Forest Hills Businesses We Lost To The Pandemic In 2020
FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — As the year ends, Patch is taking a look back at the beloved neighborhood businesses that closed amid the difficulties of the pandemic — including many in Forest Hills.
New Yorkers are mourning the losses of hundreds of neighborhood eateries, which saw their finances suffer during the city's economic crisis and restrictions on indoor dining and social gatherings.
Small business owners in Forest Hills have been bracing themselves against the pandemic's impact ever since the citywide shutdown in March.
"We're really worried about finances because it's a small place," Ollie Sakhno, who owns the wine bar Keuka Kafe, told Patch at the time. "Ninety-nine percent of our regular revenue comes from people dining in. We do very little takeout on a regular basis."
For some, the fear of having to close permanently soon became a reality. Jack & Nellie's, a popular brunch spot, closed after eight years in the neighborhood. The Irish Cottage saw an end to its 60-year run. Housing Works closed its store on Austin Street, and Regal Cinemas closed the Midway movie theater on Queens Boulevard.
The Forest Hills Diner closed despite an optimistic new owner and a benevolent landlord.
"I don't want to risk both," Adriana Morote, who runs the neighboring restaurant Amar Peruvian Kitchen, told Patch. "The only thing I could do is give jobs to the people that used to work there and try to help them as much as I can."
The crisis has even been hard on chain stores — this month, a study found that 19 national chain retailers in Forest Hills and Rego Park shut their doors in 2020, among more than 1,000 such closures citywide. Among them were Victoria's Secret and Aldo, which both closed their locations on Austin Street.
Amid the loss, there have been signs of resilience.
The Irish Cottage reopened under new management, and the Forest Hills Diner's old spot was filled by Memories of Shanghai. White Radish, a new farm-to-table restaurant, opened in the old Jack & Nellie's storefront.
Austin Street largely weathered the economic devastation that the pandemic had on businesses, a Patch survey found in October. At that time, just a dozen of about 150 storefronts sat empty, and new businesses are arriving.
A new Indian restaurant, Tikka N Talk, opened in November, and Hinoki Japanese Restaurant is getting replaced by local restaurant chain Mad For Chicken.
"People are still coming here," Leslie Brown, the head of the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce, told Patch. "They have relationships. It's almost like a small community. Small businesses have relationships with their customers."
Still, stories like that are the exception to the rule. One July study found that one in three New York City small businesses may never reopen after the pandemic.
Related: Pieces Of NYC We Lost In 2020: Coronavirus Ravages Businesses
This article originally appeared on the Forest Hills Patch
