White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Café of Broken Dreams: After 19 years, Corner Nook Innocent Victims

“Sergeant Joe Friday Reports” By John F. Bailey, Filed 3/6/02, 3:00 PM EST: What are you doing for lunch tomorrow? A lot of City Hall movers and shakers go across Main Street to The Corner Nook for the souvlaki, the club sandwiches, the eggs any time of day and the hominess of the “hometown diner” out of the past. But you may not be able to do it much longer.

After 19 years, the friendly little place that takes care of you with Linda, Peter, Joanne, and Anthony at your service may be closing, a casualty of “downtown revitalization.”

THE LAST OF THE REAL DINERS WITH REAL GREASE AND REAL JAVA: The Corner Nook, 238 Main Street, where Jim Benerofe, "The Dean of White Plains Journalism," eats lunch, as do many kingpins of City Hall, could close any month now. The diner along with two neighbor properties, is being dangled by its owner to developers who want to continue “revitalization” along Main Street. Pending outcome of a court suit between the delicatessen owner in the block and the owner of the building, The Nook may soon close, their owners left with nothing. The property is being coveted by A. J. Rotonde, the developer, for transformation into condominium apartments.
Photo by WPCNR

A different kind of lease.

A funny thing happened last year when Linda Dimitrakakis, owner of The Corner Nook (she takes those nostalgic little green checks with your money at the cash register) and her husband, Peter, signed their new lease. The owner, Joshua Makanoff, of CMC Company, did not include a renewal clause in the lease.

When she asked him about it, she said, he said not to worry about it, “to trust him,” she said. She said she regrets having not been more suspicious.

LINDA DIMITRAKAKIS, OWNER OF THE CORNER NOOK was denied a lease, and has no protection.
Photo by WPCNR

Now it is one year later, and Mr. Mackinaw is attempting to sell his building which has been home to The Nook for 19 years. However, because Ms. Dimitrakakis does not have a lease for 2002, her previous one expiring, she is not entitled to any relief, in the form of payments to her business should Makanoff sell the building.

She would, she claims, have at least a stake in the form of a lease buyout to relocate her property elsewhere in the city if she had been allowed to sign a lease for 2002.

Makanoff, according to Dimitrakakis, is attempting to sell his property to A. J. Rotonde who hopes to build high rise apartments on the corner as a compliment to the City Center project.

That sale is being held up because Makanoff is being sued by another tenant, who owns the delicatessen next door to The Nook. The deli owner claims he has the right of first refusal if Makanoff is about to sell.

Makanoff has stated publicly in the press, that he does not believe the delicatessen owner can give him the kind of money that would match any offer Rotonde, a partner with a major national developer, would make. The dispute between the deli and Makanoff is being litigated.

Nook Could be closed within 30 days of any purchase.

“If I had a lease,” Linda Dimitrakakis told WPCNR Tuesday, (as I paid her for a chicken salad club on toasted rye), “I’d be protected, and have a little money, some equity to open elsewhere in the city. I don’t have $200,000 to open a new restaurant. We have kept up the property, improved it, invested $175,000 in equipment over 19 years. Most of the equipment is not movable. And it is not salvageable.”

THE LOOK, THE FEEL, THE HOSPITALITY THAT ONLY A REAL DINER GIVES: What a diner gives you that a formal restaurant doesn’t is informality and friendliness. Nowhere is that more on the menu than at The Corner Nook. From the Yankee memorabilia on the walls, to the friendly sayings and the conversation, Joanne, Anthony, Linda and Peter Dimitrakakis make you feel at home. (That's Peter at the rear, Anthony in foreground. )The old-time touches are there: from the desserts on display underglass, the globe coffee pots and the gleaming stainless steel. This is where real food lives! At 2 PM Wednesday, when we had lunch the place was milling with lunchtime regulars.
Photo by WPCNR

We asked if the owner Makanoff was aware of her plight. Was he negotiating a payment for her should he sell the building? Dimitrakakis said, he has told her “my hands are tied,” that there was nothing he could do at the present time.

Makanoff is in a legal suit of his own. To be fair, he may be more forthcoming when the delicatessen suit is settled and he can move on with his sale.

Nook legal options can not begin until she is evicted.

Presently Dimitrakakis says, she has been advised by an attorney that she cannot start any action of a legal means until she is actually evicted by a building owner.

To date, all the owner has done is not grant her a new lease, which is not against the law. She continues to pay him $4,000 on a monthly basis, $48,000 a year rent for the space, without any protection. He could ask her to leave on 30 days' notice.

She is interested in finding other space for her restaurant in the city but a money problem does exist in moving the restaurant.

NINETEEN YEARS ON MAIN STREET: Joanne Flynn gets coffee for a customer. The cheery, cozy interior of the diner is a warm respite from the stark, competitive, Byzantine intrigues of City Hall for many commissioners and followers of City Hall action. Construction workers from the City Center across the street drop in regularly and the banter is always lively. It’s a place that feels like home away from home, where they are always glad to see you.
Photo by WPCNR

The Corner Nook would appear to need a bridge loan. Perhaps the owner and his eventual buyer will see their need.

Without a lease from Mr. Makanoff, the Nook investment was not protected. Owners of businesses on Martine Avenue faced a similar problem.

When Cappelli Enterprises was attempting to acquire properties along Martine Avenue, he personally arranged payments and offered assistance in relocating the businesses there.

Perhaps Mr. Rotonde and his development partners, if they acquire the building, or whoever does, will adapt a similar good neighbor attitude that will come to the rescue of The Corner Nook.


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