Blaze destroys notorious riverfront restaurant where The Blaz took bribes

LIC Post 

A fire tore through a well-known shuttered waterfront restaurant in Long Island City early Tuesday, Oct. 10.

The blaze broke out at 4-01 44th Dr. — the site of a dilapidated former restaurant called Waters Edge that sits atop a barge — and the FDNY responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call at around 6:45 a.m. an FDNY spokesperson said.

Video footage posted online shows smoke billowing up from the two-story building while flames can be seen through the large windows facing 44^th Drive on the second floor, above the lobby area.

Around 60 firefighters from 12 units responded to the scene and brought the blaze under control just after 7:30 a.m., the FDNY said. At least two tower ladder trucks were put into operation, the footage shows.

The Queens/LIC Post arrived on the scene minutes after the fire had been extinguished. Several of the lobby windows facing 44^th Drive were smashed as well as windows facing the East River. The lobby area had extensive fire damage.

It is unclear what sparked the blaze, with the FDNY spokesperson saying the cause of the fire is under investigation. However, one firefighter at the location told the Queens/LIC Post that the abandoned restaurant was being used by homeless people, and they may have started the fire by accident.

There were no reported injuries.

 The abandoned restaurant, which first opened in 1980, has been closed for years and has a storied life having once stood as one of Long Island City’s most preeminent dining destinations with a spectacular view of midtown Manhattan.

It hosted countless weddings, birthday bashes and political fundraisers — including scandal-hit dinners for former mayor Bill de Blasio – and in April, the Queens/LIC Post reported that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) planned to demolish the structure once it received the necessary funds. DCAS said it would take eight months to destroy the structure after the funds are received.

In 2008, restaurateur and philanthropist Harendra Singh and his Singh Hospitality Group acquired the premises.

But by the early 2010s, Singh began getting into financial difficulty and was reported to have owed the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in back rent on the Water’s Edge barge lease.

DCAS was threatening to terminate the lease and Singh had also failed to pay for renovations to the pier where the barge was docked, which the agency said were required by his lease, according to THE CITY.

Singh held two fundraising events for Bill de Blasio at Waters Edge in the hope of currying favor with city hall: one in 2011 when de Blasio was still public advocate; and the second in October 2013 shortly after he beat former city Comptroller Bill Thompson in a runoff before taking the general election.

De Blasio’s campaign did not pay for the events until it forked out a check for $2,613.01 after the city’s Campaign Finance Board began auditing the campaign. Until that moment, the events were essentially an illegal free gift from Singh to de Blasio that the mayor’s campaign had failed to disclose to the public as required, according to THE CITY.

When he got into office, De Blasio instructed one of his top aides to step in with regard to resolving Singh’s lease. But before the matter could be sorted out Singh was arrested in September 2015 on federal corruption charges in Nassau County unrelated to the Water’s Edge restaurant.

 

The Greek Restaurant Shanty Ruin Of Austin Street

Crappy told me about this shanty, apparently the roof couldn't persevere under the primal forces of Mother Nature or maybe Zeus. But like every other decrepit shanty, it still remains taking up valuable parking space, which is what the regulatory captured Department of Transportation Alternatives wants.

 

Auburndale noise terror

 

 QNS 

 Hundreds of Auburndale residents and small business owners rallied on Saturday, Oct. 16, for the shutdown of a rowdy neighborhood lounge that has been disrupting the quality of life in the area for the past eight months. 

Residents were gathered outside of Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC), located at 192-08 Northern Blvd., where they voiced their frustrations about inappropriate illegal activity occurring at the lounge. 

Ever since Kloud Tequila Grill opened, Tsourapis says her family’s life has been a “living nightmare.”  

“We can’t sleep because of the loud music and screaming until 5 a.m. every day. The constant noise, drag racing, garbage and sexual activity right outside of our home is affecting our health and neighborhood safety,” Tsourapis said. “Even though they’re operating without a liquor license, none of our many 311 complaints or calls to the police have made a difference. City Hall must shut down Kloud Tequila Grill now."

 According to residents, the incidents at Kloud Tequila take place on a daily basis, seven days a week, much of it occurring from midnight to 3 a.m. over the past eight months.

Despite numerous complaints to government agencies and law enforcement, residents say nothing has changed. 

The Auburndale Northern Association has launched an online petition for an investigation into the bar.

Dosung Andrew Jung, who represents one of the many small businesses on the block, said they’re concerned about the way Kloud Tequila Grill is conducting their business.

