[Photo from Saturday morning]
The quick-serve chicken outlet is closing soon at 536 E. 14th St. between Avenue A and Avenue B. And it's not because of the usual reason for a closure — a rent hike.
EVG reader Jack, an East 14th Street resident, tells the story:
"Whether you liked its food or not, whether you made fun of its red/white Kentucky Fried Chicken-like awning, whether you were one of the drunks in line at 3 am wanting to feed your drunken stupor — Kennedy Fried Chicken has lost a court hearing brought by its landlady and must leave its 536 E. 14th St. location in three days. A dispute over repeated fines that the building's owner received from the city for non-compliance over recycling has forced the longtime East Village location to terminate its lease and vacate the rental property. Sad to see them leave. I will be curious to see who replaces them."
This article from the Times in 2004 has the rather interesting backstory of the Kennedy restaurants.
They'd rather close up shop than recycle? It's not that hard.
ReplyDeleteFor recycling? Oh heavens does someone in sanitation have to sort trash? Sounds like the city found an easy target and opportunity to slap some fines on someone.
ReplyDeleteI hope there is more to this story than recycling "issues".
ReplyDeleteI ate there one late night, just to say I did.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed several residential tenants here (same building as Kennedy FC) are pretty inconsistent when it comes to separating their recycling waste. When all garbage is placed on curbside, it's impossible to tell which garbage is Kennedy Fried Chicken's and which is the residential tenants'. My guess is the landlady was looking for any excuse to get the Chix business out so she could raise the rent for the next commercial tenant. Furthermore, it seems too easy for garbage inspectors to phony-up fictitious recycling fines. Soon after they rummage thru your recyclables and fine you, the garbage collectors remove it all. And then all that's left behind is a $300 violation tag taped to the front door of your apartment building. Suspicious...especially if the City is trying to maintain quotas to generate revenue.
ReplyDeleteThis seems odd given that a business has to have private hauling and the Dept. of Sanitation takes care of residential unit pickup. So, if there are recycling "issues" at the building, unless the business was putting its garbage out with residential, those "issues" would have nothing to do with the business.
ReplyDeleteSorry that a local EV independent business is closing, but the quality of their fried chicken was dismal. Sad, because their fried chicken was more pathetic than the sub-optimal fried chicken at the KFC on 2nd Avenue & 14th Street. I wish that Popeye's had never abandoned its East Village 1st Avenue location. It would probably be outselling the recently opened Checker's burgers.
ReplyDelete