She’s trying to slice her brother right out of the family pizza business.
The Castellotti family of Staten Island has been running the legendary John’s Pizzeria in the Greenwich Village — famed for its “no slices” rule — since 1973, expanding the 90-year-old business into a veritable empire.
But a family feud threatens it like rotten tomato ruins the Sunday sauce.
“It is not a pleasant situation,” said 72-year-old patriarch Peter Castellotti Sr., who still runs the original Bleecker Street outpost.
In a scathing, $25 million lawsuit, his son, Peter Castellotti Jr., 46, has accused sister Lisa Free, 44, of cutting him out of the profits of their Times Square location after the death of their mother, Madeline, in 2004.
The suit also accuses Free of dodging taxes, flouting the law and generally running the restaurant into the ground.
Though Peter Sr. and his wife had long been separated, Madeline co-owned the John’s Pizzeria on West 44th Street since the annex launched in 1997.
She planned to leave the business to both her children, but things changed when her health began failing.
Madeline removed her son from her will, solely to spite his then-wife, Rea Castellotti.
“She had a strong dislike for [Peter’s] spouse and wanted to ensure that his spouse would not, in any way, benefit from any of her assets,” he claims in court papers.
That left daughter Lisa as the sole beneficiary, left to inherit the 400-seat Times Square eatery, their mother’s Staten Island home and other assets.
Peter Jr.’s contentious divorce took five years to finalize, but during that time his sister agreed to treat him as an equal partner in mom’s restaurant, he claims.
But she didn’t live up to their verbal deal, and has instead been dodging sales and payroll taxes owed to the city, and flouting occupancy rules by cramming 600-people into the restaurant at one time, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed last week.
There are so many tables and chairs crammed into the place, it even blocks the required number of exits, according to the lawsuit.
Peter Jr. also claims Free has tried to dupe their insurance company with false information “in an effort to receive a substantially reduced premium” and has been breaking State Liquor Authority rules, using cash to buy wine from non-licensed distributors.
The violations put the business in danger, Peter Jr. claims, and exposes him to “potential criminal and civil liability.”
Peter Jr. is seeking a full accounting of the business, along with $25 million in damages.
Free did not return calls for comment.