JACKSON HEIGHTS — The owners of Armondo's Italian Restaurant, which was damaged in the massive fire at the Bruson Building last spring, are taking over Trieste, another popular Italian eatery that has been in the neighborhood for nearly four decades.
Owner Jerry Crisci announced on the restaurant's website that they have purchased Trieste, a Northern Italian restaurant, at 73-16 Northern Blvd.
Crisci posted that they will be taking over the space on Jan. 1, 2015 and plan to open it on Feb. 1 following a "quick renovation."
"We look forward to seeing you in February," he said on their website. He could not be immediately reached for comment.
Trieste's chef and owner, Elio Honovic, 71, said he is selling his restaurant because of health problems. It wasn't an easy decision, he said, to get rid of the place he's operated for 36 years.
"I'm the chef. I'm the owner. That's my old-fashioned style, I don't want to give it to anybody," he said, adding that his health is "no good."
Armondo's was at the corner of 75th Street and 37th Avenue, inside the Bruson Building, for decades before it was damaged in a fire on April 21.
Renovations on the building began this summer and another owner said he'd love to have the tenants come back.
"Who knows what their status will be in a year and a half, or the two years that it takes, but we'd love to have them all come back," Craig Bruno said in July.
