Pino Party

Pino’s Restaurant serves Italian and Spanish food, located on the triangle on Coles—Newark & First complete the isosceles. Every summer, Pino’s hold a party, this summer it was the restaurant’s 30th anniversary. I don’t know the original location but the establishment has not been located on this triangle for all of its three decades. There used to be a fruit fly infested produce bodega there.. That closed and there was construction to upgrade the building. The plan was for a new restaurant. They even had a marquee. The place looked fancy, Gourmet Italian. It was on the verge of opening and stayed on that verge for a couple of years, an extraordinary length of time at least. I think I remember seeing furnishings in the window. The debut seemed near. Dave, a freelance construction guy who has been working gigs in the neighborhood for at least a decade, told me that there had been a violent falling out between the partners—one actually shot the other dead in the street—that’s what he told me. Somebody else told me the story was true. The building got upgraded then lay fallow for so long. Eventually the unused marquee was taken down and Pino’s opened. Every Summer there's a Saturday party with Spanish Bands. Folks danced up a storm this year. The cats sustained an exhilarating groove.