New Austin St. Restaurant: 718

Here is a photo of 718, the new restaurant/hookah lounge/grill/bar that is getting ready to open on Austin St., where the former Greenline Organic used to be. Do we need another place like this? Well, that depends on which of these incarnations it will mostly be.

Hookah Lounge? No thank you. Sports bar? No thank you. Authentic Mediterranean Cuisine? If it's really good authentic Mediterranean Cuisine? Sure, why not... Um, I guess??

Though I, and many others here in Forest Hills, would much rather have preferred an upscale American bistro a la Kew Gardens' Mood—the kind of place we are sorely sorely lacking here in Forest Hills (see my post about the closing of Mood below), or a friendly independently-owned coffee place, a la Ozzie's in Park Slope, another thing many other neighborhoods in New York City take for granted and something we are sorely, sorely lacking here.

This really isn't rocket science! Mr. Restauranteur, if you want to see an example of what happens when you open a place with an extreme demand for it here in Forest Hills, all you need do is walk into La Boulangerie! Upscale food and coffee places do explosive business here in Forest Hills. Hookah Lounges? Sports bars? Eh... We kind of are overflowing already with these?... But, hey, good luck... I guess?

Bad Mood

I was pretty shocked to discover that the fantastic Kew Gardens restaurant Mood has suddenly closed. This was by far one of my favorite local restaurants. Its delicious food - everything from steaks to chicken to fish - could compete with the best anywhere in the City. And its chic, laid-back ambience made it the perfect place to go to unwind and have a great meal with friends.

A person walking by last night stopped and told us, "It just closed last week all of a sudden. I used to go there once a week." He seemed as disheartened by this as we were.

If anyone knows what happened to Mood, drop me a line, I'd love to know. I just hope they are able to open again somewhere else in the City —hopefully, of course, either in Kew Gardens or right here in Forest Hills. Unfortunately, I assume hopes of that are slim. There was no sign on the restaurant announcing they were moving. So something pretty bad happened to the proprietors, causing them to shut down their restaurant immediately. It doesn't leave me with much hope that we will be seeing a new incarnation of Mood any time soon.

I only wish we had more restaurants of the quality of Mood here in Forest Hills. That would surely mean we were stepping things up a notch.