By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, which has been closed since December 2022, is expected to reopen this summer under new management. The New York City Parks Department announced that the Boathouse will be run by Legends Hospitality, which also operates at Yankee Stadium, the Intrepid, and Circle Line, among other institutions across the city. The 10-year agreement also includes new funding from Legends: a $3.25 million capital investment and $250,000 for structural maintenance improvements. The Boathouse first opened in 1872 and brings back memories for many WSR readers.
Bespoke Brows, an eyebrow and eyelash salon, opened on February 21st at 100 West 72nd Street near Columbus Avenue. Services include tweezing, waxing, eyelash extensions, tinting, and lash lifts. Bespoke Brows, which has two locations on the Upper East Side, is owned by Rebecca Hoffman and her husband Ross. “We chose to expand to the UWS as we personally love that neighborhood,” Rebecca wrote in a direct message to WSR. “It has some of our favorite restaurants and architecture in the city, and we were hearing a lot of feedback from our guests that many of them were commuting across the park to visit us.” They’re open from 11am to 7pm on weekdays and 11am to 6pm on weekends. Appointments are by walk-in only. The space used to be Z’Baby, the children’s clothing store.
Ample Hills Creamery, the ice cream shop on Amsterdam between 85th and 86th Streets, has until March 1st to pay nearly $40,000 in backdated rent, according to a sign posted on the storefront. The shop has been closed since December when its parent company, Schmitt Industries, closed all Ample Hills locations until it raised more capital. The announcement, which says that locations will reopen on December 26th, has not been updated. Schmitt acquired Ample Hills in 2020, a few months after it filed for bankruptcy. (Thanks to Pierre for the tip.)
The Wallace Lounge opened on Valentine’s Day at 242 West 76th Street (Broadway and WEA), in the Wallace Hotel (the hotel opened in 2021). Wallace Lounge serves classic cocktails and wine as well as snacks and small plates such as salad, tuna nori, beef tartare, caviar brioche, sliders, potato croquettes and cauliflower tacos. Wallace Lounge is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 5 pm to 12 am. Tables can be booked online. (Thanks to Joy for the tip.)
Variazioni, the women’s clothing store with frequent sales, has opened on the corner of Broadway and 84th Street. Variazioni has multiple locations on the Upper West Side and throughout the city, some of which have been pop ups. This location will be permanent, a salesperson told West Side Rag. The store is open daily from 11 am to 7:30 pm, closing Sundays at 7 pm. It replaces an Aldo shoe store. (Thanks to Jan for the tip.)
Nails for Us, a nail salon offering manicures, pedicures and waxing, opened on February 15th at 221 West 79th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway. The space was formerly occupied by Voila Chocolat.
Sweets N Treats, a smoke shop with “exotic snacks,” has opened at 252 West 108th Street, near Broadway. The shop sells CBD, kratom and smoking paraphernalia, as well as international versions of munchies, such as Oreos and Kit Kats in flavors available in other countries. It replaces Zoya Cleaners. (Thanks to Tracy for the tip.)
Poulet Sans Tête, a rotisserie chicken restaurant, is opening at 590 Amsterdam between 88th and 89th Streets later this winter or in the spring, according to the company. The first location of Poulet Sans Tête (pronounced “pool-lay-sahn-tet) does takeaway-only from Left Bank, a New American bistro in the West Village. Unlike the location downtown, the new restaurant will have around 12 seats of indoor dining. The menu features whole and half-roasted chickens, along with several vegetable sides. It replaces One Stop Laundromat. (Thanks to Talia for the tip.)
WSR please do background checks on businesses before promoting them on your site. Sweets and Treats illegally sells cannabis and is less than 500 feet from 2 elementary and 1 middle school. They’ve taped their flyers all over our benches and city property. They’re a sheep in wolves clothing and should be shut down. The nerve to pretend to be a candy store and prey on young children. This business is a disgrace to the block. I’m all for legal cannabis selling and smoking but not for marketing to young children. Shame shame.
Shut this place down! They are clearly marketing to kids!
