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End is Near for Tribeca's Oldest Eatery
Delphi’s owner, Vasily (Bill) Moutsatsos, and his landlord both say that differences over a lease renewal have brought their amicable and longstanding relationship to a bitter end. The building belongs to the Gindi family, owners of several Tribeca properties as well as the department store, Century 21. Word of the restaurant’s closing spread rapidly among many of its customers, who took the news as harbinger of a future Tribeca, one that is inhospitable to its middle class residents and workers. “I felt really sad when I heard about it,” said artist Stephanie DeManuelle, a Warren Street resident whose family sometimes eats at Delphi as often as three times a week. “There is absolutely nothing that can replace it.” In the past, she recalls, she would join groups of other gallery goers after openings and eat and socialize at Delphi well into the night. “When I walk by there in the evening,” she said, “I sometimes still see painters sitting there and talking. It’s a very welcoming place.”
Seated in the front dining room of his restaurant one recent afternoon, Moutsatsos, 67, described himself as a man “hurt” and wronged by his landlord. “They said they want to make this corner an exclusive, upper class restaurant,” he said. “I said I always pay my rent on time, I never have violations. Why are you doing this to me?” According to Moutsatsos, his landlord would not give him a new long-term lease. In the lease he signed 12 years ago and which ends on Oct. 31, 2008, the final year’s rent jumps more than $40,000, to $55,000 a month—starting Nov.1. In their negotiations, Moutsatsos said his landlord has also insisted that he would have to give up his lease on the restaurant’s second floor, as well as rights to the sizeable enclosed sidewalk seating area. Kenneth DuBow, director of real estate for Century Realty, which manages the six-story building, tells a different story. He says the owner of Delphi was offered a new lease nearly four years ago but that he backed out twice after protracted negotiations. “We begged him to sign that lease,” DuBow said. “We don’t feel that there’s good faith being shown.” Moutsatsos acknowledges that he made a “mistake” by not signing the lease sooner but says that he was distracted when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Now free of the illness, he says he has another “30 years in him.” Moutsatsos, who emigrated to the U.S. from Greece in 1965, said he was drawn to the restaurant business because his father owned a restaurant and bakery in his native country. The dishes at Delphi were his father’s recipes. The restaurant opened with four tables and seven stools. “I worked sometimes 16 hours a day,” he recalled, “ but I didn’t get tired.” Jean Grillo, who lives on Duane Street, remembers the celebration when Delphi expanded and opened an outdoor cafe. “To thank us he invited every single local down for a free dinner,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Everyone that I knew who ate there was there! I have never forgotten that.”
“The dust was amazing,” he recalled. “For 10 days, I cleaned. I scraped down the tables. The Con Ed men working outside said, ‘Wear a mask,’ but I said ‘Mayor Giuliani said the air was clean’ and I believed him.” The doctor who operated on him for cancer told Moutsatsos he saw “broken glass and silica” in his lungs. “I’m not sure 100 percent that’s why I got cancer,” he said. “I smoked 24 years ago.” Last month, Moutsatsos appeared before Community Board 1, announcing the probable closing of Delphi and castigating his landlord. “All the small places like the Delphi restaurant,” he told them, his voice filled with emotion. “They just have to go.” [Home][Back][Search][Contact] The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709 |