“Every day, we find garbage, vomit, empty liquor bottles scattered around the block,” Jung said. “Our safety is put at risk with drag racing by intoxicated patrons. Our quality of life is ruined with unacceptable noise from Kloud and sex acts inside parked cars at night. We demand City Hall shut down Kloud now!”

 Change.Org

We demand an immediate investigation into Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC), located at 192-08 Northern Boulevard, Queens, NY 11358.  

We support the local residents and small business owners in the neighborhood surrounding the block between Northern Boulevard and 45th Avenue (north-south), and 192nd and 193rd streets (east-west) in Queens, New York, who have suffered greatly from the actions of Kloud Tequila Grill (Silk Hookah Lounge LLC) on a daily basis, seven days a week, from midnight to 3 o’clock in the morning, over the past eight months.

Reported incidents include illegal sale of alcohol without a license, sale of alcohol to intoxicated patrons, loud music, littering and vermin, public urination, the construction of unsafe building structures without a permit, drag racing and drunk driving, violations of COVID-19 executive orders, public sex acts, etc.  We believe many of these incidents constitute serious violations of New York State and City Law, are potentially life-threatening, and must be immediately addressed.

Despite numerous complaints to government agencies and law enforcement over the past eight months, nothing has changed. 

We have documentation of these incidents, including dozens of 311 service requests, and can provide much more, including photographs, video, and eyewitness testimony.

Falafal Hebdo

 

 Queens Chronicle

A beloved falafel restaurant in Astoria has been getting sha-warmed by Saudi loyalist trolls in response to its owner’s criticism of the crown prince.

King of Falafel & Shawarma, a restaurant with a brick-and-mortar site at 30-15 Broadway and food trucks in Manhattan and Astoria, got over 37,000 scathing one-star reviews within a span of 30 hours earlier this week, according to its owner, Freddy Zeideia.

Zeideia said the reviews came from trolls who targeted KOFS after @Columbuos, a pro-Saudi social media account, shared a video of the restaurant’s social-distancing sidewalk decal with pictures of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and an invitation to step on their faces.

The KOFS patron who originally filmed the video made an inflammatory attack on the people of Saudi Arabia in Arabic after entering the restaurant, according to a translation of the video that a Saudi Arabian Twitter user posted online.

The pro-Saudi influencer shared a link to the restaurant’s Google page and encouraged his followers to give it a one-star rating.

Zeideia, who is originally from the Israel-occupied Palestinian West Bank, has not shied away from openly displaying his political beliefs. In response to the Israel-Hamas violence in May, he displayed a Palestinian flag in the front window.

Earlier in the summer, he installed a similar floor decal with Andrew Yang’s face after the mayoral hopeful pledged solidarity with Israel in the conflict.

The floor piece that upset the influencer was aimed at criticizing the Saudi Arabian-led war in Yemen and the UAE’s military intervention in Libya’s civil war. Zeideia said that the trolls were also aggrieved that he had posted a Pride flag honoring the LGBTQ awareness month of June.

Contacted by the Chronicle last Friday morning, Zeideia was remarkably unflustered by the attacks on his business.

“I’m not gonna stress myself. I know my Astoria. I know my people out here and they know who we are. We’ve been serving them for the last 20 years,” he said.

Ephemeral Big Bow Wow

 

 

Queens Chronicle

 Several generations of Howard Beach got a heavy dose of nostalgia and reconnection last week after two neighbors wrangled their old aquaintances to celebrate a renowned hangout from their youth: The Big Bow Wow.

“If you grew up in the ’70s – you would know that Howard Beach was known for having ‘The Big Bow Wow,’” Lynn Stancati, the reunion organizer, wrote to the Chronicle.

The burger, roast beef and seafood restaurant, which spread over a block of Cross Bay Boulevard contained a game room replete with pinball machines, seated racing cars, Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. It had charcoal burgers, hot dogs, pizza and french fries for the kids and hot roast beef and gravy sandwiches, chili, soups and a clam bar for the adults.

It also had another neighborhood fixture, Charlie Coleman, known as “Charlie the Cop,” a security guard who would dispense coins to kids for the games.

Both a stern authority figure and a sympathetic ear for the kids who were gossiping about teen drama, Coleman, now 80, played an important role in the lives of the teens who would spend as much of their waking hours as they could in the arcade, starting around the age of 12.