Agree, they also have about 100 5 star reviews on Google, similar content, all from 2-3 weeks ago. Very shady
I don’t know which is worse! Getting young children addicted to sweets and treats (SUGAR) causing obesity for sure! ….Followed by multiple death threatening illnesses. .. As was recorded during Covid.. Diabetes. Heart issues… And no one takes this seriously. Sad.
This is actually tragic. There are many parents and single mothers who work two jobs and are exhausted when they come home, and it can be difficult to pay close attention to your child all the time. Some tweens and teens from those families will be enticed by the pretty pink colors of this shop, and indulge in marijuana at a terribly young age. We all known the possible consequences of this as their years go into adulthood. This hurts me, because I can see lives literally being flushed down the toilet. AND FOR WHAT. For this disgusting business to open? Shame on all of us, myself included, for not trying to do something about this. I WILL HELP if someone has an idea how to close this place down!
Everybody wanted Pot! Pot! Pot! Ok, so now you’ve got it. It was predictable that many would try to make a buck off your desire to get high/stoned/baked.
Second thoughts? Too late!
I think that you mean, “A wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
Sweets N Treats, gee, what a valuable addition to the UWS retailscape. Now excuse me as I go fetch my rolling eyes out of the Hudson…
Great, the upper, upper west side gets a pot smoke shop.
Poulet sans Tete (chicken without a head in French) will be a great addition. Left Bank is a great restaurant and I have heard the chickens downtown are incredible.
I’m glad to see the openings outnumbering the closings, even if I am more excited about some openings than others…
it looks great, but $27 for a rotisserie chicken?? those must be some fancy birds!
$27 is twice the price of a whole chicken from Zabars. Is it twice as good?
Fancy rents..
It kind of sums up the new neighborhood dynamic: A dry cleaners becomes a pot shop (whose large logo appears to be a smoking monkey!), and a laundromat becomes a French-titled chicken cooker.
I begin to long for the days when everything was either a Duane Reade or a bank…..
What’s the over/under on how long it is before the permanent “Store Closing” signs go up in the window of Variazioni? Six weeks?
A permanent location?
That’s pretty funny.
Totally antithetical to their business model
I’m generally opposed to Gail Brewer’s efforts to combat weed bodegas but I have to agree making one look like a cotton candy store isn’t good.
And it’s not Ample Hills, it’s Ample Bills. That place is always teetering on the edge.
Still not understanding how and why there can be so many nail salons in Manhattan….what’s up?
Maybe things have improved, but in 2015 the NYT did a well reported series of investigative articles on the rampant exploitation involved in the nail salon business. Not all salons, but a shocking pattern of many, often multiples owned by unscrupulous operators, paid next to nothing for undocumented immigrant workers to work long hours, unprotected from hazardous chemical (for gel nails), often having fees for rent, gloves or other equipment, and other “apprenticeship” costs taken from what pay they did get. A very vulnerable large pool of young women are often workers in these salons. The article was followed by a wave of Labor Department inspections, new wage and hour posters in many languages, etc. But one can suspect that there are still bad operators. And of course they aren’t the only employers in the city like that.
Wherever you go if you have nails or brows done, cast an eye out for the wage and hour posters, and tip your manicurist directly in cash, at the least – not that that guarantees anything. I don’t know if there is an online directory listing violators that one can check.
“announced that the Boathouse will be run by Legends Hospitality, which also operates at Yankee Stadium, the Intrepid, and Circle Line, among other institutions across the city…”
All particularly known for their standout restaurant offerings!
I assume you are being sarcastic. Some of the premium dining areas at Yankee Stadium actually have excellent food that would be appropriate for a fine dining establishment – it is not all hot dogs and ice cream…
Maybe that’s the type of food & beverage service that will enable the Boathouse to remain open. Instead of snickering at the lack of a more ‘sophisticated’ approach, one should embrace a company that will likely make the Boathouse more accessible and affordable to a wider range of customers.
So basically you are saying why not slap up a fast food outlet in the middle of Central Park inside Calvert Vaux’s circa 1872 boathouse?
