By Scott Etkin and Lisa Kava
H Mart, a Korean supermarket chain with around 100 stores nationally, is reportedly opening at 210-20 Amsterdam and 69th Street, in the former location of a Rite Aid. H Mart was founded in 1982 by Il Yeon Kwan, a farmer’s son who left South Korea in the 1970’s and opened the first store in Woodside, Queens. The “H” in H Mart stands for “Han Ah Reum” meaning “one armful of groceries.” H Mart’s theme is “abundance,” The New York Times wrote in describing its variety of products, which range from produce to home goods. (Thanks to an anonymous mother-in-law and Dupont Dry Cleaners, next door to the new market.)
Song’E Napule, a pizzeria and trattoria, is having its soft opening at 464 Amsterdam between 82nd and 83rd Streets on March 20th, starting at 4pm. The Italian restaurant’s first location opened in 2015 in the West Village. The new UWS location replaces Mokum, a restaurant that closed in 2020. (Thanks to Leah, Kapil and Elaheh for the tips.)
Playa Bowls, the açaí bowl chain, is opening a new location on the corner of 110th Street and Broadway on March 18th at 11am. A Vitamin Shoppe used to be in the space. Playa Bowls, which sells smoothies, juices and fruit bowls, has more than 150 shops across the country and opened a location on the UWS last year at Broadway and 84th Street. (Thanks to Gary for the tip.)
Friend of a Farmer is opening at 68 West 71st street (between Central Park West and Columbus) at the end of March or first week in April, a representative from the restaurant told West Side Rag in an email. Friend of a Farmer was founded in Gramercy Park on Irving Place in 1986 as a “pioneer in the farm to table movement serving food with seasonally fresh and local ingredients,” the rep said. The Upper West Side location will be the third for the restaurant, which was supposed to open in November 2022 but was delayed. You can read West Side Rag’s interview with one of Friend of a Farmer’s owners here.
Park West Laundromat, a laundromat and dry cleaner at 101 West 84th Street (off Columbus) is under new ownership as of last week. The previous owners sold the business. West Side Rag spoke to the new owner, who said he plans to replace all of the washing machines and dryers with new ones that he has ordered. The new machines should arrive in about ten weeks, he said. He will keep the name the same. (Thanks to Michael for the tip.)
Skin Laundry, a salon that gives facials using “medical-grade lasers,” has opened at 250 Columbus between 72nd and 71st Streets. The company was founded in 2012 in Santa Monica, California, and now has more than 20 locations, including a few in NYC. Its facials are performed by registered nurses. The space was previously a Jeffrey Stein hair salon.
Broadway Pizza at 2709 Broadway between 103rd and 104th Streets has closed. The phone number appears to be disconnected and it is not accepting online orders. Broadway Pizza was established in 1992 and changed management in September 2020. A new pizza place might be moving in there – we will post an update when we have more information. (Thanks to Heather for the tip.)
Broadway Pizza…..30 years! Bye guys. Enjoyed your pizza.
FWIW, I saw workers in Bway Pizza right after everything was ripped out. They said there had been a leak upstairs and the landlord was making good on the damage by providing renovation.
We will see…..
HMart – heck yes, so excited for this.
HMart! Be still my beating heart!
Couldn’t agree more!!!
Yes, beyond excited!
Couldn’t possibly be more excited about the new H Mart. The branches in Koreatown and up by Columbia have wonderful produce and a tremendous selection of Asian foods and ingredients for which I always need to travel several miles. Finally. Something opening in the neighborhood that I’m unreservedly enthusiastic about.
Agreed. We go to H Mart at 110th all the time, for their fish, and Asian goods.
Welcome to the neighborhood H Mart!
Broadway Pizza closed and reopened with new owners in 2020, too. Hard to serve a run-of-the-mill slice with Sal and Carmine’s two blocks south and Mama’s Too two blocks north.
H Mart will be a great addition. Glad to have even easier access to less usual Asian foods and ingredients. Congratulations on their continued success!
There is an Asian Market on 72nd between Broadway/Amsterdam and West End. Around the corner from Trader Joes. A few doors down from the original Joseph Pharmacy. Haven’t been in there in a while, but they have some interesting things.