“Whenever our parents would come looking for us, they would ask Charlie. And he would know but he would never rat us out,” said Stancati.

Stancati partnered with her childhood friend Toriann Maiorino to put together the reunion, which was held at the rooftop bar of Vetro on Crossbay Boulevard, in part as a way to show their appreciation for the role “Charlie the Cop” played in their lives.

Coleman, who lives in Jamaica, came to the reunion with several family members. There have been several Bow Wow reunions over the past several decades, and Coleman said that he’s stayed in regular contact with a lot of the neighborhood kids after it closed down.

“A lot of them call me and I call them,” he told the Chronicle at the reunion.

In order to show her appreciation, Stancati organized a cash raffle and sold commemorative T-shirts to benefit Coleman, raising $800 that she said would go toward funding a trip for him to visit his family in Alabama.

Ridgewood residents feel the spectre of gentrification after "progressive" developers open expensive restaurant on a street corner

 

 

Grub Street

 Luisa’s family has lived in the same apartment building on Onderdonk Avenue in Ridgewood since she was 10 years old. Now, she worries that time will come to an end. Last year, when Luisa (who asked to only use her first name) found herself working out of the apartment, she started to notice how quickly changes in the neighborhood were happening. Local property values had skyrocketed, and she says her landlord has said, many times, she’s thinking about selling. “If she were to put it up for sale, we would be evicted in a matter of just closing your eyes,” Luisa fears. “We don’t have a lease,” she says, “so there are very real concerns that I do have.”

While she says there’s no immediate threat to her family, she’s worried that may change any day now. She spent the summer listening to the drilling and construction along Onderdonk Avenue, including for Rolo’s, a new restaurant from a trio of former Manhattan chefs. “It was just this nightmare for me,” Luisa says, “because I knew what was happening.”

Rolo’s is the kind of low-fuss, New American place you might expect from four veterans of Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern who wanted to open a casual, outer-borough dining room. Rolo’s sells eight kinds of pickles, pineapple-rum Negronis, homemade focaccia, fresh pasta, and containers filled with slow-braised lamb ragù. A recent review in The New Yorker said it offered “a taste of New York.” Howard Kalachnikoff, one of the chef-partners, calls it, “Just a simple, neighborhood restaurant, focused on cooking over a wood-burning grill.” The goal of opening, he explains, is “to put down some roots and then see what happens after that.”

Pandemic dining restrictions meant Rolo’s opened first as a market with only takeout and delivery. A few weeks ago, the owners put out some tables, and they have a warm-weather streetery structure in the works (hmm, a sign NYC open streets are being weaponized for privatization?-JQ LLC). Eventually, Kalachnikoff imagines diners dropping in a couple of times each week, and he wants to stay in business for a long time. Ben Howell, another partner, adds, “nothing would make us happier than if some of the young adults that come here now come in in 15 years with their kids, when their kids are graduating.”

Due to the pandemic, Rolo’s opened in January as a grocery store, selling everything from single-origin spices to De Cecco pasta, and takeout business. 

Indeed, some neighbors don’t see any drawback to the arrival of Rolo’s or the building’s renovation. “I’m not aware of any negatives,” says Paul Kerzner, a 49-year member of Community Board 5. “I walked into that building about a month ago when that was finished,” he recalls. “I was tickled to death when I saw that the graffiti was coming down and the boards that were up were coming down, and we’re going to get glass back again.”

But for others, Rolo’s is something more than a destination for a quiet weeknight meal. “I’m so excited because I like this kind of food,” says Laura Duarte, who, with her siblings, opened her own restaurant, Las Chilangas, just before the pandemic hit. “But the way we think about this type of restaurant opening … I know the rent is going to increase so much.”

Queens Is Burning: Restaurant owner torches his business

Patch 

 The owner of Ignited Restaurant & Lounge in Astoria has been arrested on a federal arson charge, after fire marshals accused him of starting fires that had the Steinway Street enterprise living up to its name.

New Jersey man Asif Raja stands accused of using a flammable liquid to set a series of fires inside his hookah lounge the night of Aug. 4, according to the FDNY.

Surveillance video released by authorities shows a man dousing tables and chairs with the liquid, then running as they burst into flames.

The building's automatic sprinkler system put out the fires before firefighters even arrived, the FDNY said. No one was hurt.

"We are extremely grateful that no one was injured during this incident and for the collaboration between all the law enforcement agencies involved in bringing this individual to justice," Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said. 

