Home Cooking in the Heart of Forest Hills
TO OUR CUSTOMERS:
We regretfully inform you, that due to not being able to reach an agreement with our landlord,
Just Like Mother’s Restaurant is CLOSED
Thank You for your patronage over the years.
Wishing you all the best,
Owners & Employees of Just Like Mother’s
I've been contacted by several readers this holiday weekend about the closing of
Just Like Mother's restaurant on Queens Blvd., after the owners were unable to reach an agreement with their landlord on the rent. This modest little restaurant was a favorite of mine (it's on my
Recommended Restaurants list) and apparently many others in Forest Hills. I don't think I ever had anything there I didn't like and the people there were always extremely nice.
To me, it was really a stand-in for the really good diner that we still don't have here in Forest Hills. Not only did they serve really good Polish/Eastern European style dishes, like delicious blintzes and pierogis, but they had a wide selection of sandwiches, soups and traditional entrees like meat loaf (really good), fish and chicken dishes. They also served up some really good breakfast options. And all of this at extremely reasonable prices.
In fact, I remember as Hurricane Sandy approached last year, we decided to take out a few meals from Just Like Mother's to see us through the storm.
I think JLM was open for more than 20 years before it closed a few days ago, apparently surprising many people in our neighborhood. They will certainly be missed.
As I
tweeted a few days ago when I first heard about JLM closing, I think it may be a sign of all the changes taking place in the neighborhood. One reader emailed me this afternoon asking if I was going to post anything about JLM closing. The email's subject read simply "Rising Rents," and she pointed out that she thinks Haagen-Daaz on Austin St. is closing for the same reason as well. The neighborhood is definitely changing for the better and I'm not surprised that landlords are asking for higher rents on Austin and nearby it.
While the demise of local favorites like Just Like Mother's is indeed sad, I think overall the restaurant options in Forest Hills have dramatically improved in the past couple of years. I can't think of one new restaurant that has opened in the past year or so that I do not like. In fact, we even recently went to Bonfire Grill (which opened a few years ago already, an early newcomer in this recent wave) with several friends and everyone liked what they had. I was surprised to find that Bonfire seems to have upped their game quite a bit. The food was a lot better than I remembered it (I had honestly given up on them) the last time I was there like over a year ago.