Community fights to save Scoops Ice Cream Parlor in Flatbush, Brooklyn
FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (WABC) -- The missing ingredient in Tony Fongyit's battle with his landlord:
"I really, really want to know why the landlord don't want to give me a lease," he said.
He wants a straightforward answer as to why at the end of August the property owner will evict the 74-year-old and close down his beloved ice cream shop Scoops - a 4-decade community pillar on Flatbush Avenue.
"My livelihood. It means a lot. It means a lot to the community, it means a lot to my family," Fongyit said.
Scoops Ice Cream Parlor serves more than just refreshing ice cream.
Fongyit, who is from Trinidad, also cooks vegan delicacies like yellow pumpkin soup and vegetable lasagna - foods that cater to the people who live here in a neighborhood called 'Little Carribean.'
Kai Rudder is 25-years-old. She's been a regular customer for half her life.
"This is one of the only places honestly, not just around here in but in Brooklyn that I can find vegan food that is so flavorful and that I like." Rudder said.
Preserving this cultural and culinary institution generated a rally on Church Avenue.
Organizers told us they've tried repeatedly to get some answers from the landlord, Jeremy Properties/Jonas Equities.
They got the same response we got - nothing.
So they paid a visit and not only knocked on the door but marched inside the business office armed with a tuba, a drum and a bullhorn.
No one came to do the door and moments later the gate came down.
"Jeremy Properties, Jonas Equities and their other aliases are known as slum lords. We get regular calls about their properties," Imani Henry of Equality for Flatbush said.
Earlier this month a judge ruled Fongyit must ultimately turn over the keys to his shop, but between now and August 31rst organizers told us to expect the rallies to increase in number and frequency.
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