 Authorities suspect that Raja, 54, set the fires due to financial woes related to the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Post reported.

The business has been closed since March, according to an Instagram post.

A post shared by Ignited Restaurant & Lounge (@ignitedlounge)

The evolution of New York dining

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A post shared by Trattoria L’incontro (@trattoria_lincontro)

Eric Adams held donor/vector fundraiser dinner at a restaurant in South Richmond Hill

 

NY Daily News 

 Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams held an in-person fundraiser for his mayoral campaign at a club located inside a COVID “yellow zone” in Queens on Saturday.

“I thank you, brother Ross, for opening this amazing place, this beautiful place ... allowing us to come in and to host this event,” he said inside Ross Code Lounge in the South Richmond Hill neighborhood.

“This is going to be my hangout, a safe, comfortable place where people can come and enjoy themselves,” he added.

The club’s 117-15 101st Ave. address is located inside one of the areas determined by the state to be a COVID “yellow zone,” according to an online map of the zones.

Restrictions in such zones include a 25-person limit on “mass gatherings.” Asked Sunday how many people attended the fundraiser, Adams’s campaign said there were eight people, adding that they were required to wear masks and practice social distancing. 

Including Adams and his muscle and the photographer in the pic there, there are 3 people over the limit.

Asked why Adams was holding in-person fundraisers during the pandemic, his campaign spokesman Evan Thies said in a phone call, “My question to you is, why not do that? … Who is saying that we should not be doing that besides you?

“It’s been a pandemic now for eight months and people have been doing in-person events all across the city every night,” he added.

In an email statement, Thies said, “Eric strongly agrees with New York State’s science-based approach to the coronavirus, and the campaign will continue to follow the law and best health and safety practices.

“As a former dishwasher, Eric knows how important it is to the families of working people to support our small businesses while the State still deems it safe to do so,” Thies added.

The event was billed online as a “meet & greet fundraiser” with a “maximum contribution” listed as $2,000.

“We’ve out-raised the whole field,” he crowed. “Nobody has more money.”

 Yeah, Adams is going to be great mayor of the people. Four more years of defiant entitlement and hypocrisy and surely incompetence as the donor class continues to dominate policy and civic services distribution.

 

 

London Lennie's owners are selling their property

 

QNS


The latest catch of the day for real estate developers in Queens could be the site of London Lennie’s Restaurant in Rego Park.

An advertisement on the real estate website Zillow that surfaced on May 23 listed the beloved eatery at 63-88 Woodhaven Blvd. as being “for sale or lease” with a $6.5 million price tag. Salvatore Crifasi of Crifasi Real Estate is handling the transaction.

Even with the site being on the market, London Lennie’s remains open for business, serving luxurious seafood lunches and dinners to hundreds of guests each week.

The Zillow description notes that the one-story property is “a rare development site.” The restaurant itself occupies 6,000 sq. ft. of the 10,700 sq. ft. lot, but the existing residential zoning and commercial overlay could allow a developer to erect a more than 22,000 sq. ft. building — nearly four times the size of the existing eatery.

“This redevelopment opportunity provides developers the ability to capitalize on tremendous demand in an area with a scarcity of developable [sic] land,” according to listing, which indicated that it could be perfect for a “mixed-use project with the potential to include … medical, retail, residential, community facility, hotel and/or office.”

The restaurant’s owner also owns the property through a holding company listed on city records as RP Seafood LLC. Crifasi told QNS the owner is keeping his options open about whether to sell the restaurant and its property, or lease the building to a tenant for uses other than a restaurant.

D.A. candidate Katz holds campaign fundraiser at mob connected restaurant

 

NY Post

Aren’t these the guys she’s supposed to be putting away?

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz boosted her campaign for district attorney by holding a fund-raiser at a mobbed-up eatery in Rego Park, The Post has learned.

Sources said Katz partied with supporters Tuesday night at the Barosa Italian restaurant, which is co-owned by reputed Genovese associate Frank Barbone.

Barbone, 47, has twice been convicted in illegal-gambling cases, including one in Queens for which he served a 1 ¹/₂ to 4 ¹/₂- year prison term.

He’s currently on supervised release in the other — in which he admitted to a Manhattan federal judge that gangsters might drop by his place from time to time.

Barone was present at the restaurant during Katz’s fund-raiser, for which tickets cost $150 each, sources said.

“Shouldn’t she know where the owner is a mobster?” a source wondered.

