You know and love The Villager Deli for its all-beef hot dogs, cold soda and pasta salad by day — and there was a concept in play for the deli to flip its menu and format at night, and host cuisine from Chef Prem.
Longtime owner Koley Keel (left) had joined forces with chef Prem Nath, formerly of Restaurant 195, for a concept he was calling the Villager After Dark.
But after trying the concept for one whole night, Koley put an end to the plan — calling it “logistically unmanageable.”
“You can analyze something left and right and up and down, but until you actually try it you don’t know,” Koley said. “It took one night for me to realize that it was going to affect the Villager, which is something I can’t do. Chef Prem is a great man, and he did nothing wrong. Like they said in the movie Jaws, we just need a bigger boat.”
