Construction

With the development of the Sheepshead Bay community into a residential neighborhood, there were efforts to improve the facilities on the waterfront. The channel of the Sheepshead Bay waterway was dredged by 1916 to allow fishing boats to dock there,^[5] and in 1922 the New York City Dock Commission planned to dredge the bays further, build bulkheads on the shore, and widen Emmons Avenue on the waterfront from 80 to 120 feet (24 to 37 m).^[13] As part of the project, 25 piers would be built on the south side of Emmons Avenue, while 26 buildings would be built on the north side.^[5] This would make Sheepshead Bay into what the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described as a "modern Venice".^[14] Since the Sheepshead Bay development would entail the destruction of the original Lundy's location, Irving Lundy decided to rebuild his restaurant at 1901 Emmons Avenue,^[5] on the road's northern sidewalk, at the site of the Bayside Hotel and Casino.^[15] Lundy commissioned architects Ben Bloch and Walter Hesse to design the new building. By March 1932, his attorney said that "Lundy's would establish a $600,000 restaurant on the north side of Emmons Avenue as soon as the razing of the waterfront structures gets underway."^[5]

In 1931, the city condemned several buildings on the bay shore, including the original Lundy's, to widen Emmons Avenue.^[16] The Great Depression delayed further progress, as these buildings would not be destroyed until mid-1934, and construction started on new buildings on Emmons Avenue's northern sidewalk. To avoid excessive disruption to normal business, Lundy waited until the last minute to close his original restaurant.^[5] A contemporary account stated that the relocation was timed such that when the new building was opened just in time for "the shucking of the last clam in the old place."^[17] Demolition was underway by April 1934.^[9] Herb Shalat, who became a partner at Bloch & Hesse several decades later, said that "Bloch and Hesse and staff would work at all hours and bring complete or even incomplete design drawings and details to the site each morning during the building process supervised by Walter Hesse, Piero Ghiani [an architect with Bloch & Hesse] and Irving Lundy."^[17] Lundy retained Bloch & Hesse for his other Sheepshead Bay projects through the 1970s.^[18]

1930s to 1960s

The new building opened in 1934 or 1935.^{[lower-alpha 1]} In 1935, shortly after Lundy's opened, the federal government threatened to seize the restaurant because Irving Lundy had not paid taxes on liquor that he stored in the restaurant. After a federal raid and a brief closure in June 1935,^[19][20] a judge sympathetic to Lundy ordered an injunction against the federal government's proposal to dismantle the bar at Lundy's.^[21][22] That October, Lundy agreed to pay back taxes.^[23] In 1937, part of the ceiling collapsed, injuring five diners.^[24][25][26] Simultaneously, Frederick Lundy was seeking $853,000 in compensation from the New York City government for the acquisition of the original building. A state court ruled in 1939 that Lundy was only entitled to $253,000 in damages.^[27]

With the success of Lundy's Restaurant, Irving Lundy was able to buy waterfront real estate along Sheepshead Bay.^[28][29] In some cases, he bought the enterprises of rival restaurateurs.^[30] At one point, his holdings included all of the 70 waterfront properties on Emmons Avenue from East 19th to East 29th Streets.^[28] Lundy never resold his properties, but he did lease them to businesspeople that he liked.^[29] As a result, much of the north side of Emmons Avenue remained undeveloped through the early 1960s, even as apartment houses were developed in the rest of Sheepshead Bay.^[31] Lundy never married and became a recluse in his later life.^[29] Because of his reclusive behavior and his wealth, Lundy became known as the "Howard Hughes of Brooklyn".^[32] Despite his infrequent public appearances, Irving Lundy managed the restaurant with what one author called "an iron hand", which may have contributed to the waiters' dour expressions.^[4]

Lundy constructed the one-story Teresa Brewer Room along Ocean Avenue was constructed in 1945, naming it after the pop singer whom his nephew had married. Lundy added air conditioning to the restaurant around this time.^[28] The first labor strike in Lundy's history occurred in July 1946 when waiters walked out due to union disagreements;^[33][34] the strike lasted for most of that month.^[35] In 1947, Walter Hesse enclosed the patios on the second floor.^[28]

A larger strike started in July 1957, when 75 employees walked out during a dispute over wages;^[36][37] another 200 employees walked out soon afterward.^[38][39] Irving Lundy said that he would permanently shutter the restaurant if the waiters did not stop striking,^[37] claiming that he had lost control over his waiters.^[38][39] At the time, the restaurant served 2,000 patrons on an average weekday, which increased to 10,000 on Sundays and 15,000 during holidays.^[38] A few days after the strike started, he officially announced that Lundy's would "never reopen" due to the strike.^[40][41] Despite a report in September 1957 that Lundy's would reopen imminently after personnel changes,^[42] much of the restaurant except for the clam bar remained closed until a labor agreement was reached that December.^[43][44] The restaurant was briefly closed again in 1968 due to a seafood shortage.^[45]

Decline and first closure

By the 1970s, Lundy's was facing numerous problems, including two armed robberies in 1972^[46] and November 1974;^[47] after a third attempted robbery in December 1974, one of the restaurant's managers got into a shoot-out with policemen after assuming that they were robbers.^[48][49] The restaurant was temporarily closed following an unfavorable health-inspection report in 1973,^[50] and it suffered after two of the Lundy siblings were murdered in 1975.^[4][51] In the years before Irving Lundy's death in September 1977, he had become increasingly reclusive,^[3] refusing even to talk to the police about the killings of his siblings.^[4] A fire damaged Lundy's that same November.^[52]

