Mastic Beach Pizza Man Caught In Redevelopment Crossfire

A casualty of the Beechwood Organization’s plan to rebuild the Neighborhood Road commercial corridor is George Mondi, operator of Pizza Time in Mastic Beach for the last 26 years.

“He can probably be considered more or less everybody’s father over here, and to let him go after all these years—what are we doing as a people?” his landlord, Bobby Binyaminov, said at a recent Brookhaven Town Board hearing. “The guy put his life into this business, and we send him away with nothing.”

A lifelong Mastic Beach resident, Mondi has been in the pizza business for 46 years, having owned restaurants in West Islip, Bayport, and Center Moriches before settling on Neighborhood Road across from the firehouse.

“I grew up here. I know everybody,” the William Floyd graduate said. “I take care of people. I donate. I love everyone here,” he said, adding, “I’m not giving up.”

“We tried to negotiate with Beechwood and are getting nowhere,” Mondi’s landlord continued. “The price they offered us is a joke. Not everything in life is money. We’re going to get some kind of agreement on a price, hopefully, but the people who put their lives into making an honest living, where are they going to go? Who’s going to be there for them? We should be a little bit more human—not everything is money.”

“A lot of families go to Pizza Time. They are the best in town,” commented Mastic Beach Fire Commissioner Bill Biondi. “I don’t see why they don’t offer him a space in the new development, or just leave him alone.”

“I’m very upset about this,” said longtime customer Andrea Johnson, who went to high school with Mondi. “Pizza Time should be incorporated into the redevelopment plan as a landmark, not wiped out. This is our history. Mastic Beach was known as the Poor Man’s Paradise, and now it will be gone.”