
Though the lease supposedly isn’t signed yet, we’ve heard a rumor that a Chipotle is coming to the new L&M residential building at 26-14 Jackson Avenue in the heart of Court Square. What’s a Chipotle? It’s a fast food Mexican grill known for its burritos, use of natural ingredients, and… Oh wait a minute, I had a flashback to 10 years ago! Now there’s one on every corner and it’s not unusual for them to have to substitute non-natural ingredients because the demand is so high our country can’t produce enough natural ingredients to stuff into their humongous burritos1. Well it sounds like we’re about to get one on our corner too, and though the workers in the nearby Citi Building will probably be stoked, I kind of wish we hadn’t bypassed gentrification and went straight to gentrified.
//The owner of the Water’s Edge restaurant in LIC, Harendra Singh, was arrested and accused of inflating the losses incurred at the site during Hurricane Sandy in order to obtain disaster relief funds from FEMA. Singh, who owns a number of restaurants in Long Island, was also accused of failing to report $17 million to the IRS between 2009 and 2014, and also of making kickbacks to obtain a loan.
It doesn’t sound too good for this guy, but as for LIC it may not be such a bad thing, because no matter his fate with the law, I think the Water’s Edge is likely to have a new owner come the New Year.
//Wondering what happened to all the artifacts crammed inside the cavernous Crab House after it closed? It appears they were auctioned off back in late July at an auction house outside of Philly, which confirms the new version will solely retain the location and not the theme of the old – but maybe the name in some form…
LI Restaurateur Accused of Sandy Fraud, Under-reporting, and Kickbacks – three strikes you’re out, or maybe it’s in
Crab House Auction Listing – click thru to all the actual items
Artifacts That Once Decorated a NY Crabhouse – an out-of-town antiques blogger happens on the crab house items in person at the auction
LIC Corner Cafe Looks Close to Opening – on the corner of Murray Park. Also, Amerigo a cafe nearby is getting closer to opening according to the Court Square blog. In combo w/ a Dunkin’ between them, they’ll have coffee covered.
Inside the Boro Hotel in Queens – doubles as a design showroom and nearly every room has a balcony
The Uncertain Future of Noguchi’s Works – everything you ever wanted to know about the sculptor, but this might be the most relevant to LIC “Lately, the price of Noguchi works has been skyrocketing: In December a table sold at Phillips for $4.5 million. But the New York museum operates on a tight budget, with about 30,000 annual visitors it will run a deficit this year.”
- in fact, it may be the only ff restaurant where there’s no option but Super-sized or taco chips [↩]
How about “Crabby’s” as the new name for the crab house. So now they will have Crabby’s and Skinny’s.
Would have been the trifecta with Cranky’s were it still around.