On Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., Paolo Alavain, owner of Savore, at the corner of Spring and Sullivan Sts., inspected a damaged window on the restaurant’s Sullivan St. side. At 5 that morning, three men broke the window and its frame and entered the restaurant, presumably thinking no one was there. The night-shift worker in the basement kitchen, oblivious to the noise of the break-in, looked up to see a gun in his face. Bringing him upstairs, the robbers demanded the key to the register, which the worker told them he didn’t have. They slapped him around a little, then broke open the register to find about $100 inside. They also broke all locks on cabinets and storage areas, looking for things of value inside. They made off with a small stereo. Alavain is a fixture in Soho. He’s owned Savore for 14 years, after eight years working at Mezzogiorno restaurant across the street. He also owns another restaurant on Spring St. near Thompson St. “This is the first time anything like this has happened,” he said. “I’m worried for my workers. I don’t want them to panic.”
–Tequila Minsky
