives Matter protesters on his personal social media site in 2016” and responded with a “meme making light of the situation” when questioned about it in 2020.
“Making light of violence is indefensible,” Dominic Morano said in part. “I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
The comments were posted to the Instagram of food blogger Joe Rosenthal last month. Eater reported the pizzeria’s Yelp page had since been inundated with negative reviews.