Saturday, November 12, 2011

Kebab Garden looking rather closed


On First Avenue near St. Mark's Place. Cardboard over the windows. No "closed for renovations" note. No DOH stickers. Seems as if it was just open the other day. Anyone? Class? Anyone?

7 comments:

Uncle Waltie said...

That's not good. Used to go there for the cucumbers in Yogurt.

Anonymous said...

They served the best lamb gyro sandwich I've ever had.
Genuine Turkish style gyro.
They changed hands awhile ago, the interior was changed up, and now they're closed.
God only knows what will take it's place.
I remember, before the Turks moved in, there was an old school Trattoria in that space. It had been there for a good 75 years, at least.
They made the best celery/olive salad, and great chicken parm.
I was crushed when that closed, but the Turkish place made such great gyro that I got over the loss quick.

Dr Gecko said...

Business really skidded when they converted from self-serve to table service. This is a horrible shame, but they made a really bone-headed business decision. I really liked that place (the bread was infinitely better than the stuff at Bereket).

AC said...

Grieve,

The paper on the window is dated Nov. the 9th.

HippieChick said...

La Focacceria! God, I loved that place. Best meatball sandwiches EVAH, and the pastas were darn fine too. There was some story I heard when Kurowycky Butchers closed that they'd been forced out because the DOH couldn't figure out if they or Kebab House were responsible for all the grease clogging the sewers, but then I heard other stories that said both the butchers and Focacceria closed because the families owning them couldn't agree on how to run them. The pasta patriarch was furious with his kid for letting it go, and the butcher patriarch was furious because HE wanted to shut it down and his kid didn't. Who knows? They're both gone, and I'm sad.

~evilsugar25 said...

i really liked KG when it was the self service-tables... you could pop in each night and see what what on the menu. some good eats, to a little expensive-per-pound. i tried it a few times after it switched to menu but it wasn't the same.

ah, La Focceceria ... remember their menus with the fat lady taking a big bite of something?

Dr Gecko said...

There was a NYTimes article about Kurowycky closing - the family owned the building (still does, I think), but there just wasn't enough business to make it worthwhile. They said that around Christmas and Easter, they'd have a line going down the block, but this neighborhood is a lot less Polish than it used to be, and the customers just weren't there.

Kebab Garden seems to be doing a heavy renovation job. The guy who seemed to be in charge was talking on the phone when I went by yesterday, and I didn't want to interrupt him, but if they were just going out of business, there'd be no reason to renovate. Also, the newspapers in the window are Turkish, which means at least that Turks are still involved with the place. Maybe they're putting it back the way it was? (Hope they leave the plastic fruit off the ceiling - it lookes cool for a while, but not so cool after it started to get greasy and dusty.)