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Frank's on First Could Shut Down After Losing Gas for 2 Months, Owner Says

By Noah Hurowitz | February 7, 2017 5:57pm
 Marcel Vazquez, a longtime employee of Frank's Trattoria, said the owner might have to close the restaurant if the gas remains shut off.
Marcel Vazquez, a longtime employee of Frank's Trattoria, said the owner might have to close the restaurant if the gas remains shut off.
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DNAinfo/Noah Hurowitz

GRAMERCY — A beloved neighborhood pizza joint is struggling to stay afloat after nearly two months without a gas hookup, according to its owner and local supporters.

Frank’s on First, also known as Frank's Trattoria, an Italian restaurant at 371 First Ave. between East 21st and East 22nd streets has been without gas since mid-December after a gas leak on the block revealed leaky pipes, according to longtime employee Marcel Vazquez.

The restaurant hasn’t sold a pizza since Dec. 19, the day after the gas leak knocked out service to several businesses. Despite a full pipe replacement, the ovens are still cold. And according to Vazquez and his boss, owner Hortensia Pino, just a few more days without gas could mean the end of Frank’s.

“She says if it’s not on by this week, forget it,” Vazquez said. “You can’t pay your employees if you can’t sell any food.”

The restaurant has been eking out business by cooking with small electric stoves, but without pizza ovens, business has slowed to a crawl, he said.

The trouble began on Dec. 18, the day of the original gas leak, Vazquez said. The day after that, after FDNY and Con Edison workers attended to the leak, the gas flow to the restaurant’s stove was weak and provided only enough for about half of the stove to function, he said. 

Inspectors from Con Ed found a leak in the pipes that they said required a full replacement, so the Pinos went about fixing the problem, hiring a licensed plumber and replacing the piping to take care of the leak, according to Vazquez and Department of Buildings records.

The job was done in January, but Con Ed inspectors were a no-show thanks to a blizzard of paperwork the plumbing contractor had to square away with the city, Vazquez said.

But a month later, the gas still hasn’t arrived, despite agitating from local supporters of the restaurant like Joe Carey, a Peter Cooper Village resident who helped lobby local elected officials to the cause.

“A lot of people in the neighborhood depend on that place, which has served them for the past 47 years,” Carey said. “It’s a gem of the neighborhood, and I think Con Ed needs to step up.”

Con Ed inspectors finally showed up to Frank’s on Tuesday afternoon, Vazquez said, but the restaurant owners and staff still don’t have a set date for when the gas might come back.

Although it has been the hardest hit, Frank’s wasn’t the only business affected by the gas trouble. Lucky Chicken, located on the corner of East 22nd Street and First Avenue, also had its gas shut off following the Dec. 18 leak, and was closed for a month before it was switched back on.

It was not immediately clear why Lucky Chicken got its hookup back nearly a month before Con Ed inspectors visited Frank’s.

Representatives of Con Ed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.