“Variazioni, the women’s clothing store with frequent sales” – LOL! This description made my day. It seems like every day you can get up to 75% off.
“The first location of Poulet Sans Tête…”
WAIT! “Poulet Sans Tête” ? Really?? Poulet Sans Tête means chicken without a head, right? So there was, previously, an unknown & even possibly unspoken cultural understanding or culinary custom or even a civil or criminal law (!) that chickens should ALWAYS be served WITH their heads still connected? Quelle triste!
And then what? There came this breakthrough moment where a bold, outside-the-box restauranteur said, “WAIT! Let’s take their heads off FIRST! DO NOT look a dead chicken in the eye; it’s bad for the digestion & don’t even BEGIN to consider the karmic reverberations set off by the accusatory eyes of a fairly (or even an unfairly) dead chicken… (or “yardbird” to quote Bird)?
And all the conservative graybeards responded with a horrified say what?! Sacre bleu!!! Non, non, non: très sinful, you shouldn’t even be allowed to SAY such sinful thoughts aloud but the restauranteur would NOT be denied… and now, many years of perseverance later, (S)he, whomever, is opening her/his headless but happy chicken haunt here, on the Upper West Side ?
Or what exactly?
Keep up the good job. We should appreciate getting all the facts even if we do not like a business — not have that info censored. I don’t think WSR is “promoting” anything. Just letting the readers know what is going up in the neighborhood. That is journalism.
Totally agree with this viewpoint. If people are that concerned that their children will be wrongly influenced, maybe they should work harder at being better parents. Being a parent takes sacrifice and it’s all too common that parents pay more attention to their own ride through life.
What about the kids that don’t have “better parents”?
As both a marijuana user and an aficionado of international candy, the new store sounds great. I think people tending their garments about “the children” forget that adults who are high also enjoy a sweet treat.
The beauty of New York is that it is ever changing, and surely the market will adjust to demand once this initial excitement of the legalization of marijuana subsides. A few smoke shops certainly don’t outweigh the vast improvement to many people’s lives, who previously could have been incarcerated or arrested, with lifelong consequences for both individuals and communities.
If this store is selling cannabis, it is not only operating illegally but could also be selling dangerous, untested product. That constitutes neither the “beauty of New York” nor “a vast improvement to many people’s lives.”
Yeah, omg, how can we forget the adults who enjoy a sweet treat?! Shame on us. I hope you can make through the week without buying candy at the same store where you buy your joints. Next to the cartoon monkey, I think we should add children’s toys to the window, to save some people time, just in case they need those, too.
And no, you couldn’t possibly have any idea what the future/lifelong impact on individuals and communities would be if we continue virtually unregulated marketing to children (by continuing to look the other way) . Clearly nothing has been learned from decades of openly marketing cigarettes everywhere, fully visible to children, or from the Juul teen murder debacle.
Sweets N’ Treats? This is New York City. Take the good with the bad. I do agree that it is marketing unhealthy choices to children but I choose to raise my children here so they can learn and be aware of stores like this. There are many places to live if one chooses a sanitized sheltered existence.
Great news about the Loeb Boathouse coming back! Hopefully the wonderful (and less pricey) outdoor-dining part will also return, especially for the benefit of the local bird population (grackles) who’ve learned to haunt the place waiting for treats and even occasionally grabbing a french-fry (oops, freedom-fry) from an un-guarded plate.
Just what we need – another nail salon! With the closing of Bed Bath & Beyond and Laytner’s Linen, there is nowhere to buy things like pillows and towels. But hey – if I need my nails done, I need only walk 50 steps in any direction! 🙁
One can’t get their nails done online.
It’s what the market will bear. People who go to nail salons go regularly. How often do you buy towels and pillows?
I enjoy how many of you complain about rent paying tenants. And the complaint about a $27 chicken…so don’t buy it, it’s not as if someone complaining about an article is going to even enter the establishment unless, of course, they are handing out samples which is the siren song for the shopping cart crowd. What is a better story is how many months of rent amount to $40,000 because it’s hard to generate that much cash flow selling ice cream.
Not Ample Hills…nooooo
best ice cream around