Lenny's Pizza, iconic Brooklyn pizzeria featured in 'Saturday Night Fever,' to close
BENSONHURST, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Just as it was celebrating its 70th birthday, the iconic Lenny's Pizzeria in Brooklyn, made world-famous by its cameo in "Saturday Night Fever," is closing on Sunday.
Josephine Giordano, the longtime owner's daughter who has become the face of the restaurant on social media, announced on Friday that her 77-year-old father, Frank, has decided to retire, and the Bensonhurst institution would close for good at 10 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19.
"We thankfully have done very well and felt it was best to close once my dad was ready. It's time for him and I to enjoy our families. We want to thank everyone who has given us the opportunity to serve them," Josephine Giordano wrote.
Giordano also spoke to Eyewitness News on Saturday.
"For the most part, my dad is retiring, and it's time. New York has changed a bit and it's time for my family to move on," she said.
The pizzeria on 86th Street was made famous by the 1977 blockbuster starring John Travolta, an era when Bensonhurst had a large Italian population.
In the film, Travolta's character, Tony Manero, orders two slices of pizza and stacks them, wolfing them down while strutting down 86th Street. That scene is still so popular today that patrons still order double-decker slices from Lenny's.
In 2018, Travolta even returned to Lenny's to celebrate the enduring success of the pizzeria his film made famous.
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