With a flick of her wrist, Suzanne Levinson tossed a scoopful of par-cooked French fries into a gleaming fryer on Sunday, the first test batch before her restaurant’s grand reopening. On Monday, her Belgian-style fry cafe, Pommes Frites, destroyed last year by a deadly gas explosion in the East Village, will be reborn in the West Village.

Ms. Levinson has spent the last year agonizing over the deaths of the two men in last year’s devastating blast, and trying to lose herself in the planning of a new restaurant. As the fries plunked into the oil, she allowed herself a moment of levity. “Vive Pommes Frites!” she whooped.

For 18 years, Pommes Frites stood in the East Village, offering paper cones of thick golden French fries and more than 30 special sauces late into the night. Free samples were doled out to passers-by seduced by the scent of potatoes sizzling in oil. But on March 26, 2015, an explosion ripped through the basement of the building next door — caused by gas line tampering, according to the authorities. It toppled neighboring buildings, destroying scores of apartments as well as the businesses on the street level.