The storefronts currently housing the Neptune and Lin's Laundromat at 192-194 First Ave. between East 11th Street and East 12th Street are on the market.
The listings at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank note that the rent for Neptune's 1,660 square feet is available upon request… and the possession of the space that houses the Polish-American diner was December 2014.
The spaces cannot be combined, per the listing.
The laundromat space is apparently "ideal for juice bar or cafe" …
Not sure if there's a need for another juice bar, given that Juice Press has two locations on East 10th Street between Second Avenue and Avenue A … not to mention Liquiteria on Second Avenue and East 11th Street and beQu Juice on East Ninth Street just west of First Avenue…
Will be sorry to see the Neptune eventually go. It has been here since 2001 (taking over the KK's space). It is always a hearty and inexpensive option… and, at least from our recent visits, rarely crowded. (We recall a Saturday night in December when the restaurant sat empty at 7:30.)
Not sure what happened here … a rent hike or just more of the neighborhood's changing culinary habits. (RIP Polonia, Kiev, Christine's, Leshko's, Teresa's…)
Another fucking juice bar?
ReplyDeleteAs someone who's always loved diners, I don't get it.
ReplyDelete"It is always a hearty and inexpensive option", Neptune does not provide its customers the notion of self-illusion of selectivity,
ReplyDelete"and, at least from our recent visits, rarely crowded. (We recall a Saturday night in December when the restaurant sat empty at 7:30.)"
That's the problem there. The times that I've been there, there were a few tourist stragglers with tour guides in hand on how Neptune has the Borscht soup and that's all they'd have. Maybe if they hired the PR from them biscuit boys or serve the Borscht in bone broth in a to go paper cup, lines will be going out the door.
Also its menu did not consists of braised farm raised short ribs, kale quinoa salad and shit...I mean shishito peppers, bone marrow doused in citric juice, newfangled fried chicken (ethically raised and killed by a soulful farmer) with house-made gluten-, sugar-, flour- free biscuits. It's great for those who doesn't like eating in a crowded restaurant filled with foodies in Kentucky Derby hats and attire pairing their meals with $15+ ginger and mint infused elderflower and cadamom cocktail sage martinis. More improtantly, it did not serve poached eggs topped with the dregs of the week’s meals under rich sauces, arranging them in curious combinations paired with bottomless obscure Eastern European mimosa and bloody marys.
And remember this:
"Neptune, an obscure Polish restaurant on First Avenue, proved the biggest disappointment of the fourteen places where Chang ate that week. The idea belonged to Chang’s then-boyfriend, another card-carrying food fanatic. (For the couple’s first date, they had gone to a festival called “Egg Rolls and Egg Creams.”) Telling me about the Neptune debacle, Chang sounds depressed, apologetic even. “We happened to be in Union Square, which always throws us off in our food choices,” she says. She had suggested ABC Kitchen for her favorite cumin-carrot salad and a glass of wine. Maybe Cotan for Japanese? Or Zabb Elee for Thai? But no, the boyfriend insisted on Neptune. He felt really bad, she says. “It was the first time he’s ever struck out picking a restaurant.” They broke up not long afterward.
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon...
#SIoS
Is that the donee that has a garden in the back?
ReplyDeleteNeptune had Soviet era service I went twice to see if it was just a fluke (maybe it was Lenin's birthday the first time). Sometimes there is a very good reason places go out of business and it has nothing to do with the landlord. Having said that I can only imagine what type of no imagination "me too" business will open here eventually, as mentioned yet another juice bar.
ReplyDeleteI'd be sorry indeed to see the Neptune go. I've been going there regularly since they opened as KK's many long years ago, and before that when it was Janet's. Has it changed over the years? Yes. I miss the open window to the garden with a view to the Polish women cooking in the kitchen. The window is long gone, and I don't think there are any Polish women cooking in there any more, but the food is good (love the Hungarian Potato Pancake!) and it's always been a solid neighborhood go-to spot for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Maybe they'll stay?
ReplyDeleteOkay I am over seeing dumb ass foodies lined up outside of the anointed eateries as much as anyone but as a person who owns his own business I take my hat off to anyone (including a restaurant) that can convince the gullible to part with their cash. If serving soup in frozen kale leaves make money good for them. The facts are a new generation which apparently has a lot more disposable income than we did are our new neighbors and they like stuff. If you are over 50 you are watching yet another transformation of this neighborhood being shaped by money instead of the lack of it.
ReplyDeleteJust another day at the office in the Neuw East Village. Score another point for the trendy millennial long-line restaurants. Another blow for homey ethnic affordable salt of the earth restaurants.
ReplyDeleteWho wants real homemade borscht anyway...how gauche!
I eat there several times of week. Of course it has to go out of business. When I don't eat there, I generally make a point to eat in midtown so i don't have to deal with the east village overpriced bullshit. I've heard about nabes in Queens where I can pay less than my rent stabilized shithole and get 3x the space - the e.vil isn't even a nabe anymore. its nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteSad, you can get a hearty breakfast plate at Neptune for $7 - not too many places left like that in the neighborhood. Saturday and Sunday features White Borscht with a side of mashed potato. It's a winter warmer and should be marketed to the hipsters........
ReplyDeleteThat was/is a great laundromat too, very friendly and efficient service.
