This is the last of the neighborhood updates. All these changes are on Lenox Ave between 125th and 131st Streets.
Chill Berry, the glasses-wearing frozen yogurt shop, opened last summer. Not being a frozen yogurt fan I haven't been, but people on Yelp sure do like it.
Much to my regret a place I did like, La Perle Noire, closed over the summer and was replaced with Island Salad in the fall. 'Tis a shame as I can't really start a long bike ride with a salad instead of a pastry. Relief on that front may have arrived if the recently-opened Lenox Coffee on 129th can survive until warmer weather gets here. Everyone seems to like it but on the day I stopped in I was served a lukewarm chai latte and a generic muffin.
The Ambassades Buffet is an offshoot of Patisserie Des Ambassades, French-African maker of giant doughnuts on Frederick Douglass. The new buffet is a good place to stop in for a change-of-pace take-out meal (Jacob Restaurant just up the street has somewhat better food).
Of course, the new thing that grabbed most of the news this past year was the opening of Red Rooster, Marcus Samuelsson's latest restaurant.
Ooh, it's my neighborhood.
The bodega on the NW corner of 127th changed hands and got a rehab over the last year. It's still the worst one on this strip and isn't open very late, but it's at least clean now, and handicapped-accessible via the concrete ramp (is that a new requirement?)
Also rumor has it that the space that formerly housed the Scents of Nature perfume store (and before that the "Porky and Bass" seafood sandwich place) at the NW corner of 126th is going to be a sports bar! Which would be interesting 'cause there haven't been any bars on Upper Lenox in recent history (20 years+?) and would this be the first sports bar in all of Harlem (again, in recent history-- although I guess Harlem Tavern's interior bar area is pretty dang close)?
Posted by: tacony palmyra | 12 January 2012 at 12:24 PM