The website for Brooklyn’s legendary L&B Spumoni Gardens lists two locations—one of which is “coming soon.” For five years, L&B’s rabid fans have speculated and gossiped about what “soon” really means. For now, there’s still just the one store—on 86th Street.

But the Brooklyn Eagle has a new rumor to report: The Barbati family could open store No. 2 as soon as September. 

For at least a year now, L&B Spumoni Gardens’ website has listed its soon-to-open store at 46 Old Fulton Street in Brooklyn’s DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood. And the owners certainly seemed to have high hopes for its opening; in July 2020, the restaurant’s Facebook page promised that the new location would be “coming soon.” But New York’s Department of Buildings (DOB) saw things differently.

Related: L&B Spumoni Gardens: From horse-drawn wagon to to Brooklyn icon

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the DOB has repeatedly pointed out problems with construction of the restaurant’s section of the building, which also includes 14,000 square feet of residential space upstairs. Most recently, the contractor put in a fenced staircase that jutted out onto the public sidewalk, and the DOB ordered it removed. As work on the site has continued since 2019, the DOB has issued “numerous violations” against the contractor and at least one stop-work order, the Eagle reports. A new general contractor was hired in March 2023, and new permits had to be applied for and issued.

But signage and lighting for L&B Spumoni Gardens have been in place for a while. And in August 2021, the pizzeria reportedly handed out free slices in front of the building, seemingly signaling that it would open soon.

Numerous fans of L&B Spumoni Gardens seem to be eagerly—and impatiently—awaiting the new store. The Brooklyn Eagle said rumors about the location kept spreading on the Brooklyn Heights Blog and the NextDoor social platform, pointing to alleged disagreements among family members, a franchisee who supposedly backed out of a deal or failure to hire a chef. 

The Eagle said L&B Spumoni Gardens’ owners have not responded to emails and phone calls about the new store. But a supervisor on the construction site told the Eagle that the restaurant could start serving up slices as soon as September. The Eagle also reported that a manager at L&B “informally assured this reporter” that the DUMBO location “was still in the works” and blamed the DOB for the slow progress on the site.

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