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Obituaries

Fred Hakim; his hot-dog diner was Times Square relic

Fred Hakim’s family owned a hole-in-the-wall hot-dog counter in Times Square that was the last of its kind when New York decided to revitalize the area in the 1990s by condemning dozens of establishments like it. It was a seven-seat, 250-square-foot piece of Edward Hopper streetscape at 229-31 W. 42nd St., which Hakim’s father had opened in 1941 and wryly named the Grand Luncheonette. Hakim (pronounced HAY-kim) tried to keep the place open as a sort of living museum of the golden age of hawkers and honky-tonks in Times Square. But the city had other ideas, and after a two-year fight, he was evicted on Oct. 19, 1997. He died April 25 at age 83.

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