IHOP | No 7-Eleven

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

Today’s am New York features a story about the rapidly expanding chain stores and chain restaurants in New York City. The article reports Manhattan has the highest concentration of chain stores and chain restaurants with 119 per square mile. 7-Eleven tops the list with 32 locations in Manhattan alone. Another 100 7-Eleven locations are scheduled to arrive in Manhattan by 2017. From the article.

“There are way too many. They’re part of a larger trend of suburbanization that’s been going on in the city” largely over the last decade or so, said Jeremiah Moss, who runs the blog Vanishing New York, which documents changes in the Big Apple.

“These are not one-of-a-kind businesses, they’re clones of each other, and they don’t feel like New York because they’re not of New York,” Moss said.

A grassroots group called No 7-Eleven formed last year to protest the opening of the convenience store, focusing on the East Village, whose “neighborhood feel” would be diminished by more 7-Elevens, a group representative said.

“The chain stores in New York City take away from the city’s character,” a representative said. “Anything special, unique or culturally significant in New York City is being pushed out and replaced with big brand names and predictable experiences the tourists and transients feel safe with.”

The chain, which has 32 stores in Manhattan and reportedly plans to open about 100 more, said “there is opportunity to grow more stores based on unmet demand,” and that the “vast majority of our stores in NYC [are] met with no opposition.”

Welcome to your opposition.

As more chains hit the city could mom and pop be in trouble? [am New York]