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BROOKLYN, N.Y.--Lobsters at Lundy Brothers seafood restaurant probably think they are still safe at home.
Just before they become a guest's meal, the 12 varieties of lobsters on Lundy's menu thrive in a spacious, 1,500-gallon holding pond--the visual focal point in the rebirth of the famed 95-year-old restaurant.
The Tam Restaurant Group--a husband-and-wife team that is building a reputation as restaurant developers who specialize in reviving long-abandoned but historic properties--is replicating its formula for success with Lundy's.
Located in Brooklyn's economically resurgent Sheepshead Bay, Lundy's is a massive, 800-seat, visually stunning, $2 million-plus restaurant located the same building where the original opened in 1901.
Back then the restaurant had 2,800 seats and reputedly served a million guests a year. Through the Roaring Twenties right up to the 1970s, generations of New Yorkers --especially Brooklynites--revered Lundy's as a special-occasion getaway for anniversaries, birthdays, Mother's Day and other events.
Beyond being known for its family-style service, the restaurant had a reputation for hiring a predominantly black staff of waiters--some of whom are now lawyers and doctors who worked their way through college while waiting tables at Lundy's.
But the building has been vacant for the past 17 years. Frank and Jeanne Cretella, the principal owners of TRG, also are the same team behind the reopening of the Boat House Cafe in Central Park two years ago. Meanwhile, they expect to open this summer another restaurant located in a long-abandoned building. This time the Cretellas will open the 300-seat American Park Cafe in a NYC Parks Department building that has been vacant in Battery Park for several years.
"We really like...