A new French restaurant has opened, an organic take-out spot was renovated and reopened, and a frozen yogurt store closed.
Red Frog, the wine bar on Broadway between 70th and 71st street, has closed, and was replaced by a French restaurant and wine bar called FR about a week ago. FR serves French wines, New York state beers and a variety of food, including tartines, cheese plates, charcuterie, flat-bread pizza and small plates like escargot. The grilled cheese sandwiches do seem a wee bit pricey, at $14 for the cheddar and gruyere. Maybe they heard about the neighborhood’s famous $11 hummus. Thanks to Sayle for the photo.
Orange Leaf frozen yogurt at 85th and Amsterdam closed on Monday. Don’t panic — there’s a Tasti D-lite across the street, and a Pinkberry and Yogurtland a couple of blocks away. Thanks to Natalia for the tip.
Organic Avenue at 82nd and Amsterdam was closed for much of AUgust for renovations and it now has a new menu including “hot and cold wraps, grain bowls, soups, oatmeal with superfoods toppings, on-premise smoothies, single origin hot coffee, cold pressed iced coffee and exclusive loose tea blends.”
Not surprised by Orange Leaf. When they first opened (not that long ago), the place was clean, they had fresh toppings, and there was plenty of staff.
Last month, it was so empty that not even an employee was to be found (he hung out in the back). The lights were mostly off. Most of the machines didn’t work. The toppings were stale.
Between the scaffolding in front of the building, plus no delivery or other marketing (aside from their first month of operation), made the place a no-go.
Too bad. It had potential.
It wasn’t very good. It won’t be missed.
Totally agree with “whatsupduck”… The yogurt was actually quite good and the staff fairly friendly, right around the corner so we will miss it… but they had no signage, it was hidden under that perennial scaffold, short hours, and there was never anybody inside. With so many other yogurt places, what were they thinking?
So “RF” didn’t make it…shocker, why are there no bars on Broadway apart from inside restaurants? Maybe “FR” will….same owners? Do the opposite…
I phoned “FR” last week and they informed me that they are still open as Red Frog, but in the process of changing their name not to RF but to “Le Pif” which means colloquially “big nose”. They hope to complete the transition in several weeks.