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Village restaurants chew the fat on their survival

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BY ALBERT AMATEAU  |  Everyone agreed that good eats make good neighbors, but at a Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (G.V.S.H.P.) forum last week, there was disagreement on the definition of good eats and uncertainty on what could be done to keep local restaurants in the neighborhood.

The panel at the Tues. Aug. 5 event, “Historic Preservation, Meet Restaurant Preservation,” included the food and restaurant writer Mimi Sheraton, the Village/East Village realtor Robert Perl, assistant professor Stacey Sutton of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and Robert Sietsema, food writer and senior restaurant critic at the website Eater New York.

They grappled with the problem of soaring rents and other costs that are driving favorite local places out of business. Other changes, in neighborhoods and taste, complicated the agenda. 

Among the more than 100 people in the audience at Judson Memorial Church were a few restaurant owners, including Tom Birchard, owner of Veselka on Second Ave. and Leslie McEachern, owner of Angelica Kitchen on E. 12th St.

Sietsema, who regretted the closing last January of Gray’s Papaya on Sixth Ave. at Eighth St., reintroduced a proposal that he made then on the Eater website. He suggested that a city commission could develop a list of up to 30 restaurants deemed worthy of saving. The commission could help owners negotiate leases or help find appropriate successors.

Although San Francisco, London and Paris have programs to help keep historic establishments in place, the proposal seemed unlikely to work in New York. “Who would you have on the commission, how would you decide which places to help?” Sheraton asked. “I can’t imagine any landlord agreeing to abide [by such a negotiated rent].” 

Sky-high rents are not the only factor in restaurant closings, Perl said. Second Avenue Deli, which moved out of its original East Village location, was very close to an agreement with the landlord, but chose to move because its customer base had changed. “And I believe its employees are not unionized in the new location,” he said.

City real estate taxes, rising 500 percent over a few years in some cases, and higher city water bills are big factors in restaurant closings. 

Nevertheless, one owner in the audience who didn’t want to identify her restaurant except to say it was in the West Village, said, “The games our landlord played over the past 15 years are outrageous. Then we got a revised city water bill that knocked us out.” The West Village owner, a second-generation restaurateur, said that last year an entire side of her block had empty storefronts, vacated by restaurants.

“They can keep places vacant for years at a time,” Sietsema said. 

“A lot of landlords don’t like restaurants or food retailers in their properties,” Perl noted. “There are problems with deliveries and garbage.”

Sietsema especially regretted the recent closing of Chez Brigitte, an 11-seat restaurant on Greenwich Ave. that served simple but elegant food at reasonable prices.

Chain restaurants were cited as a cause of the closing of local places. “I see no problem in banning chains,” declared Sietsema, citing the ability of zoning to regulate real estate uses. But others pointed out that tourists are attracted to places that are familiar, and chain restaurants are familiar to everyone.

Perl noted that local restaurants often fall out of favor after their original owners let managers run the places and the quality deteriorates, so the best way for a restaurateur to stay in business is to be there in person and maintain standards.

Local restaurants also face the same problem as other small independent businesses. For example, Sietsema regretted the demise of a favorite gift shop, Mxyplyzyk, on Greenwich Ave. 

“I spoke to the owner, who still does mail order business from New Jersey. He said that new people in the Village don’t go shopping in local stores anymore,” Sietsema said. “It’s true that the neighborhood is changing. Just look at all the Fresh Direct trucks in the Village,” he added.

“This is the beginning of a conversation,” said Karen Lowe, director of East Village and Special Projects for G.V.S.H.P., who moderated the forum. The society turns 50 this week.