Two local Asian restaurants that each opened about a year ago recently closed their doors.
Geisha, a Japanese restaurant on 77th street and Broadway that opened a little over a year ago, went away a few weeks ago, and our tipster Harriet says that Serafina has been using some of its outdoor seating. Serafina and Geisha are owned by the same company, but a rep at Serafina had no information about what might move into the space. Geisha did not respond to an email.
Quick and Quality Sandwich, a small restaurant and sandwich shop on 108th street between West End and Amsterdam that opened last year has also closed up. It was one of the few spots in the area that made Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches. Our tipster Linda sent this remembrance:
“They’d only been there about a year, and their menu was not vast, but everything we got from them was excellent and inexpensive. The proprietor was a very friendly and hardworking man; I remember stopping in the day he opened to welcome him to the neighborhood, and he was surprised and pleased. When we spoke last, several weeks ago, I asked how the business was doing and he was hesitant. I’m so sorry they are gone; the real star of the menu was their Vietnamese Spring Rolls, as close to the “real thing” (compared to the homemade ones I’ve had over the years) as I’ve ever found in a restaurant. I know he’d hoped to attract some business from local school kids, but that never happened in any meaningful way.
Restaurants on side streets have a huge challenge; this one’s a real loss for our neighborhood.”
Eating in Translation said in a post after the opening that the owners had noticed there were few local Vietnamese restaurants:
“The owners live in Bay Ridge; one had worked in Morningside Heights previously and noticed the dearth of Vietnamese chow. An Italian bakery in Jersey City supplies the bread, which nicely balances a brittle crust and a chewy crumb. Here it frames the QQ sandwich (above, $6.75), a combo of the shop’s classic and meatball banh mi, and a sardine banh mi (below, $6.25), centered around fatty pieces of fish. Each picture, do note, shows only the more photogenic halves of the full sandwiches.”
If you’ve seen any recent openings or closings, email us.
And they tell us for 5 years strait now “The economy is improving”….Its about time someone called this what is is…Bull…The economy is getting worse, little by little.
Serafina has already taken over all of the space that used to be Geisha, they just expanded into it. No place for anything else to move in there.
Its sad to see so many empty store fronts. Banks are sitting on heaps of cash refusing to lend, rents are beyond outrageous. The UWS used to have a personality, now its just rows of drugstores and banks…empty cold spaces. Wall St. may be doing well….but Main St. is broke.
Re: “Its sad to see so many empty store fronts….”
Not sure WHAT Avenue you walk on, but, from my personal observation, Broadway in the 60s, 70s, and 80s seems to be doing fine, as are W. 72, W. 79th, and W. 86th. Both sides of Broadway are bustling with people AND with commercial business. Sure there are banks and drugstores but there are also loads of restaurants and commercial establishments.
Not sure I’ve seen even ONE empty storefront on W. 72nd and all of our favorite restaurants are still there and still busy. Trader Joe’s, Zabar’s, and Fairway are as crowded as ever, and since the last two are quintessential UWS long-time businesses, their continued prosperity is a pretty good sign that the UWS is not in any real trouble.
Re: “The UWS used to have a personality, now its just rows of drugstores and banks…empty cold spaces.”
In reality, there is only ONE example of a city block dominated by banks and drugstores, and that is the east side of Columbus in the mid-70s where a Chase Bank and a Duane Reade occupy that entire building wall. Yes, the Chase windows are corporate dead-space, but the D/R windows are actually festive. And, besides, across the avenue is the usual hodge-podge of businesses typical of the older UWS.
And then there are the street vendors … food trucks … used (stolen?) book sellers… the Rescued Kitty people…and even the nut-job proclaiming 9/11 to be a government conspiracy to add flavor to the street scene. Any urbanist, even the late Jane Jacobs, would certainly approve.
Sorry to deflate your pessimistic rant, but the UWS still DOES have personality.
You want to see dearth of personality? Then try the Upper East Side’s Fifth and Park Avenues! But, if you go, be sure to dress nice!