Lanza's Languishing

As EV Grieve first reported, the great and gorgeous Lanza's restaurant in the East Village was forced to close this past summer--seized by the marshal for non-payment of taxes--and it remains closed.


this summer

We'd hoped it would reopen by now, but the place is looking grim.

A peek through the window shows a place in the process of being packed up. Bottles of alcohol stand on tables. Framed art has been taken down from the walls and placed atop cardboard boxes.

The white tablecloths, set for a meal that never came, are gathering dust. It seems that Lanza's is leaving us, slowly but surely.

This is breaking my heart.


today

Opened in 1904, Lanza's was started by the same family that started DeRobertis Pasticceria. As Annie DeRobertis once told me, her father’s father started DeRobertis and her mother’s father started Lanza’s. It has a history. The cafe left us two years ago and now this.

Here's what the place looked like last year at this time:





Dear Lanza's, what can we do to help you stay? We don't need another hipster foodie joint moving into the shell of an Italian classic. We need you.









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