The owners of the Kati Roll Company have designs on opening their fourth Manhattan location at 128 Second Ave., former home of the Stage, according to preliminary paperwork filed ahead of this month's CB3-SLA committee meeting.
The restaurant serves the namesake Kati roll, made by wrapping warm paratha, a type of Indian flat bread, around a variety of meats, vegetables and cheese. The Kati Roll Company currently has locations on MacDougal Street and in Midtown East and Midtown West. (There's also a branch in London.)
According to the CB3 website, the owners will be seeking a beer-wine license for the Second Avenue space between St. Mark's Place and Seventh Street.
The Stage, the 35-year-old lunch counter, closed March 30, 2015. Stage owner Roman Diakun had been involved in an ongoing legal/eviction battle with landlord Icon Realty. You can read that background here.
The July CB3-SLA committee meeting is July 11 at 6:30 p.m., in the Thelma Burdick Community Room - 10 Stanton St. at the Bowery.
I hope this site becomes one of those 'cursed locations' where nothing stays open more than 6 months. And I hope the request for a liquor license is denied, so the proprietors can't contribute further to the nightmare that already exists on Second Avenue. And I don't care how awful this makes me sound, but I am sick of the daily feelings of heartbreak and helplessness I must endure as I watch more and more of all that was old and familiar and useful in this neighborhood stripped away or demolished so that our new overlords, the real estate developers, can live in splendor and comfort without a thought for the destruction and splintering of long-time bonds they leave in their wake as they pursue the almighty greenback at the cost of the East Village. Roman, lots of us miss you and your smiling face, wish you were here. I hope you and yours are doing okay...
ReplyDeleteNothing could ever replace the Stage. I'm sure the Kati Roll folks are decent people, but to have another restaurant replace a beloved diner is infuriating. Are you trying to tell me Kati Roll can pay that much more than Stage ?
ReplyDeleteA pox on Icon... forever.
I work by the one in Midtown East. The food is really good, but the service is so slow!
ReplyDeleteWell thats utterly predictable and awful at the same time!
ReplyDeletesorry about the Stage, but that's Icon's fault. Kati Roll is awesome.
ReplyDeletenot thaaat predictable - could have been a lot worse - their food is pretty good!
ReplyDeleteGojira,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've worked through denial, anger and bargaining, so as soon as you're out of this funk acceptance awaits you!
Why do they need to serve beer and wine? If it's only to support the ridiculous rent Icon is charging then I don't think that's a good reason.
ReplyDeleteBRING BACK THE STAGE!!!!!!!<3!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletenoooooo
ReplyDelete@ 12:22 PM
ReplyDeleteUh, probably because beer or wine goes with indian food a lot better than Coke.
BOYCOTT!!! Shame on you Icon. The neighborhood is gone
ReplyDelete@2:31 PM
ReplyDeleteThat might be so but that's also the first step in conversion to another bar. Do you remember Jane's Sweet Buns? In addition to what happened to Stage, the residents of the building have had it pretty bad. Should they also have to deal with a potential bar on the ground floor?
Gojira, I will happily curse that location...
ReplyDeletePeople need to show up to the community board and petition in the neighborhood against the liquor Liscences .These greedy landlords are killing all the small buisnesses .
ReplyDeleteThe Kati Roll people MUST be aware of exactly HOW the STAGE space came to be vacant. If they know and do not care, they ought to know that they will be BOYCOTTED at that location.
ReplyDeleteIf they do not know, they will be informed by residents at the "Community" Board meeting.
Every other potential renter will know that a BOYCOTT campaign is in effect for this and all other locations evicted by ICON Realty and that it would be in their best interests to look ELSEWHERE!!
Besides, they ought to realize that ICON will fuck them over as well when the time comes to squeeze MORE rent out of that space....
7:09 AM: I think a boycott is fair for those who want to do something about Icon. But it will only work if there is an actual boycott in front of the restaurant, and I don't think that is going to happen.
ReplyDeletechris flash, Do you remember when Orchid on Second Avenue closed in the '80s? People said they would boycott whatever took over. Well, here we are all these years later, and if anything should have been learned in this time, it's that boycotts don't work (in these cases).
ReplyDeleteA boycott won't work because most of the people that live in the EV don't care and will gladly eat at Kati Roll just like they gladly shop at 7/11 or Starbucks or Duane Reade.
ReplyDeleteIt makes you feel good to shout boycott, but it will have no effect. You don't have the numbers or general community interest.
The whole Stage fiasco sucked. Agreed. But I will gladly eat at Kati Roll because the food is delicious. Blaming the new proprietors for their landlord issue is quite juvenile and misdirected.
ReplyDeleteAt 8:27 AM, Anonymous said:
ReplyDeletechris flash, Do you remember when Orchid on Second Avenue closed in the '80s? People said they would boycott whatever took over. Well, here we are all these years later, and if anything should have been learned in this time, it's that boycotts don't work (in these cases).
You mean the Orchidia? The only Ukrainian/Italian restaurant ever in the known world?
As far as boycotts, I think they only work if there's a huge number of people on board, and they're all in agreement. Boy, it'd be weird to have to go to MacDougal to get my Kati fix so I can avoid the store here—but at the same time, it's not very likely I'll be going to this one at all.
I'm sorry you can't replace The Stage. This store will now be forever cursed!
ReplyDeleteEvery business that occupied the former Orchidia space at 2nd Ave + 9th Street (they were there since 1952!!) has FAILED, starting with the over-priced Steve's Ice Cream parlour, followed by the Korean Deli. Only StarFucks, a national chain with deep pockets (that can write-off rent losses on their corporate taxes) has been able to rent that space.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a BOYCOTT can work if a potential renter is made aware beforehand that he/she is coming into a hostile environment and that the previous tenants were fucked over in order for the space to become available.
If a new tenant doesn't give a shit about this and is willing to support corrupt parasitic landlords like ICON, Croman and the others putting locally-owned businesses out, then they are complicit and we should not give a shit about them either.
It is simply a matter of educating the public and maintaining a disciplined BOYCOTT. Our dollars are what keeps the beast alive. Deny the beast your money and the beast will DIE.
If course, the current transient nature of the neighborhood, brought about by over-development, displacement of long-time residents and the arrival of up-scale businesses catering to monied-morons who are willing to overpay for rent and food, makes a BOYCOTT more challenging, but I maintain that BOYCOTTING is among the most effective weapons we have.....
I will feed this beast. YUM
ReplyDeleteSome will, some won't...
ReplyDeleteScuba Diva, Yes, I meant Orchidia. I knew Orchid was wrong, but I also knew it was close enough that people who remembered would know what I was talking about.
ReplyDeleteChris Flash, those businesses didn't fail because of a boycott, but for reasons that affected other businesses, including The Gap on St Mark's and 2nd Ave. It's fine if people don't eat at this new restaurant, but they shouldn't confuse it with a boycott.
I am stunned at the posts where people are looking forward to eating at Kati Roll; I find it extremely hard to believe that Kati Roll doesn't know damn well how this space became available to them, and how a beloved and respected institution in the community was treated.
ReplyDeleteSigning off to take it, and shaking ICONs hand tells everyone that they simply do not give a shit.