Hard Luck Corner

I just passed by this restaurant on the corner of 7th and 2nd Ave. It’s changed! This corner is slightly doomed as everything that has been there was failed and rarely lasted over a year. I think it used to be Sin Sin. Or maybe that’s above it. At one time, a guy who ran the place wanted to get people to play there FACING the street to draw foot traffic in. Huck Slim briefly considered the offer than thought better of it when we checked the place out. It was dark, depressing, and creepy.

Then this year, there was a whole lot of construction the whole place was revamped. And then they put up the most garish neon signs that just made it look like strip mall America or dare I say it? Queens. (I love you Queens–you were my first love in NYC, there will always be a place for you in my heart (especially Extra Cheese in Flushing, Donovans and the rest of the pubs in Woodside, and most of all the Bohemia Beer Garden in Astoria) but come on, you love big neon signs more than Manhattan.) It said something like American Diner. How generic can you get?

They clearly spent thousands on the refurb, to make it even more crappy. Puzzling. The best part is they hung a huge sign that said Grand Opening. For like months. Then they took it down. Then they put a bigger sign up that said Grand Opening again. For… months.

Then it seemed like they were actually attracting customers which made me sad. Because I hated the place. Picking a diner on that street is a dumb idea when you already have two diners within blocks of you—the venerable Veselka and the reliable but not-as-nice Moonstruck Diner. Not to mention the esteemed Odessa over on Ave A(I love how there are two Odessas right next to each other. There’s the diner. And there’s the bar. You can still get most of the food from the diner in the bar, I guess it just depends on what kind of feel you want around you.)

Well, all that has changed because now those signs are gone and it’s barely refurnished as an Asian themed restaurant. No grand opening sign yet. I will watch and see what happens but it still looks ugly..