Roosevelt Island Resident Corrects Mistake Made By Crains Article - Yes, We Do Have Sit Down Restaurants, A Greek Diner, Sports Bar, & Japanese Restaurant - Nearby Queens Restaurants and Neely's BBQ Block From Tram
Image of Roosevelt Island's Japanese Restaurant Fuji East
Crains New York Real Estate page introduced a profile of Roosevelt Island this week with:
Roosevelt Island gains favor as residential spotRoosevelt Island resident Raye Schwartz took exception to a reporting mistake in the article concerning Roosevelt Island restaurants.
Inhabitants of one-time backwater are psyched over parks, pending Main Street revamp that will enhance fast-growing New York City area.
Image of Riverwalk Bar & Grill
Mrs Schwartz asks for a Just The Facts correction to the article by Crains and shares this letter she wrote to the writer of the article:
Here's Trellis, the Roosevelt Island Greek diner with the multi-page menu Mrs. Schwartz mentionsHello Ms. Fung,
In your May 22nd Crains’s New York Business article on Roosevelt Island, you wrote:
“Right now, the island has only a couple of takeout eateries, including those at Hudson/Related properties.”
I invite you to visit the island so we can show you the error of that statement. There is a Japanese restaurant in the Hudson/Related development of Southtown. There is also Trellis, next to the church on Main Street, a full service restaurant…much like some of the better Greek Diners in Manhattan, with a multipage menu that can take an hour to read. Yes, they have a counter and offer delivery and takeout: but they also have a bar and seating, as well as full waiter/waitress service from breakfast through late dinners, seven days a week including holidays. Additionally, there is a sports bar/restaurant: Riverwalk Grille (also in Southtown), which is very much like some of the upper east side pubs, offering great burgers and similar pub fare.
While we would love a truly upscale restaurant here, remember that this is very much a mixed income community. Those on fixed incomes such as senior citizens, young families or recent graduates with big student loans, may not always want to, or be able to afford a fancy high priced restaurant. So, let’s remember the old girl scout ditty “make new friends but keep the old, one is silver the other is gold”. That must also be true of any retail mix on this “rock”, including our eateries!
Please issue a correction to your statement. I’m sure there are quite a few residents here who would be happy to show you around…and the tram ride is really fun (as well as a very civilized way to commute).
Thanks in advance.
Your truly,
(Mrs.) Raye Schwartz
Image of Trellis Diner from lenglekim
and let's not forget Roosevelt Island's pizza place, Nonno's Focacceria.
Image of Nonnno's Focacceria.
Also, there are some new restaurant choices close to Roosevelt Island in Queens. The NY Times reported yesterday on the developing dining scene in nearby Astoria and Long Island City neighborhoods.
... A great one is at the Queens Kickshaw: a grilled gouda sandwich with guava jam, black bean purée and pickled jalapeños ($10).And don't forget that Memphis based Neely's Barbecue will soon open in New York City,
Another is the housemade brik at the North African Harissa Café: tuna, capers and an egg wrapped in a triangle of thin pastry dough, then fried until the egg yolk is thick and the pastry golden ($3.95).
Many new spots target the twin passions of younger locals: Sunday brunch and cheap beer. (One sports bar off Steinway Street, Canz, has 40 TVs and 200 beers, served up by “Canz Girlz.”
But among the restaurants that have opened in the last year or so are signs that the eating opportunities in Astoria and Long Island City could soon rival those in Williamsburg and Dumbo in Brooklyn. Bites like the spicy fried pickles at the gastro-pub Sweet Afton ($5); the caramel- and chile-tinged chocolate diablito cake at Pachanga Patterson ($6); the chirashi sushi, fresh as whitecaps, at Linn ($22) seem like tastes of things to come...
exact date not known yet, right near the Tram at First Avenue and 61st street. Yum, I am looking forward to this.
