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Renovated Lyric Diner to Return to Gramercy, Owner Says

 A new sign posted on the recently shuttered Taverna restaurant suggests the diner is returning.
Lyric Diner Returning to Gramercy
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GRAMERCY — The beloved 24-hour Lyric Diner, which closed last year and was briefly replaced by a Greek restaurant, will reopen in its original home next month, the owner revealed.

George Kalogerakos shut down the Lyric, a casual neighborhood favorite, early last year and tried to bring a more formal, cloth-napkin Greek restaurant called Taverna to the space at 283 Third Ave.

But Kalogerakos decided earlier this month to close Taverna and bring back the Lyric Diner.

He is renovating the entire space once again, returning to the classic diner booths, and he's planning a new bar and a menu designed to attract late-night crowds.

"It's going to be the same diner, but a little different," Kalogerakos said outside the under-construction restaurant this week. "It'll have a bar now and a new late-night menu.... The dinner menu will be different with new items and better quality food."

Kalogerakos hopes to open the new-and-improved Lyric Diner on Sept. 20.

The menu will still feature all-day breakfast and panini for lunch, Kalogerakos said, but he declined to reveal the new items he was adding in the hopes of drawing after-hours diners.

The storefront is currently covered in brown paper, and printed signs with the word "Lyric" were recently posted on the inside of the window. The signs were first reported by local blog PCVSTBee.

Lyric Diner will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just like it was before, and it will offer a 10 percent discount to students who show a school ID.