Mike Siderakis loves the time he spends chatting with customers–it’s all a part of what he says makes him happy to go to work every day. “I fit here, and I love that.” Patricia Adams/The Forum Newsgrouo
So what’s a neighborhood without a diner? Hungry— well that’s the obvious, but for Howard Beachers the loss of the Cross ay Diner was just another adjustment to what used to be everyday life.
Not only the quintessential place to grab a burger or two eggs over easy, but a social “hub”, an exchange of neighborhood news.
Now, 11 months after the storm, the view from inside the neighborhood eatery-icon is totally different. But it is more than the stylish new design and the imported floor tiles. It’s more than the new layout, the improved menu and the bolstered up service. It’s just “very different,” according to Mike Siderakis, now the sole proprietor of the establishment.
You’ve called ahead and told him you’d like to talk about his businesses “trip back” for the papers tribute issue on Hurricane Sandy. He agrees and sets up the appointment. Still smiling and preoccupied by the conversation he had with two regulars across the floor while walking over to do the interview, he begins the conversation before he even sits down to join you at the table. “I love to get up and come to work in the morning,” he says and in less than 30 seconds into the conversation you believe it.
The husband and father of three has been in the business since 1982 when he started working in his father’s place, Tastee Donuts on 23rd Street between Lexington and Park Avenue in the city. In 2001, Siderakis bought his first diner, the Cross Bay, and then another in 2004 in Nassau County which he sold in 2006. In 2010 he purchased the Park View in Brooklyn, which he still owns and operates.
But the return trip to a newly renovated Cross Bay for Siderakis has not been like any of his other experiences. He stares out across the floor when you ask him what it was like a year ago. He remembers when the water came, it took everything. The power surge began in the basement and spread upstairs shorting out registers, computers, cameras, refrigeration and alarms. “Like everyone else, our losses were devastating.”
His thoughts never included not fixing up. “I never said if we go back. I just thought of how we were going to do it.” By all accounts, it took just under a month to get the debris removed and carted away. Then another three weeks for demolition. After that there were permit filings and finally the beginning of interior work in February. “It took about four months, once everything started.” The grand re-opening saw a capacity crowd welcomes back the neighborhood institution when it reopened on May 22nd.
“I believe that out of bad things come good messages,” Siderakis says.”People have to believe that when they work and work together that we are all better for it.”
Although the memory is not pleasant, it is something he believes everyone should remember and face.
“Sometimes, it’s like it never happened. Like a bad dream. But we know it did happen and that we made it through a disaster. Together.”
To Siderakis, there clearly doesn’t seem to be anything more important than that. And to his customers, well let’s just say they’re very happy they never have to find out what life is like without a diner. The man who owns it says he loves it here and he’s not going anyplace.
By Patricia Adams
