I've heard for a while that the frozen yogurt cafe, Vanilla Sky, at the corner of Restaurant Row and Austin St. was going to be turned into another kind of restaurant. I didn't think it was going to happen so soon. But this is what it looked like today....
I think theyve known for a few weeks, because theyd been using regular styrofoam cups instead of their regular ones with their logo. Clearly didnt reorder them since they knew they were shutting down.
ReplyDeleteI liked their yogurt, but red mango more than fulfills the demand.
Any idea what kind of restaurant this is going to become?
ReplyDeleteThe property owner is planning to redevelop "restaurant row" . Look
ReplyDeletefor things to start happening next year.
I've thought for a long time that that prime corner location was wasted on them, so I can't say I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteWill whatever's coming next be operating under the same management? The way you phrased it made it sound that way.
What about the new comfort inn in Kew Gardens housing homeless people? This is outrageous!
ReplyDeleteYes, the Comfort Inn story is outrageous but please post things like that in the Unfiltered section. It would be great if people actually used it and commented on things like that! I'll join in there. With Vanilla Sky I agree with the others, I don't miss it, enough with the sweet treat dessert places, we've got that down- let's see more interesting ethnic options- maybe Boulangerie could open more of a bistro type place there to relieve some of their crowding- they have gotten so busy I've had to walk out at times! And now they're going to try offering full French entrees such as boeuf bourguignon- good luck finding anywhere to sit and eat it! I love the place though but they need a bigger location at this point.
Deletewould love a classic French brasserie, the corner location is perfect.
DeleteWhy do we keep calling this "restaurant row"? That would imply that the food options are high quality and that one store front is not occupied for only two months a year by a shitty Halloween store. Stop trying to make it seem like this is a food destination and start advocating for better eateries to come to the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI agree- it's totally lacking. It is not by any means a food destination, nothing in this neighborhood is worth a destination trip. It's fine enough for day to day but no destination. Arthur Ave in The Bronx is a total destination area- several interesting butchers carrying unique meats, fresh pasta shops, bread shops, pastry shops, I go there and spend a day easily. Forest Hills? I just don't see it at the moment, nothing particularly unique, and Target didn't help things any.
DeleteI think our little Restaurant Row has a lot of potential, but I agree that the Target doesn't really add anything to the area. Such an unimaginative use of that space.
DeleteThat's a pretty hard spot for a landlord to be imaginative to fill, just based on the size and rent. Really limited to grocery stores, small-format big box (like the Target), or fast fashion. I'd rather have seen, specifically, a Zara there but at least the Target does serve a need. I go to the Target once per week, which is more than I can say about all but a handful of restaurant/food uses in the neighborhood.
DeleteI think a lot of people were hoping they'd make it into a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's, and personally, I wouldn't have minded one of those either.
DeleteYes, Whole Foods would have made sense, we don't have good access to a large scale of organic products here, Natural is too limited.
DeleteArthur Avenue is only great if you prefer one cuisine - Italian. I'd rather see Forest Hills offer multiethnic food and cool bars like Astoria. But we'd need a transient (and less budget-minded) population to support that.
ReplyDeleteForest Hills doesn't have the cool factor to support the large amount of bars that you mention. Just look around on any given weekend - everywhere you look there is a couple pushing a baby carriage or walking with little kids. It's a little bit too much actually -I just don't think these families are in it for the long haul in Forest Hills. They move out of Manhattan and aren't yet ready to succumb to the suburbs so they stay a few years here, they think they're cool pushing the stroller down Austin and then they make a break for Long Island. It's not really a practical place to raise a family unless you are very wealthy. Even the older colonial type houses closer to Metropolitan, which may need quite a bit of work are going for like 1mil., and to have let's say 2 children in an apartment and live comfortably you'd need a 3 bedroom, which the neighborhood doesn't have a lot of and if you want one in a good building, it will definitely be over 1 mil, and it will still have somewhat small rooms. So to sum this up (sorry for the rant) we do get somewhat of a transient population here, it's just not the cool, bar hopping type, it's the stroller-pushing, diaper-changing ones!
