Life in and around Hell’s Kitchen, NYC
We’ve really dropped the ball on this one! We mentioned the new bike store on 10th Ave earlier this week, then followed up with the name of the store. Now, turns out this is actually the bike store on 9th Ave’s new location!
The building is the fairly unique yellow one on the corner of 47th & 9th, which has had the faded bike paintings along the wall forever, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to them.
Yesterday we noticed the incoming bike store on 10th Ave, but weren’t sure of the name. Turns out they’ve put it on the door:
Danny’s Cycles have a couple of stores throughout NY state, including two in the city, and this outpost marks their expansion into the west side of Manhattan.
Looks like Citibike hasn’t killed independent bike shops just yet: a new bike shop is opening up on 10th Ave at 46th St in the ground floor of the new-ish apartment building there.
Based on the signage, it looks like it might be a branch of Trek Bicycle Stores, a bike store group that are currently contained to the midwest. The posters up for the “Go By Bike Month” look like the same campaign that group’s run in the past, and their logo is on it, so it’s probably a safe bet that this could be their New York outpost.
Either that, or they’re just really excited to be stocking that brand of bike.
Blue Dog opened a new store on W 50th St this week, between 8th & 9th Ave, and to celebrate are giving out free coffees, as discovered by Midtown Lunch.
Get in today or tomorrow for your free coffee!
(Insert some form of dog pun)
Seafood lovers rejoice: Claw, on 9th Ave, reopens today after briefly closing for renovations.
The spot has seen some fairly negative reviews in recent times, so hopefully the renovations help improve the situation.
The signage had been up for a while now, but just over a week ago the new Thai restaurant and bar “@NINE” opened between 42nd & 43rd, surprisingly enough on 9th Ave. The bright glowing “9” at the entrance is pretty interesting:
They’ve been incoming for a while now, with the storefront signage being up for several weeks:
You can check out the menu to see their offerings. They’re joining the dozen or so other Thai restaurants along the avenue. Still not 100% sure on the spelling of the name (@Nine? @9? At Nine?), but that massive “9” alone is sure to draw in crowds.
After being closed by the health department last week, Zigolinis on 9th Ave has reopened. Everything seems to be straight back to normal:
Right next door to the new Mamasita, another new spot is opening up. Named “White Oak”, we don’t know too much about it yet, other than that it’ll have a rear garden.
The spot was formerly “Fusion”, which closed around May of last year.
That block along 10th Ave is changing rapidly. First Mamasita, and now there’s White Oak coming shortly. The paint store a few stores up has closed, and the building next to that is being rebuilt. Exciting times.
Wrapping up our constant coverage, the Columbus branch of the NY Public Library finally reopened today after over two months away, to little fanfare. Good to have it back.
The new Mexican bar and restaurant on 10th Ave – Mamasita – has now opened, and they’re running a bunch of cheap drink specials to celebrate. We’ve got more information about it in our post from earlier this week.
The Columbus branch of the NY public library closed back in June, as reported earlier, while upgrading their HVAC system. The branch wasn’t scheduled to reopen until September, which has been a fairly major inconvenience to regulars. Good news, however, as they’re opening early!
The branch will be open again on Monday (August 12th), ready for all your reading needs.
Mamasita, a new Mexican bar and grill, is gearing up to open on 10th Ave. Taking over the store of the former Manhattan Marketplace, the spot between 54th & 55th claims to be “the home of the original 60oz margarita”.
Their menu is online, and has all the staple Mexican dishes. They’re just one block over from the neighborhood favorite El Centro, as well as a handful of other Mexican restaurants and bars, but there’s not really any on 10th Ave near them.
A close-up on that “unique” sign:
Their website is currently blank, so expect to see that come to life as they get closer to launching. And of course, they’re on Seamless.
Here’s the same storefront just over a month ago:
We’ll check back again when they’re open and churning out burritos.
This week, a new outpost of Pie Face, the Australian pie store known for their excellent savory pies and great coffee, opened up at the corner of 35th & 9th Ave.
They’ve been running spin-the-wheel promotions all week, so if you grab a pie you can win a coffee or sweet pie to go with it:
Midtown Lunch have more details on the pies. Make sure you stop by this week for all the festivities, and to experience “authentic Aussie cuisine”. They’re open 24 hours, so they should make a popular 3am snack destination.
Pie Face is slowly taking over the area – they’ve also got a store around Penn Station just a few blocks east of the new location, and another just south of Bryant Park a few further, as well as one further north at 53rd & Broadway.
Crispin’s, a new restaurant on 10th Ave, opened last week:
They’ve been incoming for a while now – the sign out the front has been up for months, and a liquor license application for the location was filed back in February, so it’s good to see them finally up and running!
The reviews so far seem pretty positive – it looks like it’ll be a great addition to the area.
A new restaurant/wine bar, Marston’s, is coming to 53rd St. The name is still tentative, apparently, but they’ll be taking over from the recently-closed Swizz – a seemingly-liked restaurant and fondue spot:
The spot is almost next door to the Broadway Comedy Club, so it’s easy to imagine a decent amount of dinner-and-a-show customers coming through.
Their application to take over the license from Swizz was discussed at the CB4 meeting on Tuesday, so depending on how that went, we can expect to see them moving in soon.
