May 8, 2014 By Michael Florio
The sign on the door reads: “We have temporarily been shut down…We are scheduled to reopen the week of May 19.”
This notice was plastered on the front door of The Strand Smoke House, which is located at 25-27 Broadway, and is the result of the owner Tommy Vasilis having a couple of run-ins with the Health Department.
The Health Department said Vasilis’ permits have been temporarily suspended for “obstructing Health Department inspectors on multiple occasions as they tried to conduct inspections.” The closure was not for any health violations.
The health department has closed three of Vasilis’ businesses: The Strand; the Bakeway shop, located at 25-21 Broadway; and another Bakeway store, located at 29-10 30th Avenue.
Vasilis told the Daily News, which broke the story, that he was angry after inspectors showed up last summer at his Bakeway shop on Broadway. The inspectors insisted on reviewing the Strand and the Bakeway at the time, Vasilis said, even through Bakeway had been inspected two weeks earlier.
“I told them to inspect Smokehouse but not the bakery,” he told the Daily News. “I thought that was double dipping.”
The Health Department said Vasilis had blocked an inspector in the past and had been warned before his permits were yanked.
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