Dagan Buys a Slice of Kingston

By COLlive reporter

Take a Jewish man of Italian origin with a love for food, put him in a known Chassidic neighborhood with many children, add cheese, tomato sauce and oregano and what have you got?

The best pizza in Crown Heights. So says Danny Pando, owner of the popular Dagan Pizza in Mill Basin.

Pando has recently fulfilled a years-long goal, entering a partnership to own half of Kingston Pizza, a staple eatery on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights.

“Dagan has many clients from Crown Heights and for years people have been telling me ‘we need good pizza in Crown Heights.’ But I didn’t want to open a new store, so as not to step on people’s toes,” Pando tells COLlive.com.

When Pando heard that Shloime Lehrer sold the Kingston Pizza eatery to local entrepreneur Itzik Benabou, owner of three grocery stores in the neighborhood, he contacted him.

The two have signed a partnership, each owning 50% of the store, Benabou has confirmed to COLlive.com.

Pando, whose family’s roots are from Italy and Spain (Pando in Spanish means one who delivers bread, he notes), is planning to bring his expertise and knowledge along, as he plans to give Kingston Pizza a total makeover.

“We’ll be changing everything – the oven, the recipes for pizza, calzones and falafel, and if all goes well, with Hashem’s help, we’ll expand next door,” he said about the vacant store-front owned by Benabou as well.

“This will be a fun, spacious and clean place for families to come for breakfast, lunch or dinner,” he promises. “We’ll have something for everyone, great pizza, wraps, tuna platters, salads and more.”

He says his motto is “come with a smile and leave with smile. That’s my policy at Dagan and that’s what I want to bring to Crown Heights. When a child drops a drink or an ice cream, we’ll immediately replace it with a new one free of charge.”

He agrees that coming into Crown Heights is a challenge for him with four eateries already serving pizza or variations of it – The Krechtma joint on Troy Avenue, Q. Cumber Dairy on Kingston Avenue and the upscale Basil Pizza & Wine Bar just off Eastern Parkway.

“5 years ago when I bought Dagan, I was strict on having everything fresh and of top quality. Yes, people needed to wait another few minutes for the falafel which is prepared on premises.”

So when is change coming? After Pesach, he says. Until then he’ll be in Crown Heights when he comes to visit his aunt who lives in an apartment building on Montgomery Street.