[Updated] Olympic Restaurant closes on Monday

[Photo by Stacie Joy]

The Lo-Down has a thorough report on the longtime Lower East Side businesses that will be closing in the days ahead to make way for the new mega Essex Crossing development.

Of particular interest to us: The Olympic Restaurant at Delancey and Essex. The Lo-Down was told that the diner will close for good after service on Monday. (EVG contributor Stacie Joy previously reported on June 19 that the closing date was still up in the air.)

Perhaps we will run into you there this weekend.

Updated 11:51 a.m.

Lisha Arino at DNAinfo reports that Olympic owner Spiros Nakos "is offering everything on the menu for half price on" Monday.

Previously on EV Grieve:
The Olympic Restaurant may close for good as soon as tomorrow

BoweryBoogie and and Jeremiah Moss have also made recent visits. Read BB's take here … and JM's here.

The Olympic Restaurant may close for good as soon as tomorrow

With the star-spangled Essex Crossing retail-residential complex on the way to the Lower East Side, the life expectancy of the Olympic Restaurant at the corner of Delancey and Essex has been relatively short.

In fact, the 34-year-old diner has been on a month-to-month lease for some time, as The Lo-Down pointed out almost two years ago to this day.

And BoweryBoogie reported that demo permits for the single-level structure that also houses the neighboring Jade Fountain liquor store were filed in late May.

EVG contributor Stacie Joy stopped by the other day for what very well may be a last meal at the Olympic...









The waitress told Stacie that owner Steve Palakas is going to court tomorrow to fight to stay open for another few months. If things don't go his way, then tomorrow is probably the last day for the diner.



The Olympic has been the no-frills kind of place where you can get an egg and cheese on a roll and a glass of frothy lemonade and receive back change from a $5.



As Jeremiah Moss wrote after a recent visit to the Olympic, the restaurant wasn't offered space in Essex Crossing. It doesn't "have a place among the artisan bread and cupcake shops, the Prada and Pastis that fill the architect's renderings of the new shopping mall to come. When it's all done, Delancey will be a very different place."

The signs at the Olympic Restaurant

Truth is, I saw the telltale neon signs appear on the windows a few weeks back at what is arguably my favortite restaurant around, the Olympic at Delancey and Essex on the LES. I didn't have the nerve to take an upclose look.



I always figured this corner was doomed in the new Blue LES... so, farewell to the Jade Fountain, which has been around since 1920...



...and the Olympic. With its little lunch counter and surprisingly comfortable stools.





Well, I finally decided to check it out this past week. Read the "Closing. Thank you to our customers" sign upclose. And what did I find on that orange sign?

News of expanded hours! Now open 24 hours Thursday through Saturday!

Heh. Well. Serves me right, Mr. Doomsday. So I went in and had the eggs, bacon, toast, home fries, juice and coffee -- $6 as always.

Per usual, the EMT guys were there. They sit down to eat inside the Olympic, but always get the food served in to-go containers -- in case they get a call during their meal. Never have seen that happen since I've been going there. (I figure the first time I need a paramedic -- perhaps from eating so many eggs-and-bacon meals from the Olympic -- the EMTs will arrive with food from the Olympic...)

Maybe another day I'll write more about the Olympic. Meanwhile, if you do go, check out the restrooms up the stairs in the back....