After Irving Lundy's death, his $25 million estate was distributed among a niece and three nephews. Under subsequent management, Lundy's Restaurant started to lose money, making it financially unsustainable.^[29][53] Changes were also occurring in the surrounding community; while Sheepshead Bay did not undergo the white flight and high crime that afflicted other New York City neighborhoods, the waterfront economy was dependent on the success of Lundy's.^[29] The last surviving Lundy siblings were unable to resolve their disputes,^[2][53] and officials discovered in 1979 that numerous people, including Irving Lundy's longtime chauffeur, had embezzled $11 million from the restaurant.^[4][54] Lundy's closed in October 1979,^{[lower-alpha 2]} with a sign stating that Lundy's was "Closed for Renovations".^[29][53]

Initial stores and second restaurant

Donald Lentnek and Steve Pappas of Lundy's Management Corporation leased the restaurant building for 49 years from the owner, Sheepshead Bay Restaurant Associates, in 1994^[59] and began renovating it that June.^[60] Lundy's Management Corporation offered to renovate a nearby vacant lot into a public park in exchange for permission to operate a 100-space parking lot next to Lundy's.^[68] The firm began converting the Lundy's building into a small shopping center, with two restaurants on Emmons Avenue, including a scaled-down revival of Lundy's, and up to 50 stores inside.^[69] Tam Restaurant Group (headed by restaurateurs Frank and Jeanne Cretella, who also managed the Boathouse Cafe at Loeb Boathouse in Central Park^[32][70]) agreed to operate the scaled-down Lundy's in January 1995.^[71] Frank Cretella said he had leased the restaurant because, "whenever I talked about restaurants in Brooklyn, someone said, 'Lundy's.'"^[72] Niemitz Design Group was hired to renovate the restaurant.^[32]

Tam reopened the second Lundy's on December 6, 1995.^[73] The second iteration of Lundy's only occupied about half of the space taken up by the original eatery.^[74] The opening of the new Lundy's location spurred a wave of development on Emmons Avenue. By March 1996, property owners reported that real estate prices had doubled and that vacant apartments were being occupied. Formerly vacant lots were being developed and new restaurants and other businesses were being opened along Emmons Avenue, including two shopping plazas and a sports bar. Lundy's itself saw waiting lists of up to one month for weekend reservations, and many people called to ask if the restaurant had reopened.^[55] Despite its relative remoteness (it was nearly 10 miles from Manhattan and not easily accessible by subway or taxi), Lundy's was popular, with patrons coming from as far as eastern Long Island.^[32] The Times later wrote that the Cretellas had "helped revive Lundy's".^[75] By 1998 there was also a Japanese restaurant at the site of the original Lundy's, while the retail space was being converted into office space. The unused space later became Lundy's Landing Shopping Plaza, though the shopping space was initially unsuccessful.^[76]

Tam had planned to expand Lundy's into a brand with dozens of locations across the U.S.,^[77][78] but this was canceled after the company began to experience financial issues in late 2000.^[77] Tam opened a branch location in 2001, at 205 West 50th Street near Manhattan's Times Square, which lasted only a short time.^[79][80] Lundy's temporarily closed in May 2003 after Tam failed to pay taxes,^[81] but it reopened soon afterward when Tam filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.^[82][83] By the next year, Tam's president Tony Golio said that "business is good".^[81] A family-owned business named The Players Club, headed by restaurateur Afrodite Dimitroulakos, acquired Lundy's from Tam in December 2004.^[84] The Dimitroulakos family expanded the restaurant's menu and added a sushi bar.^[78] Lundy's again closed in January 2007;^[56][85] a state judge had ordered the closure of the restaurant because the Demetroulakos family had filed for bankruptcy and had not paid rent in several months.^[86]

Late 2000s to present

After the second Lundy's closed, Lentnek sought to lease out its space.^[86] The former space of the second Lundy's was renovated and incorporated into Lundy's Landing Shopping Plaza, hosting several restaurants and businesses. Neighborhood residents felt that the new occupants of the Lundy's location, the Russian-themed Cherry Hill Gourmet Market, were radically altering the space. In particular, residents objected when David Isaev, who operated the market, removed lettering from the "Lundy's" sign above the entrance.^[87][88] The city government ordered Isaev to stop renovating the space in late 2008 after finding that the market violated local zoning ordinances, since Lundy's fell within a zoning district that prohibited non-maritime uses.^[89] Work resumed after Isaev submitted revised plans for the market, but city inspectors again issued a stop-work order in April 2009, since the market still violated the local zoning ordinance.^[90] In total, the city issued 46 stop-work orders for the project; Isaev said of the controversy: "I was in war in Israel and saw nothing like this."^[91] The renovation of the market ultimately cost $7 million.^[88]

When Cherry Hill Gourmet Market opened in May 2009, city inspectors promptly fined Isaev for violating zoning ordinances.^[92][93] At the time, the remaining space was occupied by Turkish and Japanese restaurants.^[88] Despite the controversies over the renovations, the market was popular, and Crain's New York Business said "the market has helped revive a local landmark".^[91] After Isaev agreed to restore the sign above the building's entrance,^[88] the LPC waived the zoning-code violations in August 2011.^[94] Isaev asked the city to rezone the Lundy's site later the same year.^[88][95] In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, the waters of Sheepshead Bay overflowed, flooding the building.^[96] The front of Masal's Cafe looking out on Sheepshead Bay at Lundy's Landing Shopping Plaza shows the high height of the water level entering the Lundy's structure at the peak of Hurricane Sandy.^[97] In 2015, a seafood restaurant named Cipura moved into the western side of the former Lundy's building.^[98]

After one of the building's co-owners, Dimitrios Kaloidis, died in 2019, his estate retained 25 percent of the shares in the building, which was valued at $11 million. His brother George Kaloidis, another co-owner, sued Dimitrios's estate in 2021 in an attempt to force the estate to sell the shares.^[99]