Lease-signing is ‘almost a done deal’
By: Jeff Milgram
The building that housed Harry’s Luncheonette for almost 40 years will not remain vacant much longer.
A new tenant has been found for the building at 16 Witherspoon St., closed since an early morning fire on July 12, 1999, and a lease will be signed shortly, according to Albert S. Toto Jr., assistant vice president of Commercial Property Network Inc. of Princeton.
The lease-signing is "almost a done deal," he said.
Mr. Toto refused to identify the prospective tenant, or say whether it would be a food-service or retail business.
"A lot of people were interested" in the location, he said.
The Firebird Gallery plans to move from across the street into the other half of the building, replacing Jewels by Juliana.
Harry’s Luncheonette was a fixture in Princeton Borough. A simple diner with stools and booths, it was an anachronism in a town fast filling up with chi-chi coffeehouses.
The business was run by Harry Ververides, who lives in an upstairs apartment with his brother, George, the planner for Middlesex County.
The building is the only home the Ververides brothers have known.
"I was born and raised in this house, and the same with my brother," George Ververides said after the fire.
The building was the site of a candy shop owned by the Ververides’ father before it was a luncheonette.
Harry Ververides has declined to comment to the press on the future of the building.
The electrical fire was contained to the third and fourth floors and destroyed about half of the roof. There was extensive smoke and water damage to the second and ground floor, which housed the luncheonette.