Bayside Burger King bites the dust

Dear QC,

In case you're interested, looks like a large retail development is going to replace the Burger King location near the Cross Island entrance on Northern Blvd. Safe to say this will generate more traffic here, but I am a little relieved it is not going to be residential.

Mike in Bayside

Apartment building to replace Flushing Burger King

From The Real Deal:

A 120-unit apartment building is being planned at 144-74 Northern Boulevard in Flushing, according to building permits filed Tuesday. The 14-story structure will measure a total of 59,000 square feet with 3,200 square feet of commercial space, according to the filing. In addition to ground-floor retail, plans call for a community facility on the second and third floors. There will be six apartments each on floors four through 12, and three apartments each on floors 13 and 14. The site — in a borough that’s seeing a rush of residential development — currently houses a 2,900-square-foot Burger King.

Bad behavior at fast food joints

From DNA Info:

A manager at a Jamaica Burger King hurled a napkin dispenser at a group of rowdy teens but hit a man ordering food instead, chipping his teeth, according to police and court records.

The incident took place on Nov. 6 around 11:30 p.m., when the 26-year-old victim was buying food at Burger King on Jamaica Avenue, near 160th Street, police said.

At the time, “a group of kids” was “throwing items around the restaurant,” according to the criminal complaint.

The manager, Nancy Fields, 27, of Richmond Hill, threw a napkin dispenser into the crowd but it hit the man instead. He suffered two chipped teeth and severe pain, according to court documents.

Fields was arrested on Dec. 5 and charged with assault and harassment. She is due back in court on February 3.

From the NY Times:

Several Korean-American groups on Tuesday called for the boycott of a McDonald’s restaurant in Queens where a Korean patron was struck this year by an employee wielding a broomstick.

At a rally in front of the restaurant, the groups’ leaders demanded that the restaurant and its parent corporation improve their employees’ ethnic sensitivity training and customer service.

It is the second time this year that Korean community groups have mobilized protests against a McDonald’s restaurant in Flushing, a neighborhood in Queens heavily populated by immigrants from East Asia.

In January, community leaders called for a boycott against a McDonald’s franchise on Northern Boulevard after managers called the police on several occasions to remove older Korean men and women who had turned the restaurant into a de facto clubhouse, hanging out for hours and ordering only cups of coffee. That dispute was resolved when a local official helped broker a détente between the owner and the patrons.

The new protest stems from a 10-month-old confrontation that is the subject of pending civil and criminal cases.

The patron, James Jin Kim, 62, claimed that the employee attacked him on Feb. 16 after he complained about the slow pace of service at the restaurant, a McDonald’s franchise on Main Street, a busy thoroughfare in the commercial heart of Flushing.

According to a lawsuit filed in April in State Supreme Court in Queens, Mr. Kim claimed that after waiting in line for 10 minutes to order a cup of coffee, he complained to the cashier. “Too much time,” he said, according to the lawsuit.

In response, Mr. Kim said, an employee behind the counter retorted, “We don’t serve coffee to people like you,” and added, “Get out of my restaurant!”

According to the complaint, Mr. Kim then took out his phone and recorded a video. The employee, Rooshi Sajjad, walked around the counter, grabbed a broomstick and struck Mr. Kim’s hand, “barely missing his head and eyes,” the lawsuit said.

And in Bayside fast food news, the Bell Blvd McDonald's location has closed.