Yes. Shinbashi 72 is a lovely little shop with excellent service, but its main business is meals to go. Although they have a decent selection of Japanese condiments, their selection of fresh food is very limited.
Yep, that’s Shinbashi 72. It’s aJapanese grocery store.
Anyone know anything about the closing of Bardolino 2?
H Mart on 1 110th St. and Broadway is fantastic. All the people who work there are so knowledgeable and don’t just point you in the right direction when you ask for something, but take you there. This is especially helpful when there are multiple types and brands of every condiment. Japanese Korean, Chinese, etc., the cashiers are also very knowledgeable and when I can’t read something I ask them. I now live on 138, but it is a pleasure to make the trip down.
Another HMart is great news! I wish one of them were closer to my office at 88th.
Yay! So excited about H Mart!
Do we know when HMart is going to open?
I’m pretty excited about the H Mart. But as a nearby resident, I wonder with the new Morton Williams around the corner if that particular block will just be delivery trucks at early mornings hours every day. Spacing out supermarket seems like smarter city planning.
So glad Park West Laundromat is remaining open after Vivian’s well deserved retirement. Welcome to the owner!
Skin Laundry sounds like the place Buffalo Bill would take his dry cleaning.
Are there any news/plans to open Cafe Lalo on 83rd again ?
Not clear how H Mart will be able to unload deliveries at that location, particularly as there is a bike lane?
Major impact on traffic at a critical uptown juncture?
The old Lowe’s space has a set-back cargo area and would be perfect for grocery operations
Between new H Mart and Morton Williams, things will be tough for Fairway
The deliveries to the Rite Aid were an endless mess.
The old Lowe’s was a Food Emporium (iirc) before it was a Lowe’s and floundered, though I think it’d do much better as an H Mart than an expensive-ass regular grocery in an area that, at the time, had good cheaper grocery options.
Fairway has been terrible for years and years. It used to be our go-ro for fresh, fairly-priced produce, good other things, then the quality got terrible, the prices got out of control, the management/workers got uncaring about anything, and I don’t think we’ve bought anything from there in a year at least? Trader Joe’s and Fresh Direct.
Things have been tough for Fairway for a good long time now and they have no one to blame but themselves. They cut back on selection, they cut back on quality, they cut back on service. It’s almost criminal what happened to that store.
Fairway=Foodtown-they took ownership after failed VC expansion that gutted the chain of anything that made it unique identifiable and delicious. Then Foodtown eradicated what was left of cornucopia of produce, destroyed anything left that was edible in ready to eat/deli, ceased baking in house turning their bakery in to one you might find south of Jersey turnpike (all sugar grease), cut their awesome fresh meat &seafood Dept in 1/2 (replacing with all frozen dreck) soooo it’s a farce AND now facial recognition. So sad😪
Moxie,
Yes baffling and sad that Shop-Rite owners reduced the prepared food and produce and added so much packaged food especially baked goods.
On the plus side, they now sell pizza dough!
observe Pioneer on Columbus. same problem solved years ago.
Unfortunately so many of these places under endless scaffolding. Kills businesses as no one can see the signs. Hopefully our politicians will work on getting rid of all the scaffolding on the UWS.
That was the first thing I noticed. So hard for small businesses to begin with and then they have to deal with endless scaffolding as well.
Actually I think I saw that Manhattan borough president Mark Levine had a proposal on this. TBD if it goes anywhere…
What is the proposal?
See: https://abc7ny.com/scaffolding-bill-nyc-scaffolds-new-york-city/12962920/
all great news! Love H Mart! New restaurants sound wonderful!
I don’t understand the appeal of those big fruity bowls.
Try Playa Bowl’s kale-cucumber-mint-lemon juice. Yum!
Interesting that in a very short time, not one but two supermarkets will be opening up in the small triangle of Broadway and Amsterdam between 68 and 69th (Morton Williams) and 69th and 70th Streets (H Mart). Yay. Maybe these will take some of the folks away from Trader Joe’s at 71st-72nd, whose long lines and meh produce are a huge turnoff to shopping there.