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High-Rise Development Shutters 3 UES Restaurants At Once
By
Nell Casey
Published Jul 22, 2014
Modified Jul 22, 2014
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By
Nell Casey
Published Jul 22, 2014
Modified Jul 22, 2014
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A new high-rise being erected along an eventually prime stretch of the Upper East Side on 2nd Avenue will claim three restaurants in its construction. Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven, Cascabel Taqueria and Johnny Foxes will all close by the end of the month so Icon Realty Management—which spent the last seven years acquiring all the buildings on the east side of the avenue between 80th and 81st Streets—can begin demolition, according to DNAinfo.
The restaurants were told last year that their leases would not be renewed, which gave some of them time to relocate. Five-year-old Cascabel Taqueria will move to a different Icon-owned property located down the block at 1556 2nd Avenue, but others like Nancy Lee's Pig Heaven haven't been as fortunate. Lee had been operating the decades-old eatery on a month-to-month basis since the beginning of the year and now will shutter with the hopes of reopening elsewhere. "I feel very sad," Lee told DNAinfo. "This is my whole life."
The East 80s and 90s have already seen big changes from the never-ending construction for the 2nd Avenue Subway. Multiple venues have shuttered from a lack of business—which many say is a direct result of construction materials blocking their storefronts—while others have had their buildings condemned from flooding and other damage caused by the excavations and blasting. The neighborhood will likely see more demolition before the subway finally opens in the year...whenever. Gotta make room to house all the self-loathing millennials who'll need to move to the area after college!
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cascabel taqueria
icon realty management
johnny foxes
nancy lee's pig heaven
ues
upper east side
Nell Casey
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