You Tube Video of Neely's BBQ
11 comments :
This is far from the first time that an article has been article about RI by a reporter who has obviously never been here. Years ago, the repeated fallacy was that the island is "traffic-free." This notion came directly from early planning documents and never had any reality once the island was actually developed. Don't these "reporters" and their new organizations have any standards?
I don't think Ms Schwartz got it all 100% correct either. Trellis is far from "some of the better Greek diners in Manhattan." I wish it was, though. And isn't the name of the sports bar Riverwalk Bar & Grill? Never saw it called "Riverwalk Grille".
Whether Raye got the name of Riverwalk exactly correct is besides the point. Her letter was intended to correct glaring factual errors in the Crains article as well as to put the reader on notice that no - Roosevelt Island is not a yuppie paradise, not quite, and likely not ever. Despite the biggest transfer of wealth in human history in the form of bailouts paid for by taxpayer money - New York, the center of the financial industry, is unlikely to come back anytime soon. The troubled financial industry despite the bailouts cannot spin off thousands of jobs as it used to. This huge loss of economic activity has a multiplier effect, eventually leading to an outflow of young people who are looking for jobs and a reasonable cost of living and can find neither in NYC.
As for Raye's characterization of Trellis as a Greek diner or coffee shop: It is exactly like the countless similar establishments throughout the 5 boroughs including Manhattan. Some say Greek diner fare is American comfort food which is why these coffee shops are found everywhere. If you need a burger, fries, drinks, etc - Trellis has it.
Sure, but Trellis is not as great as she puts it (but then, that is a matter of taste). What is fascinating to me, though, is that anybody would even make the time to respond to one small factual error some real estate media outlet made in this elaborated way.
Trellis is a mess. The guy drives a porsche to work but doesnt care if he had maggots in his kitchen inspection. The old guard says high quality food is bad, buy i dont think money and quality are the same. You can need have a clean place and moneybisnt the issue. I hope trellis cleans their act because their games are over.
Please -- Give Raye S a break and the praise she deserves -- did anyone else move quickly to correct the misinformation ? Other than Raye and Judy B -- unless you have something positive to say to promote the remaining advantages of living and working on RI -- then say nothing...
Hey Sean - guess what! Trellis has an A from the City's restaurant hygienic inspector prominently posted on its sidewalk cafe enclosure. So cleanliness is not the issue for Trellis (at least not as far as the City is concerned).
I agree that money and quality are not the same but I would say the price of food at retail and in restaurants is soaring, which is making it all that much tougher for restauranteurs at any price point.
Trellis will not close because of hygienic issues, since it has obtained an A from the City hygienic inspector. Trellis will close if Hudson Related - now the Master Leaseholder on Main St - decides it doesn't want to have the competition of a restaurant on Main St selling a similar line of food as that sold by Hudson Related lessee Riverwalk Bar and Grill. If Trellis closes, look for a restaurant offering an entirely different cuisine to open in its space. From then on, if all you want is a hamburger, fries, or cup of coffee, only Riverwalk will have it.
Gregor, for somebody who hates the government so much you are quite quick on using the A the city gave to Trellis as a supporting argument.
I can't wait for the day Trellis is replaced by something else.
riverwalk bar and grill . is the pits
Did I say anything that indicates hatred of the U.S. government? On the contrary, anyone who has followed my posts knows that I am 101% patriotic - pro-FDR memorial, pro disabled, especially disabled vets, pro-police. I am opposed to corruption, and any government or public official who is convicted of corruption, as is prescribed by law, should go to jail.
Millions of taxpayers were opposed to the bailout of Wall St banks - not just me. Opposition to the bailout has nothing to do with patriotism or veneration of the law or the Constitution. Remember how close the vote was in Congress re the bailout - it was not a popular measure.
As we have seen since then, bankers get bailed out and continue to live in their Greenwich, Connecticut, estates, but those facing foreclosure by the banks are told: Sorry buddy - it's homelessness for you.
Even though Riverwalk's grade is pending, look them up--they have OVER 50 points in violations--gross.
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