ReplyDeleteThis is heartbreaking, in one week we hear of the closing of Ess-a-bagel and now our beloved Neptune. There is no where in NY that makes better pirogis and delicious homemade soups. They are no frills and their prices are so reasonable and food very good. To sit out in their backyard garden area was so nice in the warm weather. Another gem of New York that is being lost to these miserable greedy landlords and Real Estate Developers. Commercial tenants desperately need rent protections as well as the rent regulated and market rate tenants. If the people of our city do nothing to stop this it will only get worse, so fight to strengthen the rent laws.
ReplyDeleteWhen it was KK, it was a regular go-to of mine. But I have to say, as of late, it's gone way down hill.
ReplyDeleteFoods still cheap and ok, but there are times it's not crowded, but I still can't even get a menu or glass of water for 1/2 hour, even when I keep catching the eye of the servers.
I've been going to Odessa instead.
I love this place. Best matzo ball soup with challah bread ever. And yes, they have the outdoor garden with non-smoking and smoking sections.
ReplyDeleteMelanie
East Village Corner
Sad to see this happen but not at all surprised. Neptune has been on my deathwatch list for a couple of years now. I go there regularly and at times the place is almost empty at dinnertime. Their pirogues are the best, and not as heavy and doughy as Veselkas, and their onions are delicious.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I'm there I see huge crowds of college students marching down 1st Ave. but none of them ever come in. What do they know about food? They were all raised on supermarket sushi and Top Ramen noodles, runny pad thai, Dominos pizza and bacon burgers, and they are all headed to the bars.
Neptune joins Kiev and Christine's as beloved neighborhood institutions which the current inmates in this overpriced asylum don't have time for. Looks like Little Poland on 2nd Ave. will be the go to place now.
Ok- let's have those commercial rent protections. Now the city has 30-40% less revenue. Start cutting. You ok with that? Wake up to financial reality.
ReplyDeleteThe food's mostly meh, the service can be Soviet (they're nice, but hey, it's a diner) but the price is right and the ambiance is great. There's not a lot of that left in the nabe. Really sad to see their days numbered.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I live around the corner and I just don't like Neptune. I've had terrible service in there and there are so many other affordable diners in the neighborhood that I just don't bother. The first time I was ever in Neptune, the table next to me asked for a toasted bagel with a glass of water and silverware and it took the waiter three times and about 15 minutes to get it right. It's not like there was a rush, the guy just wasn't paying attention. Little Poland has much nicer staff with a very similar Eastern European comfort food menu, and they're hopping on weekend mornings when Neptune is empty.
ReplyDeleteI agree that our neighborhood has a lot of date night/fancy brunch places lately that are crazily expensive, but I'd rather see something new move in. We have good, new restaurants too. Hopefully, it'll be something interesting and/or affordable, fingers crossed. I don't think things should just stick around because they've always been.
It's a shame about the laundromat. I still miss my old place on 13th between 2nd and 3rd with the kitten stickers and the fake roof tiles, but it's become part of the Momofuku empire.
Oh no! That garden!! I haven't been there for a little while I have to confess but I like to take out of town friends to the garden, it's always a hit...
ReplyDeleteKKs was a very regular breakfast place for us, rushing out to get there by 11am for the breakfast special. 11:01 forget about it. Neptune never seemed much different to me, but as I get older and fatter I've become much more careful about what I eat so I don't eat this food often any more. Why I want to live longer I haven't figured out, but I can't seem to help but try.
ReplyDeleteNeptune may be "empty" (visually) but perhaps they are doing a good delivery business. I have a friend who made it through a long recovery from major surgery on food delivered from Neptune!
ReplyDeleteJanuary 20, 2015 at 2:30 PM
ReplyDeleteyeah we heard you the last time except the last time you said 20%. Now it's up to 30-40%. your big fish story gets bigger with each telling.
Ya, I'm upset as well. I could sit in the back with the dog….so nice. AND the soups (as well as the pierogies) are amazing!
ReplyDelete@Anon. 3:20 - if you are so concerned about all the money the city would lose by restricting landlords to charge less usurious rates for their storefronts, perhaps you would also like to decry the hundreds of millions of dollars given away by the city to already filthy-rich developers so they can make ever more money while continuing to get a free ride on the backs of taxpayers? Or doesn't that bother you?
ReplyDelete9:17AM There is never a line at Empire Biscuits. Ever. It has customers but is basically just as empty, or full, as Neptune, so let's not overstate their marketing talent. They got plenty of early attention (which was pretty obviously generated by well-placed media friends and actorly buddies standing outside gesticulating dorkily at menus) and now no one cares much.
ReplyDeleteAnd please stop trying to make "SloS" happen. No one's biting. Either tell us what the fuck it is already like a normal person, or stop it. You're approaching East Village Today levels of boring. SloS is not going to happen.
I loved Teresa's and Christine's but the last two times in Neptune the food was off. Chicken cutlet tasted weird (frozen?), soups were too watery and greasy at the same time (if I want watery and greasy I'll get soup at Odessa ... yuck ...) and the burger was thin with too much of a grill taste. Boy do I miss Teresa's.
ReplyDeleteNeptune is not about the food. It's about the place.
ReplyDeleteI was in Neptune last week and I felt I was in a "Woody Allen" movie. A lot of "blue haired" ladies, some tourists and the Sheriff of New York. I love this place.
ReplyDeleteMelanie
East Village Corner
There's still the polish G.I grocery on 1st ave and Ukrainian National House attached to the sly fox on 2nd ave for some cheap eastern european cuisine
ReplyDelete