UES’ Tony’s Di Napoli closes

Italian restaurant Tony’s Di Napoli closed yesterday, due to construction for the planned Second Avenue Subway, said Bruce Dimpflmaier, the restaurant’s general manager. The Upper East Side eatery, at 1606 Second Avenue and 83rd Street, will eventually become a stop on the subway route.

“This Place has been slated as a stop for the station for many years,” Dimpflmaier said. “We tried to fight and keep it from happening, but we knew it was an inevitable situation.”

About a month ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority notified him that the restaurant would have to vacate the space by last Friday, Jan. 31, though the store officially closed yesterday. Tony’s Di Napoli, which also has a Times Square location at 147 West 43rd Street in the Casablanca Hotel, is now “actively looking” for another East Side location, Dimpflmaier said, though they haven’t found anything yet.

“Hopefully we will find something, but who knows what will happen,” he added.

Other businesses along Second Avenue have suffered as well, at least temporarily. In October, a crowd of close to 50 business owners gathered to protest what they called the “deplorable” conditions which were destroying the commerce along the subway route. Residents of nearby buildings have been displaced as well.