Village staple planned to be demolished for apartment complex
Despite a business owner’s desire and disapproval from residents, the Scotia Diner is planned to be demolished after being open for 50 years, so the developer can build an apartment complex.
The Scotia Planning Board on Monday, Jan. 3, started off the year by approving developer Bruce Tanski’s project to demolish the diner, formerly Attanasio’s Restaurant, and three houses along Glen Avenue to develop a three-story apartment complex. Now the only hope for restaurant regulars is for the diner to relocate, or for Tanski, who bought the building six years ago, to reconsider his plans. Tanski previously tried other development efforts, but failed to get approval from village officials.
The owner still hasn’t told us anything, he hasn’t given us a time plan, so here we are still conducting business as usual until they day they come down here and talk to us and say this is happening and then it is going to court,` said Aristotales `Terry` Kyratzis, manager and chef for Scotia Diner, on Friday, Jan. 14. `I’m a Marine, so I don’t back down from a fight and I don’t give up and it is going to be a fight, but ultimately the owner can do whatever he wants with this property.`
Kyratzis said he hadn’t known about Tanski’s intentions to develop an apartment complex until he read reports on the meeting. If he had known beforehand, he said, he would’ve made sure to have his opinions heard by village officials before the vote.
`If I knew about it and I had prior notice I would have been at all these meetings to protest or to say, ‘Hey, what about this diner and what’s it going to do to the community,` said Kyratzis.
Village Mayor Kris Kastberg said while the lack of commercial space on the street level of the building does go against the norm on Mohawk Avenue, there is little the village could do to stop the development.
`I was there for a couple of the meetings and a lot of the questions people are asking right now were answered by the planning board,` said Kastberg. `There is no law to force him to keep the diner there there is no way that the village and insist that the diner stay there.`
Anita Kyratzis has owned the business for 25 years now and 12 employees will lose their job if the building is demolished. Previously she had a two-year lease on the location, but the owner refused to offer another lease agreement, said Terry Kyratzis. Since then the space has been rented and paid for on a monthly basis.
`I can’t see taking an institution like the Scotia Diner and moving it or shutting it down, because somebody doesn’t want to put it in their plans,` said Kyratzis.
Tanski could not be reached for comment before going to press on Jan. 19.
If the time to move does come, Kyratzis is hoping a different location could be found to house the diner. Kastberg said he contacted Metroplex, so the group could help the diner find an alternate location within the village. He said there are a couple spots currently being considered.
One thing that didn’t make sense to Kyratzis in the faCade plans is to make the lower level of the apartment complex to look like commercial space.
`The Town approved look-a-like commercial windows in this floor plan to make it look like business; that is an oxymoron to me.`
Part of the reasoning for not allowing the diner to continue operating is that the smell from the restaurant would not be suitable for apartment tenants.
`There is no smell and the smell is damn good cooking if there is any,` said Kyratzis. `We have great food at a relatively inexpensive price, because we are a working man’s diner. We pride ourselves on trying to keep costs down so that everybody can come here more than once, twice, three times a week.`
There are even some customers that come in three times daily for their meals, he said, and most of the customers he even knows them by name and the wait staff often knows to pour a coffee or an ice tea before regulars place their order. This is the level of service many regular customers have just come to expect at the diner, he said.
`It is all about community to us,` said Kyratzis. `It is not a flashy diner, but it is home.`
While Kyratzis came into the diner with a strong background in culinary training he said the customers shaped how he cooks for them now. When he first came in his dishes were more experimental, such as Curry Chicken, but customers just weren’t having it. Making the staple dishes customers had come to know became his goal.
`I changed for Scotia Diner in the way I cook. My customers taught me how to cook,` he said.
Fred Kramer is a longtime customer of the diner.
`I walk in here at night, at almost every table and booth I got to wave and say ‘hi’ and if I don’t show up for a few days then they are calling my house,` said Kramer. `It is like a second home. I walk in here almost anytime and almost everybody I know and I talk to and say hello.`
There is also a waitress that has been at the restaurant for 38 years, but even though she lives in South Carolina now she still comes up during race season and will come in and serve food at the diner, said Kyratzis.
`I don’t like big business coming in and throwing a mom and pop out,` said Kyratzis. `I think that is wrong with what is going on with the United States right now. We are losing our little niches.`
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