Upper West Sider says smoke from a wood-fired pizzeria makes life ‘Dickensian’

Every New Yorker loves an old-fashioned Neapolitan pizza—until they live next to a wood-fired oven.

Neighbors of the popular Motorino Pizzeria on Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side say they haven’t been able to open their windows since the wood-fired pie joint opened about seven years ago. Black soot from the restaurant’s exhaust collects on the facade, blackens windows and penetrates into the houses. Pizzeria owner Mathieu Palombino said the restaurant installed a pollution control system from wood-fired kitchen equipment maker Smoki USA that complies with the city’s new emissions regulations. The new regulations forced wood- and coal-fired pizzerias to make costly climate-friendly upgrades – but residents say the smoke remains a nuisance.

“It’s like living in a Dickensian chimney,” said Chantal Berman, who lives in the building next to Motorino with her 1-year-old child. “The thickness and oiliness of the soot and the smell that comes out of that chimney is like nothing I have ever experienced.”

Since 2017, Motorino’s neighbors have sent cease-and-desist letters to the pizzeria’s owners, petitioned City Hall and complained to 311, local City Council member Gale Brewer and Community Board 7. Some of the apartments are about 20 feet from Motorino’s chimney.

Berman and her neighbors said they rush to close their windows before Motorino opens at 11:30 a.m. each day. When Berman forgets to close the windows on time, she and her child start coughing because of the smoke, she said.

Palombino said his company is complying with emissions regulations that went into effect in April. According to the product specification of the Smoki filter system, the device reduces particulate matter by up to 97% by cooling hot, dark smoke and converting it into water vapor.

“We have had the scrubber in our Upper West Side chimney since we opened in 2016 and it runs 24 hours a day,” Palombino said. He added that he was in the process of switching to natural gas. According to his email correspondence with residents, Palombino began this process in spring 2021.

Burning wood causes two and a half times as much pollution as natural gas. Burning coal produces around twice as many emissions as natural gas.

Research shows that commercial kitchens are a major source of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and soot. Areas in close proximity to restaurants have higher concentrations of pollutants. The regulations that came into force last spring are intended to combat this localized pollution.

The new rules made national headlines as some critics complained that the city was over-regulating its most popular food, pizza.

Multiple complaints on the Department of Buildings website regarding smoke coming from Motorino and another restaurant in the building were deemed unfounded by an inspector. These inspections took place before the new emissions regulations came into force. A spokesman for the Ministry of Environmental Protection confirmed that an inspector had accused the company of violating aviation regulations in June, which was attributed to a possible failure to maintain the filter system.

Public records show the fine was $1,600. Follow-up inspections in recent weeks revealed that the restaurant was complying with the rules. But some neighbors still smell smoke.

“I had to replace two couches and three rugs and all of my window sills because of the soot pollution,” said Heather Harrison, a co-op board member at a nearby building on West 85th Street. “This year I decided that I can only open my windows early in the morning – the pollution is just too bad.”