Bagel bummer: DOH temporarily shutters David's on 1st Avenue

A variety of concerned reader emails arrived in the EVG inbox in the last 24-48 hours about David's Bagels.

Here's one:

On Saturday, I stopped by the always excellent David's Bagels on First Avenue and 16th Street and found it was closed with the gate pulled halfway down. Even in the 30 seconds I stood there I met four or five people who loved David's and were shocked that it was closed.

This week, the gate was lifted high enough for people to see the familiar yellow notice from the Department of Health... several readers shared photos of this...


[Photo via EVG reader Doug]

According to public records, the Department of Health closed the establishment following an inspection last Friday that turned up 60 violations points.

The top-three sanitary violations noted by the DOH were:

1. Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
2. Food not cooled by an approved method whereby the internal product temperature is reduced from 140º F to 70º F or less within 2 hours, and from 70º F to 41º F or less within 4 additional hours.
3. Live roaches present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.

Public records show that David's has never run afoul of the DOH before... last inspection, from June 13, turned up just 9 violation points.

As the readers said, hopefully David's will be back open soon. Calls to the shop went unanswered yesterday.

Updated 11 a.m.

A reader says they are back open...

David's Bagels space becoming a Mexican restaurant

After 21 years in the business, David's Bagels closed on First Avenue near 14th Street in August 2008. The landlord asked for a big rent hike...



...and was rewarded with an empty storefront for about 20 months...Now, though, as EV Grieve reader Kim passed along, workers are gutting the old space...




A nearby shopkeeper says the space will become a Mexican restaurant. "Tacos, burritos -- that kind of shit."



For further reading:
David's Bagels (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)

A sad day for bagels (Blah Blog Blah ... and Jill gets credit for that top photo)

Ten months later, David’s space still empty (East Village Idiot)

The East Village loses another mom-and-pop shop

Jill at Blah Blog Blah laments the closing of David's Bagels on First Avenue. She writes that this is "a serious loss for the East Village, a neighborhood formerly crawling with places to get fresh bagels. No more. Now we will have to either go very far to find a fresh bagel, or buy them from the heinous Hot & Crusty, which is more crusty and less hot." (The Hot & Crusty chain store was conveniently placed right next door to David's.) As Jeremiah has noted, we should get ready to say goodbye to this stretch of First Avenue.



[Photos by Jill at Blah Blog Blah]