Sizing up the Damage
The rose-colored décor was about all that remained intact. In nearly every direction, there was damage, ranging from subtle to blatant. Of the ten rose-colored booths that formed one half of the perimeter of the dining area, the seating in every booth was slashed in several places to expose the inner contents. As if through a sudden, violent jerk, the tables in every booth were yanked from their bases. Bizarrely, each table was bent, downward, upward or sideward.
Light fixtures were forcibly removed from their high positions on the walls. In some cases, bare wiring was exposed. The brassy foot railing for the liquor bar near the main entrance was badly bent and left dangling, as if an unusually strong man had attempted to re-shape it.
Kitchen Was Emptied
In the rear of the ground-floor restaurant, the kitchen premises looked more ghostly than the dining area because it had been denuded. A refrigerator, sinks and an oven all had been removed from their moorings.
All that remained live, as mute testimony to the eleven-year run of San Gennaro, were two dozen empty pizza boxes in the kitchen area and eleven bottles of beer high on a shelf above the hollowed out bar.