ReplyDeleteI have two children and push a stroller down austin street quite frequently. I can assure you that i dont think i am cool because i am pushing a stroller down the street. That was a pretty stupid assessment.
DeleteI agree, why would you assume we are cool pushing a stroller around? What makes you think that? And why would you assume these young families are transient? Most come here or raise their kids here because of the good schools and safety of the area. If they wanted to move, they would move when the kids are younger so they can establish roots in the schools, not take them out when they are already entrenched in schools and disrupt them. You clearly don't understand the family dynamics.
DeleteI moved to Forest Hills 10 years ago - LONG before I ever had a baby. Your assumption that parents move to this neighborhood as a "cool" in-between location before moving to the suburbs is ridiculous. There are many families in my building who have been there long before I moved in whose children are now in their teens and they still have no plans of leaving the neighborhood. Move to Greenpoint if you want to go bar hopping, and leave Forest Hills to those of us who appreciate the community.
DeleteThey move because they get tired of having no space. A family with two children living in a two bedroom apartment is cramped no matter how you look at it and even in the nicest of buildings here, the rooms are not huge but the prices definitely are. In my building, 2 bedroom units go for close to, and some over 1mil, 3 bedroom 1.3 mil easy. I think the suburbs are as boring as the next guy but let's face it, for half the price of a nice 3 bedroom here, a young couple could move to Long Island in a nice school district, with a 4 bedroom house, driveway, safe area, etc., just speaking from what I've personally seen or heard many people in the area doing, and then the next batch of couples move in, have a couple kids, head out, etc..
ReplyDeleteAre you living in Manhattan? Have you ever lived in Manhattan? Because pretty much everything you are describing is taking place there. The reason we moved to Forest Hills is because the size of the apartments for what you are paying makes sense. A lot of the apartments we saw here when we were looking were absolutely enormous - we wouldn't know what to do with all of the space. It was ridiculous. Especially after coming from Park Slope and SOHO where I used to live, in basically closets for astronomical prices.
DeleteAlso, there are tons of people who are transient wherever you go. This is America. Many people are always on the move. Others are not. Why do you need to make broad generalizations. Forest Hills and the neighborhoods around it, definitely have more people settling down for a long time than places like Manhattan, or neighborhoods closer to Manhattan -- where people are moving around all the time.
And, sorry, but why would you want to live on Long Island in this Superstorm Sandy era, when that entire island was devastated beyond imagine. Forest Hills proved itself, as part of the city, to be able to withstand storms of that magnitude, while huge swaths of Long Island were flooded, along with New Jersey, and were without power for weeks or longer. We never lost power here. Things like that matter as climate change worsens.
News to me that a FH 2BR apartment sells for close to 1 million dollars. 500K is about the top end for a 2BR coop. and jsut about 3 years ago the prices were below 400K.
DeleteBased on Anonymous logic, there should be no kids around 10 years old or so because all of them move out. However, I see tons of kids and schools to support them. I'm also friends with many other younger families and none have intentions to move. Not all all families need that huge space. If that was the case, all of Manhattan would be void of kids living there and that's clearly not the case. Your logic fails.
DeleteNot defending the original commenters point, but Drake, your point about LI is extremely misinformed as well. There were PARTS of SOME coastal towns flooded horribly by Sandy, but to say the entire island was devastated is not based on facts. 95% was fine aside from losing power, and Forest Hills didnt possess some magic that kept the lights on, it was just good luck. From a geographic standpoint, you are on that same island, FH just happens to be extremely inland. There are many places on LI that offer that same feature. Storms dont care that Forest Hills is "part of the city." Geographically, we are way more LI than we are city. If there is ever a storm that TRULY devastates all of LI, ala Puerto Rico, Forest Hills will be screwed too. Besides, there were spots in Queens, BK and Manhanttan that were flooded as well. If you lived on the water (city or LI), you were at high risk, if you didnt, you werent.
