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Stage Restaurant Fights Eviction, Denies Tampering With Gas Lines in Suit

By Lisha Arino | April 30, 2015 6:45pm
 Longtime Eastern European diner, The Stage Restaurant, is being evicted after 35 years.
Longtime Eastern European diner, The Stage Restaurant, is being evicted after 35 years.
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Facebook/Stage Restaurant East Village

EAST VILLAGE — The Second Avenue diner being evicted for tampering with its gas lines is fighting back calling the charge "completely bogus," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Owner Roman Diakun, who opened the Stage Restaurant in 1980, was accused by its landlord 128 Second Realty LLC in an eviction notice of "illegally and dangerously altering the piping and gas lines in the building," and ordered to vacate the premises by the end of April.

Diakun claims in the suit that he had hired a plumber at the recommendation of Con Edison for testing and to restore gas service that was cut off after the March 26 gas explosion that killed two people and leveled three buildings.

After a test showed a leak, the plumber began making emergency repairs on March 30 when a Department of Buildings inspector issued a violation and a stop work order for conducting work without a permit, according to court documents and DOB records.

After the incident, the landlord then refused to work with Diakun to remedy the situation and falsely accused him of siphoning gas, according to the lawsuit, first reported by New York Post.

The landlord’s lawyer, Joseph Goldsmith, denied the lawsuit’s claims.

“While they deny that they were also siphoning gas or that they were in the process of trying to destroy the evidence of the siphoning, we feel that when the facts are brought to light, those matters will be shown to be true,” he said.

The restaurant — a neighborhood staple beloved by locals and stars like Helen Mirren for its Eastern European fare — was one of the first restaurants to open after the gas explosion at 121 Second Ave. last month before the city issued a stop work order.

An online fundraiser to help Diakun pay for his attorney and reopen the restaurant has raised more than $3,400 since it was set up on Wednesday.