Life in and around Hell’s Kitchen, NYC
It looks like the pizza bar Zigolini’s on 9th Ave has joined the list of Fall closed restaurants. They haven’t been open for at least the past few days, and they’ve even taken their signage down from above the store:
Previously:
Doing a quick check, their Twitter and website are still up, but it looks like their Facebook page has been deleted.
It’s been a rough few months for Zigolini’s – they were shuttered by the health department for a week back in August, then closed for a bit during September for renovations. Their former neighbor Phở 66 also closed this year, and no new tenant have taken their place yet, so this strip will start looking a bit bare with Zigolini’s gone too.
It’s Comic Con time! Running all weekend at the Javits Center, thousands of costumed fans have descended on the area. It’s been hard to miss the various TV, movie, and comic book characters wandering the streets:
Rather than brave the crowds ourselves to get photos, we’ll just lazily link to some shots from people committed to being there. Check out photos here.
It’s been running since Thursday, with today seeming to be the peak, so it should start winding down for the last day tomorrow before the 130,000 or so attendees pack away their costumes and return to their “real lives”.
Get ready for the film crews, “Moonquake” is filming around the W 50s tomorrow. Moonquake is apparently the codename for a remake of Annie. The phone number posted has links to Columbia Pictures, so there’s credibility to that. They took over the East Village last month, under the name “Moonquake Lake”.
According to the internet, Quvenzhané Wallis will be playing Annie, and Jamie Foxx will play Benjamin Stacks.
A new outpost of the cosmetics brand Kiehl’s will be taking over from the former bike store at 47th & 9th, as the subtle plywood put up recently hints at:
This marks yet another chain1 opening up on 9th Ave, joining your Chipotles, American Apparels, etc. If this steady march frightens you, at least take some comfort in the fact that “they” haven’t yet make their way over to 10th Ave (although you could say the incoming monster developments along 10th & 11th are doing just as good a job).
Back to the present, the bike store previously at the location closed down at the start of last month, semi-relocating to 10th Ave, and less than a month later there’s a new tenant. Meanwhile, spots like the former Subway store and closed sushi place have sat empty for months. Those corner spots are irresistible.
Oh, and they’re hiring.
Although Kiehl’s originally started out as a single store in the East Village a century and a half ago, they’ve since become part of L’Oréal, and so that combined with their 250+ stores should be enough to count them as a “chain”. ↩
The plywood has come down outside the rapidly-approaching Green Rancho, revealing a much classier exterior than the previous Lime Jungle:
Here’s a “sneak peek” inside:
The plywood went up only a few weeks ago, after months of silence from the site, and it’s already come back down again after a massive appearance transformation. Here’s our previous coverage.
With the exterior almost ready and the interior filling up inside the store, it looks like we can expect an opening very soon. The big question is whether they stick with that slogan of “Mexico history & guacamole is our passion”.
A quick reopening note: Bali Nusa Indah, on 9th Ave between 45th & 46th, has reopened after being temporarily shuttered by the health department, as noticed by DNAinfo.
They’re Manhattan’s only Indonesian restaurant apparently, so an entire country’s cuisine is now back on the menu!
A quick update and the final chapter in the Bar Nine Renovations Saga – they’re having their reopening celebrations tonight:
They originally planned to reopen Monday, but off by two days isn’t bad, especially considering the entire renovation took about a week.
Another day, another closure. Kiran Indian Cuisine, just west of 53rd & 9th, looks like it’s shuttered its doors. Some of their furniture was dumped on the sidewalk over the past few days, and their usually-bright lights haven’t been on lately.
The spot has had its ups and downs, including scoring a C on their health inspection earlier this year (which was later upgraded to an A). Regardless of what’s in store for this place in the future, we’ll be interested to see if their year-round-Christmas lights stay up.
Driving around outside the bus terminal:
Hell’s Kitchen can look forward to our very own outpost of the Greek restaurant Snack Taverna. The store is taking over the checkerboard store formerly home to Sandwich Planet on the corner of 39th & 9th, bringing their Greek menu to the area around Port Authority.
The fitout of the store is now fully underway. Lots of dust flying around with the construction:
They’ve been steadily making progress over the past few weeks. Here was the scene last month:
Snack Taverna has been part of the West Village for a decade, so this store will be opening on their “10 year anniversary” of sorts. DNAinfo have more from July about the incoming restaurant. Their plan is to open either this month or November, just in time for winter.
When we saw Havana Libre had taken over from Casa Havana, we mentioned how they chose to get rid of the “unique” street-facing deli window, opting instead for the traditional folding doors. Over the weekend the paper came down from the windows, and they’ve taken the unique-street-facing-part to a whole new level.
Less exciting, but addition to the half of the Chevrolet, the menus were also posted, and we got a glimpse at the interior of the store.
It should be open any moment!
Fall really is the season of change. Along with the numerous new places opening in the coming months, there’s also a couple of closures that have appeared suddenly. The latest one to join this group is Chanpens, a Thai restaurant at the corner of W 51st St & 9th Ave, as spotted by nearby neighbor George Stoll.
They’ve already cleared out all the furniture from the store:
Chanpens closure was almost in sync with across-the-intersection neighbor Go Sushi, who also shuttered in the last week. Any more and we’ll have a trend. Fortunately there’s no shortage of Thai food on 9th Ave, so it shouldn’t be too hard for regulars to find a new place to get your pad thai fix. Nothing will be able to beat that super modern signage though.
Thanks George!
There’s been a cheap temporary sign up for a few months now at the empty store on 9th Ave between 38th & 39th, but now they’ve unveiled the official signage for the incoming Alquimia Bistro & Bar.
For the last several months here’s what’s been “teasing” bypassers:
I’m sure the place will be popular once the super-historic Galerie 515 across the road is completed.
Despite today’s terrible weather (tornado watch?), the sunset this evening was spectacular:
