WORCESTER – Before Café Neo permanently closes the doors of its 97 Millbury St., owner Peter Tsigas is holding one last complimentary buffet on Sunday.
The popular Canal District bar has often offered a free buffet to customers, according to Tsigas, and even started extending this smorgasbord to unhoused people in the neighborhood.
Tsigas serves up his buffet on Oct. 15 for the final time because he has to start breaking down his kitchen, he told the Worcester Guardian Wednesday.
The bar, known for its karaoke and fruit-filled cocktails, has to leave its Millbury Street location because the building’s landlord did not renew Tsigas’s lease, which expired on Jan. 31.
Tsigas took his landlord, I.T.C. Reality, to court in an attempt to stay in the space, but ultimately negotiated that he would have to leave in the beginning of November. The bar closes for good on Nov. 5.
Tsigas hoped to stay open at the space until Thanksgiving so he could offer his traditional free Thanksgiving buffet, but the landlord rejected this request to allow for the new tenant to move in.
“It’s sad because we’ve been there a long time,” said Tsigas, who opened the bar more than 25 years ago. He has plans to move to a location on Harding Street off of Kelley Square, but expects it to take months to reopen. The liquor license, however, has already been transferred to the new location.
The original plan was for Tsigas to open a new location on Shrewsbury Street, but the building did not have the sprinkler system necessary for an entertainment license. Tsigas wants to carry on Café Neo’s tradition of hosting karaoke at the new location so he opted for a space on Harding Street that would allow for an entertainment license.
Sunday’s buffet, which takes place from 8 p.m. to 1:45 a.m., features Greek food, including spinach pie, chicken and lemon potatoes cooked according to Tsigas’s mother’s recipes.
He is expecting a lot of people.
“People like to celebrate the last of something,” Tsigas said.
While Sunday is the last buffet at the location, it’s not the last celebration at Café Neo. Tsigas said he plans on having a costume party on Halloween.
“It’s going to be nice,” he said.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