DeleteIt wasn't just good luck. Our power lines are built underground, as is most of NYC's, unlike Long Island's. http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/downloads/pdf/power_lines_study_2013.pdf
DeleteAnd from what I hear of my old neighborhood on Long Island, Oceanside, thousands suffered for months. You are nitpicking. Long Island is a very narrow, long piece of land. Sure, some inland spots were not hit as bad as the coastal spots. But there was widespread suffering for months. The only reason lower Manhattan lost power was because of the ConEd station's flooding.
Fair enough, re: the power lines being underground. Didnt factor that in.
DeleteThat said, Oceanside is a coastal town that was devastated for sure, but that was from flooding, not above ground power lines. That specific area has always been a flood risk, even in non Sandy events. It was definitely one of the worst hit areas, and id never buy something there, or anywhere near the water on the South Shore. Many weather experts are concerned about similar things happening to lower Manhattan and south BK if a similar storm hits again. Some subway lines were affected by Sandy for years afterward. NYC is not immune to a horrible weather event.
I dont feel im nitpicking, and stick by my original point. 95% of the Island wasnt flooded at all, its just that 5% was horrific. It is a definitely a very narrow, long piece of land...but Forest Hills is on it.
Anyway...i can find plenty of other reasons that LI does suck, so lets agree on that part. Haha
agree FH is not cool by any means. Brooklyn has far more of not-Manhattan-yet-still cool thing going for young families. But what FH is a good middle ground between city living and surburbia. We have families and we have the elderly. However young professionals in their 20's and early 30's that could afford to live on their own probably won't live here, therefore lack of a real bar scene. Anyway, agree LI could be dull but depends on where, Roslyn has some nice restaurants worth driving out to (easy parking is a huge plus).
DeleteIn order for power lines to be underground, you need a certain type of bedrock that isn't present in much of coastal Long Island. It's the same reason why coastal cities like Miami, which would benefit greatly from underground power lines cannot install them. It really just is good luck that Forest Hills can utilize that type of power.
DeleteWell "Restaurant Row" cough/cough! will get this , are you sitting down? . Vanilla Sky will become a 'Turkish Falafel joint". The Halloween popup shop will be divided into two spaces after Halloween. One space will become another walk in medical office aka "City MD "and the other space is leased but remains a mystery !
ReplyDeleteIs this a joke?
DeleteSorry to say but I do not joke concerning important local issues.
DeleteTurkish falafel sounds good to me! And anything, I mean anything - even, God help us, another bank - would be better than the empty shell of the Santa Fe that we've endured all these years.
ReplyDeleteIf you want Turkish falafel there are at 3 places on Metropolitan and plenty of food carts near Continental that will make similar offerings
DeleteI get what you're saying but let's be glad it's not another sweet treat, frozen creation place- I think we have enough of those! I hear you on Metropolitan and I personally love the quaint feel of the shops but I think that most people who live up near Queens Blvd (especially on the north side) probably never go to Metropolitan- it might as well be another town!
DeleteI Have to be honest after living here for 32 years the commercial store rentals are hitting critical mass . Everyone(read landlords) see the stock market /see million $$ apartments being built and go for the limit. AND! If that limit is not accepted the tax laws allow them to keep them unrented (vacant) with little downside. Now there is just so much you can milk a business rentwise before you get nothing but crap and we "ARE at that stage" . It does not bode well for the future of this community. Walk down Lex Avenue /Williamsburg/Carroll Gardens, Bell Blvd/Broadway Astoria/Glendale/Sunnyside/ LIC/Main St Flushing/Bed Sty and now Jamaica and you can see numerous quent eclectic wonderful eateries making a successful living in a very competitive area . Yet we get NONE WHATSOEVER let alone all the other important essential stores we need to maintain a semblance of of quality of life. The bar get lower every month and it's time to take action against landlords renting to redundant ( Read SAFE) Businesses.I'm Finished Good Luck
ReplyDelete