In 2016, Barbone was among 46 reputed gangsters busted in what the feds called a “sprawling and long-running racketeering conspiracy” that involved four of New York’s “Five Families,” as well as the Philly mob run by Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino.

Prosecutors said Barbone ran an illegal sports-gambling operation with reputed Genovese member Alex Conigliaro, with whom he was also convicted in 2000 on state gambling charges.
 
In 2017, Barbone struck a plea bargain that got him a one-day, time-served jail sentence, and three years supervised release.

 Katz campaign spokesman Grant Fox said: “It’s surprising that Melinda’s opponents, who are tripping over themselves claiming to be reformers, are floating this kind of half-baked opposition research to hurt someone who paid his debt to society and now runs a popular restaurant that has hosted events for candidates on both sides of the aisle.”

Dumb DOT decision destroying small businesses

From Eyewitness News:

A group of small businesses in Queens are furious that a construction project outside their doors is delayed, costing them customers.

Cars seem to sit forever idling away the time, waiting for the traffic agents to finally wave them through.

The construction started more than a year ago, and a few months ago work just stopped. Nobody knows when it might start up again.

The Department of Transportation issued a statement about the construction project:

"As you know, safety is our number one priority. Mugrose was determined to be the lowest responsible bidder per NYC PPB rules, and their experience and qualifications were deemed satisfactory per NYC PPB rules. Mugrose also explained their bid numbers to DOTs satisfaction; therefore they were awarded the bid. The contractor was in default of the terms of performance in the contract, and the contractor's bonding agency is in the process of rebidding the project to a contractor who will complete remaining work. Discussions continue with all involved parties and a new schedule will be submitted after the new firm is under contract."


From PIX11:

“The contractor was suspect because of not having done contracts like this, not having the staff to do this, we felt,” Queens City Councilman Robert Holden said. “When you have a low bidder that’s $3 million less on a $20 million job, that has to send up a red flag.”

Tony Nunziato, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, said the DOT "should have done more research on the contractor."

Mugrose Construction, based in West Caldwell, New Jersey, is listed on some websites as primarily a home builder with a staff of five employees.

Two New Jersey bridge projects it’s worked on were both late in being finished.

In the meantime, conditions are deteriorating on the 100-year-old bridge above the Long Island Railroad tracks.

Concrete is buckling and crumbling, and metal plates cover the many holes in the pavement. The replacement of the bridge deck is an emergency, according to the DOT.

Local officials say they’ve heard that for years.

“It is a nightmare and it's ongoing,” Holden said. “I’m calling for an investigation.”

We’ll keep you posted.

Pols want to monitor restaurant inspectors

From the Times Ledger:

Queens lawmakers and small business owners gathered Tuesday at Flushing Town Hall to introduce a new bill aimed at protecting restaurants from unfair inspection practices.

State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), state Sen. Jose Peralta (D- East Elmhurst), Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Howard Beach) and Assemblyman Clyde Vanel (D- Queens Village) said the bill would help lessen the amount of burdensome fines levied on small businesses that can not handle them.

The bill is intended to reform the New York restaurant health investigation system, according to Kim. As a teenager Kim saw his parent’s grocery store go bankrupt and close after suffering from what he termed overregulation, excessive fining and high rents.

According to Kim, the bill, titled “The Restaurant Owner Whistle Blower Protection Act” will establish an independent oversight body to receive complaints about health inspectors. Complaint intake will create a hotline and website in multiple languages, including Arabic, Bengali, and Chinese. Kim said the if the bill passes, the city must provide an annual summary report on total number of independent complaints, what type of complaints and investigative findings. Finally, restaurants owners will be given three opportunities to deny the inspections on sitet and request a new inspector. Every time the restaurant owner will pay a fee, $75 for the first denial, $150 for the second denial and $250 for the final denial.

Developer decides not to build huge project on restaurant row

From DNA Info:

The owner of a Forest Hills building housing several restaurants on the neighborhood's “Restaurant Row” has halted his controversial plan to replace it with a new 12-story mixed-use development, according to his lawyer.

The plan, which would have replaced the current 1-story complex at 107-18 70th Road that is home to several popular restaurants, including The Grill, Cabana and MoCA Asian Cafe, sparked numerous protests among locals and business owners including an online petition on Change.org started last year.

Adam Rothkrug, an attorney for the developer, confirmed on Friday through his secretary that “he is not proceeding with the application at the present time.”

