Monday, July 23, 2018

Flagship Diner forced to close to make way for apartment building


From PIX11:

Sunday was a bittersweet day for longtime customers of the Flagship Diner, which closed after decades serving up meals in Queens.

For 53 years, this 24-hour diner with a parking lot out front on Queens Boulevard was the center of so many peoples lives.

Customers would bring their children and grandchildren to the diner. They also made sure to come out to say goodbye.

For a year and a half, the diner’s owners have been battling with the landlord over a lease that was supposed to end next year so the property could be converted into a 7-story apartment building.

This day brought one of the owners to tears.

“We’re very sad, but it is relief that it is over,” Vincent Pupplo, co-owner of Flagship diner told PIX11. “There was a lot of pressure in the last year and a half so this is bittersweet.”

19 comments:

mary b said...

So sad. First the Georgia Diner on Queens Blvd and now the Flagship. I wish them happiness in their future whatever it holds.

Anonymous said...

A one story building on valuable land in a high density zone? C'mon!
What you don't hold the deed to you have no control over what happens.
Bittersweet? Queens land will be developed wherever it is underdeveloped.
A lot of small businesses are being taxed out of their properties.
Selling was the smart thing to do in 2018. How many breakfasts do you have to serve to pay your NYC real estate taxes alone?
Simple arithmetic. Little choice but to wipe your tears and move where the zoning forbids this....or watch your nabe become cannon fodder for overdevelopers.

Anonymous said...

Great, more people on Queens Blvd. This is what we need, more closing if small businesses for thins that people can't make a decent living off of.

Captain Al said...

Sadly dinners are going the way of egg cream serving candy stores and the dodo bird.

TommyR said...

Georgia was complete crap food-wise, honestly, unless you were older with diminished taste buds and liked everything covered in cheese. Sadly its food was awful for years.

I say that as someone who really enjoyed going there like 10 years ago (I live up the road). Nevada (formerly's Pops) down the boulevard is objectively better, same management, but better cooks. In any case I don't see the point in paying $15+ for really basic diner stuff so sadly I may not be going to Nevada as much either. This is the sort of grub you can cook at home fairly decently.

Nevada is the "new" Georgia, just a few blocks down. The owners sold out, good for them, that's the story. Did Crapster cover Ben's best closing? His prices were nutty but the food (if you liked that sort of stuff) was "good", I've been assured. Heart attacks aren't my thing so I didn't eat there frequently.

The truth of it seems to be that the classic diners just aren't what many actually WANT New Yorkers anymore - not even old ones who don't want "ethnic" food. A lot of bistros, cafes, brunch-bars...whatever you wanna call them....can make your typical eggs, burgers, pasta, etc just as good if not better, with a finer hand on the seasonings and without the eye-roll-inducing prices. It appeared as if many of the places closing were coasting by on reputation and letting quality slide way, WAY down (like Bamonte's in Williamsburg, or the Frost restaurant for example regarding classic Italian/Italian-American dishes).

Anonymous said...

The article doesn't mention that they were paid $3 million to beat it.

Anonymous said...

Between stratospheric real estate prices and kids that are not interested in taking over the Greeks are being forced to cash out and retire. Will there be any diners left in 10 years? Not many I bet.

Anonymous said...

Alas, the great Joni Mitchell said it best when she lamented in her sweet 1960s bohemian voice: ❝They paved paradise——put up a parking lot.❞

(Actually, a parking lot wouldn't be so bad, versus yet another cheap, ugly hideosity: an apartment tower to load more peasants (helped by the DemonRats of the DNC to lock in their cradle-to-grave government, taxpayer-funded terms of psychopathy), into the 'New & Improved' raw sewage plant that makes the ACTUAL Newtown Creek Waste Treatment Plant, located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, look like a perfume factory!)

Get outta Queens before everyone needs a rubber suit to escape the political raw sewage, y'all! We're already waste deep in the human sludge!

Anonymous said...

Alas the beardo, hipster yuppies and their progeny need room...Queens is no longer for the working people. Diner's will be a thing of the past soon. Everybody wants to go out for organic artisnal whatever. A long beloved diner, a nice mom and pop cofee shop, these things will die as more overpriced housing moves in to gentrify neighborhoods, leaving everyone who lives there behind. I'm starting to not be able to afford the stores in my neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

The diners can't afford the rents, and to afford the rents they are raising their prices, nobody wants to pay 13-18 dollars for a diner meal....

Anonymous said...

Sad to see the single-story building diners dying in NYC, but the economics don't make sense anymore. The Flagship had large portions for the price, but every time I went there in the last 7 years or so, the food was pretty low quality in terms of taste, texture, and presentation. If you want diners that aren't cutting corners just to give you a heaping portion, go to Long Island or NJ where parking is possible. You'll have plenty of options.

Anonymous said...

Sadly its time was limited anyway, as it was not a place serving Asian Fusion with craft beer served by out of towners with beards wearing overalls.

georgetheatheist said...

Edward Hopper's 1942 Nighthawks.

Anonymous said...

Boo hoo. It's a fucking diner. All diners are being developed! Move on.
Yes, it's not nice. But this is 2018.
Urbanization crawl is filling in Queens.

ron s said...

One story and parking lot in expensive, gentrifying Queens.......... they will be sold one by one. Neptune is next. Not sure about Belaire or Airline, but the same economics hold. Plus the diner demographic is getting older.

Anonymous said...

This town is becoming homogenized and pasteurized. It is no longer unique,no longer NYC.

Anonymous said...

Neptune IS next.
Maybe that "diner saver" in Forest Hills will "Save it".
LMAO!

Anonymous said...

I won't miss this overpriced diner.
Diners are good for breakfasts only. Dinner at a diner?
Same price as a real restaurant but poorer quality. Their bible size menus offer the best in reheated dinners.

Anonymous said...

Buy it and move it to your backyard.
LOL! Oh...lets LANDMARK it.
LMAO!