Clearing Out: A Tribeca Restaurateur Shuts the Door after 27 Years

Nikone Ongkeo in what remained of his restaurant, Mangez Avec Moi, hours before leaving the space for good. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

One by one, all the businesses on the doomed West Broadway block between Warren and Murray Streets are moving out. A developer will be demolishing the six buildings on that block and construct a 46,000-square-foot condominium.   

On Dec. 30, Nikone Ongkeo, 62, owner of the popular Vietnamese restaurant Mangez Avec Moi, had just a few more hours to clear everything out and shut the door—after 27 years—for the last time. A Laotian refugee who came to the U.S. in 1977, fleeing the Communist Pathet Lao regime, Ongkeo had kept Mangez Avec Moi open after Sept. 11 by selling t-shirts to sightseers. Afterwards, he turned what had been a buffet-style eatery into a waiter-service restaurant, and later opened the sandwich shop Banh Mi next door.

Now, with the remains of Mangez Avec Moi strewn on the floor, Ongkeo stopped to talk to a reporter.

Yesterday, we loaded two cars and took everything to our home in the Poconos. We got there at 2 in the morning. Now I’m getting some people to come for free stuff. I have a six-burner stove, I have grill and a deep fry. I want to give it away. Whoever wants to take it. I just want to clean the space for the landlord. Otherwise they’re going to go after me. You didn’t do this, you didn’t do that. He charges $1,500 for every day if I’m late. I have to finish today.

The real estate people showed me a place, but I don’t want it. Bigger is no good. The rent is too high. And I want to stay in this part of the neighborhood. In some old buildings they let you sign the lease but if they sell the building, you have to get out in three months. And old buildings tend to sell because big money is coming in.

Next week we’re going to take a break with the family and then we’re going to look around here. How much rent can we afford? It costs so much money to reopen a restaurant. Usually, if the restaurant is already there before, the key money is very high. Can we afford it? Can we get a loan? We’re going to contact the real estate people again. We want to find out what can we do.