Several restaurant owners said that they were recently told by the developer that he decided to halt the project because of the strong community opposition to the plan.

More mega-towers planned for Queens Plaza

From DNA Info:

Developer Tishman Speyer released a rendering and update Monday on its massive, two-tower office and retail complex planned for Queens Plaza — a project city officials are calling a "major job generator" for the neighborhood.

The developer and investment company Qatari Diar are building the 1.1-million-square-foot project at 28-10 Queens Plaza South, next to Tishman Speyer's existing building at 2 Gotham Center, which houses offices for the city's Department of Health.

The complex will feature two, 27-story office towers connected by four stories of retail at their base, which will include a food hall, restaurant and parking garage, according to the developers.

Restaurant parking cars on the sidewalk

From PIX11:

Which popular Long Island City restaurant is using the city sidewalk to valet park its customers’ cars?

A tip from a PIX11 viewer claims Manetta’s restaurant on Jackson Avenue is the culprit.

The video we shot shows the lunchtime crowd pulling their cars up to the restaurant on the corner, where the sign outside says Valet Parking.

The two parking attendants then take those cars down the block on 11th Street, a public thoroughfare, where they park them up on the sidewalk, bumper to bumper.

The cars are sometimes parked so far up on the sidewalk that it’s impossible for pedestrians to pass by.

We spoke with the owner of the building and the manager of Manetta’s, who say the police have given them permission to park on the sidewalk, as long as there is a clear path left for pedestrians.

Now, I agree that Manetta's is in the wrong here, but Arnold Diaz could do a month-long series on rogue valet parking if he just went a bit north to Astoria.

Sidewalk cafes causing problems in Astoria

\
From CBS 2:

“Ditmars Boulevard is evolving into a very, a tourist-attracted area,” said Florence Koulouris, District Manager of Queens Community Board 1.

Koulouris confirmed that more restaurants are opening, and more owners want to accommodate customers in the open air. She expects by year’s end, nearly 200 establishments will be permitted to do so.

The Pomeroy, 36-12 Ditmars Blvd., may be one of them. On Tuesday evening, the board voted in favor of outdoor seating there, with four tables and a total of eight seats.

Some neighbors are not happy about it.

“The community is furious because it’s run like a bar,” said Nicholas Vagenas, owner of American Woodworking next door. “People are on the street till 2, 3 in the morning.”

Vanegas showed CBS2 photos taken outside, with crowds of people hanging out on the sidewalk.

“They really don’t take care of the outside or their patrons,” Vanegas said. “They come out, they vomit on our doorways.”

Vanegas said he was not the only one who felt that way. Owners at Magic Nail Design and Spa, Astoria NY Furniture, and the Fabric Center all signed letters of opposition addressed to the Community Board.

“Plus, we lose the sidewalk,” Vanegas said. “We will not have room to pass.”

The problem is once you allow one sidewalk cafe, you have to allow them all. Too many restaurants are situated in one area.

Strange activity at the Steinway Mansion

There's been some activity at the Steinway Mansion recently, and it looks like some kitchen equipment is being moved in.

There's no permits, however, to indicate what is going on.

Photos from George the Atheist

Supersized building to replace Forest Hills restaurants

From DNA Info:

The so called Forest Hills' "Restaurant Row" could soon be demolished in order to make room for a new mixed-use development, a plan that has immediately sparked protests among local residents and business owners.

The new 12-story development is being eyed for a 1-story building at 107-18 70th Road, between Queens Boulevard and Austin Street, which houses several restaurants, including The Grill, Cabana and Moca Asian Cafe. An annual jazz series is also held on that block.

Two restaurants that closed on the block in the past 2 years — Santa Fe and Uno Pizzeria — have since remained vacant.

Currently the developer can build up to seven floors (roughly 70 feet), but according to elected officials they will be seeking a special permit from the city to build higher.

Of course they are!

Water's Edge closed again

From DNA Info:

Riverside restaurant and wedding venue Water's Edge is once again shuttered — closed for renovations for the second time since its owner was indicted on federal charges this fall.

The waterfront eatery, located at the end of 44th Drive in Long Island City, is closed for construction "under new owners and new management," according to a sign posted on the front door, which promises the venue will "re-open very soon."

The future of the restaurant has been under scrutiny since owner Harendra Singh was indicted on bribery and fraud charges in September, including an allegation that he lied about damages the Water's Edge suffered during Hurricane Sandy to score federal relief funds, prosecutors said.