Crown Heights Staple Barboncino Pizza Gets New Owners After A Decade

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Crown Heights staple Barboncino is getting new owners after more than a decade in the neighborhood.

But its new leaders have an important message for fans of the popular pizza joint.

"Everything is remaining the same," a lawyer for the new owners told Community Board 8 members on Monday. "It's the same menu, it's the same staff, it's the same name. Everything is staying exactly the same."

The restaurant — which has consistently won glowing reviews since opening in 2011 — will be taken over by Emma Walton and Jesse Shapell, a husband-and-wife duo with a decade of experience in the restaurant industry, according to a meeting with CB8's liquor license committee.

The restaurant's current owner, restaurateur and chef Ron Brown, approached the couple with the opportunity given that Shapell was Barboncino's first manager when it opened a decade ago, they said.

"The fact that he came to me and my wife for this opportunity was sort of an out-of-the-blue kind of thing," Shapell said. "Preserving and maintaining Barboncino as a neighborhood staple is really, really important to us."

Since opening in 2011, Barboncino has been named one of the country's best pizza restaurants, the most-loved eatery in Crown Heights and has consistently made it onto best-pizza rankings for both Brooklyn and across the five boroughs.

Aside from his start at the pizza staple, Shapell is likely best known by Brooklynites as a partner at the always-crowded Win Son in Williamsburg, where he was general manager and now runs the restaurant's bakery across the street, according to reports and the committee meeting.

Walton's background includes positions as a sommelier at The William Vale and as a service manager at Cafe Cluny, according to her LinkedIn.

The pair plan to move back to Crown Heights, where they once lived before moving to Bed-Stuy, within the year to help run Barboncino.

"They’re going to be apart of the neighborhood again and they’re going to be managing the place," said their attorney, Ben Savitsky.

Community Board 8 committee members decided unanimously to support Walton and Shapell's request for a liquor license, which will ultimately be decided by the state liquor authority.

The committee negotiated with owners to have Barboncino close at 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday (the restaurant was once open seven days a week until 4 a.m. before introducing pandemic hours). The eatery will be open until 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Barboncino did not respond to Patch's request for comment on the new ownership.