IHOP Closing

The third IHOP to open in Manhattan, the one nobody asked for, is officially closing. So sad.

IHOP signed a 49 year lease for the Carmine Street location at a whopping $300,000 for the first two years then $360,000 with an annual 3% increase.

Kevin Salmon of Salmon & Marshall Real Estate Investments, who negotiated the deal, told The Wall Street Journal the Carmine Street area was “dumpy” and the presence of an IHOP would make it “top notch.”

That didn’t happen. Frankly, we’re tired of people like Kevin Salmon and Margaret Chabris, our bestie 7-Eleven spokesperson, making it sound like our neighborhoods are some off the map location in a third-world country and they are supplying the new, lone drinking well. We are not “underserved” as Chabris has stated and Salmon’s banal IHOP is not making Carmine Street “top notch.” In fact, quite the opposite. The 10,000 square foot space has a huge “FOR LEASE” sign slapped on the front and it stands as a testament that NYC is not welcoming these bland, predictable and mediocre dining experiences with open arms.

Buh bye IHOP!

h/t Jeremiah

7-Eleven on St. Mark’s Place Closes

One down, two to go! EV Grieve reported on Sunday the 7-Eleven on St. Mark’s place was loaded into a series of trucks and carted away.

The New York Post has a story on the closing and speculates the anti-7-Eleven rallies and boycotts are to blame, though if the store was profitable it would still be in business. The franchisee, Norman Jemal, owns two other 7-Elevens, one at 28th Street and Third Avenue, the other at 33rd and Madison.

Hopefully the fake food shacks on Bowery and Avenue A 7-Elevens will follow suit.

Buh bye 7-Eleven!

TGI Closed

Thank God it closed!

Further proof New York City is not embracing all chains with open arms, the TGI Fridays that moved into Union Square during the summer of 2010 has recently closed. The Commercial Observer is reporting the space at 34 Union Square, which includes two separate 3,125-square-foot retail spaces, is on the market. TGI Fridays was recently in the news when New Jersey authorities raided 13 locations for allegedly replacing top-shelf booze with house liquor.

Buh bye TGI Fridays!