What’s happening at the iconic Red Apple Rest? What you saw on Facebook could be wrong
Demolition work at the site of the crumbling Red Apple Rest off Route 17 set off a torrent of memories and speculation about the long-shuttered Borscht Belt landmark.
Those hoping the historic stopover on the way to the Catskills might be reborn — or fearing it would be lost forever — were left guessing about the 3.2-acre property’s fate.
Deborah Villanueva at the Town of Tuxedo Building Department has been getting a steady stream of calls since work started at the iconic roadside restaurant in Southfields, just north of the Rockland County line.
Yes, Villanueva confirmed, the building’s owner had received a demolition permit.
But, no, she added, the Red Apple wasn’t being razed entirely.
What's happening with the Red Apple Rest?
Only about a third of the aging eatery was being bulldozed. The rest of the building had been found structurally sound and would be left standing, she said.
Villanueva wasn’t aware of a pending sale or application for new construction.
The Red Apple, owned by Peter Kourakos since 1984, closed in 2006. It’s been vacant ever since then and had been on the market for $2.2 million in hopes the arrival of Resorts World Catskills and Legoland would spur interest. It’s apparently no longer up for sale.
The property is zoned highway business, which could accommodate everything from a bowling alley to a car wash, to another restaurant. A dream of turning it into a Jewish deli apparently never materialized.
The dilapidated building is a shell of its glory days as a beloved way station for millions of visitors en route to the hotels and bungalow colonies that once dotted the Catskills.
What was the Red Apple Rest?
The legendary restaurant founded by Reuben Freed feasted during the Borscht Belt’s heyday from roughly the 1930s through the 1960s, when vacationers — many of them Jewish — flocked to “the mountains” every summer.
Among its customers, the Red Apple served scores of aspiring comedians and singers on their way to the hotel ballrooms that spawned countless careers.
Steve Gold of New City, whose parents owned a bungalow colony in South Fallsburg, said signs of the Red Apple’s demise “tweaks your heart a little bit. It’s another memory of growing up that's gone.”
“Anytime that someone would come up for the summer, they would always stop at the Red Apple and tell us about it,” he recalled, “and how the kids in the back of the car, they knew when they got to the Red Apple Rest, they were almost on their way to the bungalow colony.”
“It was the Shake Shack of our era,” Gold said. “And don’t forget: The Red Apple Rest was famous without social media.” T-shirts with the restaurant’s name are the biggest sellers on his website, yesteryearwear.com.
Red Apple Rest on Facebook
Word of the Red Apple’s demolition spread on social media, with one Facebook commenter recalling the “best cheese burgers and fries,” and another who said she could “still taste the chocolate pudding with the skin on top.”
Nostalgia for the Borscht Belt era has been trending in recent years, driven in part by the Netflix series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and a sequel to “Dirty Dancing,” the 1987 movie set in the Catskills.
A museum dedicated to the period is opening in the village of Ellenville in Ulster County, and historic markers are being placed throughout the region.
Robert Brum is a freelance journalist who writes about the Hudson Valley. Contact him and read his work at robertbrum.com.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Red Apple Rest demolition: What is happening at iconic Tuxedo landmark?
