LAKEVIEW — The fish are OK — but need a new home.
So says the city's Animal Care and Control Department, which visited a shuttered Lakeview restaurant this week to make sure the finned friends were being taken care of properly.
Casbah Cafe, at 3151 N. Broadway, which put a notice on its window earlier this month that it was "temporarily closed," left behind an aquarium that had some neighbors concerned as the tank was slowly draining and algae-covered.
On Wednesday, Animal Care and Control posted a notice on the door of the eatery, giving the owners 48 hours to remove the fish. The notice said the city received a complaint that the fish weren't being cared for properly.
On Thursday, Ivan Capifali, a spokesman for the city, said the fish appeared to be OK. But officials want them removed nevertheless.
"We responded to this service request and have not been able to access the interior of the establishment," Capifali said in an email. "We were able to look from the outside in and it looked like the fish [have] enough water to survive. Regardless of that, we were able to contact the owner and asked him to remove the fish."
Animal Care and Control posted this notice on the door of Casbah Cafe, warning them they had 48 hours to remove the fish from the tank. [Provided]
Attempts to reach the owner, listed in state records as Norayr Yacoubian, were unsuccessful. Records indicate the business has been open since 1993.
A worker at a nearby business on Broadway, though, said Yacoubian "wasn’t in the best of health."
"He was there every day, all the time," he said.
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