Image source: emilydickinsonridesabmx via Flickr.

It looks like Hinsch’s [8518 5th Ave] has nine lives after all.

Thanks to a deal partners Roger Desmond, Gerard Bell and Bill Gardell recently made with Staten Island diner mogul Mike Moudatsos, the endangered eatery, which first opened in 1915 as Reichert’s ice cream parlor and still makes its own ice cream, will live on as “Mike’s Hinsch’s,” writes Helen Klein for Home Reporter.

Desmond, along with Bell – who is also co-owner of Skinflints [7902 5th Ave], and Gardell had taken over the space a little over a year before, when longtime owner John Logue retired.

“When we take over, we keep the name and add Mike’s to it,” Moudatsos’ son Lee, who will run the establishment’s day-to-day operations, told Klein – He also assured the public that the egg creams, homemade ice cream and chocolates that made Hinsch’s famous would continue to satisfy the neighborhood’s sweet tooth after his family took the helm on Monday, March 4.

“All that stuff is going to stay,” Lee Moudatsos said. “We are just going to add to it.”

“I feel the weight of the world is off my shoulders,” Desmond told Home Reporter. “It’s really been some roller coaster. I lost a lot of money but I don’t have any regrets.”

Just over a month ago, after a deal with a national fast food chain fell through Desmond, die hard restaurateur that he is, resolved to reinvent Hinsch’s as a late night date destination.