Openings & Closings: Polestar, Skin Spa, Good Ramen to Eat, Lolo’s Taco Shack
A dealership for an electric vehicle company called Polestar is opening at the base of The Aire at 150 Amsterdam Avenue at 67th Street. It’s the first new business in that space in years (ever?). Polestar is truly international — a Swedish brand owned by Volvo whose cars are at least partially made in China. Polestar has two models — a hybrid with an electric-only range of 60 miles, and an all-wheel drive electric powertrain with a maximum range of 233 miles. The hybrid starts at $155,000 and the all-electric starts at $59,900. Thanks to Daniel, Wendi and Upper West Sider for the tips.
There appear to be other changes afoot at The Aire building too. Tipster Upper West Sider notes that the Flywheel fitness space in that building is now on the market and that Skin Spa has leased the former Spruce & Bond. The address is listed on their website now.
Good Ramen To Eat is a new tachigui-style restaurant, (meaning “eating standing up”) that just opened next to Good Enough to Eat at 522 Columbus Avenue at 85th Street. They call it “a homegrown night market experience with socially-distanced high-top tables under a heated tent for slurping and drinking…” The menu includes snacks like Gyoza ($8), Takoyaki ($8), and Char Siu Bao ($8)” as well as various ramen options ranging from around $16 to $18. It’s open daily from 5 to 9 p.m. Beginning February 1, it will be open from 12 to 9 p.m. Delivery and takeout available too. More info here.
A new restaurant called Lolo’s Taco Shack is opening at 2799 Broadway at 108th Street. It made Eater’s list of most hotly anticipated spots of the spring. It will serve “Mexican and Central American fare at a new restaurant. Slated to open for takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining in April, Lolo’s Taco Shack is the latest from restaurateur Leticia Skai Young-Mohan and chef Raymond Mohan, the wife-and-husband duo behind Harlem’s beloved Caribbean-Cape Cod seafood spot. For their sophomore project, the couple is focusing on street food from Belize, including garnaches and plantain-wrapped tamales, along with a menu of tacos whose fillings nod to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.”
I wish them success .
Gyoza $8.00
That’s a lot of money for a few frozen Gyoza.
I hope they’re making their own at that price!
Remains to be seen.
$18 ramen feels kind of tone-deaf right now. It’s pricier than all of the current takeout and delivery options in the neighborhood, and I don’t see how many people will flock to eat this standing up unless it’s from a great ramen chef.
Polestar?
Thought that the Aire commercial space – based on original development deals years ago – was limited to “health and educational” use? (to benefit the community)
There is now a special ed school on the second floor which replaced a nursery school.
Flywheel and Spruce & Bond on the street level represented the faux “health” usage.
Maybe B.B. knows?
I do know! There’s a Cyberknife At Perlmutter Cancer Center on the bottom floor in the area next to the school.m Those tenants fulfilled the requirement apparently.
Ignore the m, typo.
I was wondering if they got a special dispensation because electric cars are better for the environment.
I doubt it, a furniture store almost opened here if I remember correctly.
Don’t know which “B.B.” responded but it wasn’t I.
That Polestar space at 66th and Amsterdam has in fact never had a tenant. It will be nice to have a bright well lit occupant on that corner. Starbucks is across the street and two new restaurants are opening up the block on 67th. Good news all around for what has been a sleepy little block.
Before the Aire, the Red Cross was situated on 66th and Amsterdam and there were stores (bagel, pizza, Woolworth’s etc).
As 66th is a crosstown bus corridor and the fire station is on the corner, more traffic would not be good.
The “newish” pedestrian island has narrowed the street and hampers fire trucks making a right.
Dangerous IMO.
Delivery trucks doubleparked on Amsterdam and
special ed buses further complicate the traffic situation.
New restaurants will add to this.
IMO development should be severely limited on crosstown bus streets
The fact that a bus runs on 66th Street is not a big deal. It generally has a 10-minute headway. And Polestar is likely to generate far fewer customers per hour than most other commercial establishments.
How many people in Manhattan have a place where they can charge their electric car?
With a range of 233 miles you can easily make it to your house in the Hamptons to charge up.
So fancy with their electric vehicles, cellular telephones, indoor plumbing, and matching socks.
Most EV you see are less that the Mercedes, bmws, etc. you have seen on uws over last 4 decades or so.
Most NYC parking garages offer charging now.
If you can afford an electric car, you can afford a spot in a parking garage, or run a really long extension cord out of your apartment window.
I have a car in a spot in the garage in the basement of my building, but I’m 99.99 percent certain they wouldn’t let me plug a car in down there (even if I could find an electrical outlet).
There used to a be a Chevy Volt parked on W95th Street where the owners would run a wire out from the house and across the sidewalk but I haven’t seen that in a long time.
I don’t think there’s any question that the growth of electric vehicle sales will be accompanied by the widespread of charging options, either through common sense or legislation. No garage owner is going to be happy turning away an increasing number of such vehicles. Street parking will be a more interesting challenge, for a number of reasons.
Why do you assume people with An electric car can afford $900 a month for a garage? That’s willfully ignorant. Electric cars are not necessarily ultra luxury vehicles…
The Ramen is WAY too expensive. Getting ridiculous. Some of the best ramen in the city is only $10-11. Sadly I’ll likely avoid it even though I love ramen.
Really? Where? I hit up three different places in the city’s Ramen district and they’re all about that price. Would love to know where you Ramen.