Monday, December 1, 2014

In case you were planning a last visit to DeRobertis



The family originally said that the 110-year-old DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe would close for good on Friday.

We were there with the crowds during the holiday … and family members were saying that they might be closing earlier … Thursday, maybe even Wednesday — it just depends on how much they have left to sell.

And courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery, here's how the storefront looked in 1928…





The DeRobertis siblings decided to sell the building at 174-176 First Ave.

Previously on EV Grieve:
174-176 First Ave. is in contract

[Updated] 110-year-old DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe looks to be closing once the building is sold

174-176 First Ave., home of DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe, is for sale

Let's take a look at the DeRobertis in-house bakery

Ugh: The 110-year-old DeRobertis Pasticceria and Caffe closes after Dec. 5 (43 comments)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What they said was they would not be open past Friday, but could close any day before that. They're just using up their supplies. When those run out, they'll close. It could conceivably be tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

It's too bad the De Robertis family was not honest with their workers & the public as to their closing. How many times in the past month(s) were they asked if they were closing - and they said "no"? Then suddenly, "oh, yeah, we're closing."

I guess they'll be open until they run out of stuff to sell OR until they feel like locking the door.

For a business that's been around that long, you'd think they might be more forthcoming to their workers & to their "valued" customers - but maybe with so much $$ from the sale of the building in hand, none of those niceties matters to them any more.

shmnyc said...

Anonymous 6:33, This should be a lesson to people, that "the community" is something only customers think exists. Small business owners don't think in those terms.

Anonymous said...

@6:53pm: As someone who ran a small business for nearly 20 years, I disagree with your conclusion.

Obviously *some* small business owners don't think about community, but a hell of a lot of small business owners do.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure it wasn't the easiest decision for the family despite what you may think. Give them proper respect; it's their place, after all. There's no question that it's a huge, huge loss to the local community - but the unique, special EV that we and those before us knew is over, and I'm sure the DeRobertises must know it also. Sad, indeed, however one must respect the whole circumstances and not take everything personally. A family business choosing to close for its own reasons (even one that's 110 years old) is well within bounds, not low down like scumlord Shaoul evicting seniors out of the Cabrini for a dirty profit, or poser Varvatos selling $300 blue jeans in the former CBGB. Save your venom for the likes of them. Ciao, DeRobertises. Per favore, save the last torpedo for me.

Anonymous said...

It's all a land grab.

Anonymous said...

I am so pissed off that they lied to us that I'm not even paying a farewell visit. You could have sold the business, DeRobertises, and kept me in lemon ice, even at one remove. You force me to Veniero's, and for that I do not forgive. A horse's head in all your beds!