Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Fresco will not be reopening at 138 2nd Ave.

Siblings Ilias, Vanessa and Anna Iliopoulos have decided to give up their Fresco space at 138 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street.

A for-rent sign arrived on the storefront late last week. (The sign disappeared over the weekend.)

As you may recall, the family — citing a decline in business during the pandemic — temporarily shut down their 8-year-old gelateria-cafe and returned to their native Greece last October. 

They had hoped to reopen in January, but those plans didn't materialize with the surge in COVID cases and continued limits on indoor service. 

However, Ilias will be back in New York City next month to hunt for a new home for Fresco. In an email, he told EVG correspondent Steven that they will be looking exclusively at spaces downtown. Hopefully, they will land back in the East Village.

Photo by Steven

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sad, they had the smoothest gelato in the East Village.

Anonymous said...

So sad to hear. I hope they can find another spot and get better rent.

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I kept checking in to see if they were back. I miss that salted caramel crumble. Such friendly people too.

Anonymous said...

Sad to see - good location, great buildout of the space and they were open late. I dare to say there is a dearth of smooth delicious gelato in our neighborhood..

East Village Community Member said...

Sad to hear they won't be coming back to 2nd Ave. The food was good and the people were nice. Will miss them.

Anonymous said...

I miss my peach yogurt I used to travel from the Bronx with my kids just for that: sush wonderful people and great service!please come back