Steve's Grill House, Coney Island Boardwalk. Last day of season, Oct 31, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr
Steve Bitetzakis, the owner of Steve’s Grill House on the Coney Island Boardwalk since 1993, called off plans to have his modular building jacked up and moved down Stillwell Avenue. The move had been postponed till this week, but was called off after the restaurant owner made a deal to sell the building to Zamperla for an undisclosed sum. On Monday, workers were removing restaurant equipment and cleaning the place out.
Bitetzakis plans to relocate his grill house in Coney Island, possibly with a state-of-the-art concession trailer. Steve’s Grill House was the last holdout of the Coney Island 8, a group of Boardwalk Mom and Pops who banded together to fight their eviction by Zamperla in 2010. Late last year, Ruby’s and Paul’s Daughter were offered eight-year leases on the Boardwalk, but Steve’s was left out in the cold. The above photo, taken at sunset on the last day of the 2010 season, is one of our favorites.
The Grill House building is on land that the City bought from Thor Equities in 2009 and leased to Zamperla. It’s the site of the soon-to-be-constructed Speed Zone, where Go Karts and a Sky Coaster are part of the amusement operator’s plans for this season. Will the Grill House be transformed into a trattoria by the sea or an upscale redo of its former neighbor Beer Island? Stay tuned. Coney Island’s opening day is just six weeks away.
Steve's Grill House, Coney Island Boardwalk. Last day of season, Oct 31, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr
Related posts on ATZ…
January 31, 2012: Remnant of Under Boardwalk Bar Found in Coney Island
December 27, 2011: Amusing the Zillion’s Top 10 Coney Island News Stories of 2011
November 15, 2011: Coney Island 2012: What’s New on the Boardwalk
October 11, 2011: Photo of the Day: Butterflies & Beer Island by Bruce Handy
Amusing the Zillion 
I love how Zamperla/CAI has been reinventing Coney Island History. A look through their Facebook page by someone unfamiliar with Coney Island would think they were the Original Luna Park. While I like the nod to Coney past, I do wish they’d come up with something original to show their love and cement their name in the future. Why Club Atlantis? Why not Club Zamperla?
Bogframe, why don’t you buy or lease some land and lets see what others think of what you do with it? Maybe you could open a wine store since all you seem to do is WHINE all the time!!
The idea of a “Club Atlantis” will capture people’s imagination. It remains to be seen whether Zamperla’s club will pay homage to the original in some way or if it will be a completely new creation. Luna Park’s fabulous gate, their pinwheel and moon logo and a ride renamed the Tickler because it evolved from the original are pretty much the extent of the Luna theming
Re the revival of old Coney names and the theming, there’s a word recently coined by writer Alexandria Symonds that comes to mind: Authentrification: Noun: In a quest for authenticity, seizing on elements that represent the area’s past and repurposing them as a design scheme.
suoylit, if I had that kind of money I would, and I’d have the integrity to give it its own name, not one piggybacked onto someone else’s work.. What you call “whining”, I call protesting the loss of history and the re-invention of history to make something new seem like an extension of something truly grand from out glorious past.
Slapping a “Tillie” on a ride doesn’t make it authentically Coney.