Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
And then there was one.
After decades of aggressive hosts trying to entice diners into their establishments with twinkling Christmas and chili pepper lights and promises of superior food, the upstairs-downstairs block of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants at 93 First Ave. is down to one.
It was business as usual, with groups coming in for various celebrations amid the lights and over-the-top decor (this with some pretty mediocre-to-average food and spotty service).
The Panna II maître d' on duty Friday evening told us they stopped using the adjacent dining room last month.
"No business," he said.
The Milon space has been gutted (
thanks to Blake Farber for the following two pics) ...
... and workers bagged up the lights that had lit up thousands of Instagram posts to throw away...
Royal Bangladesh, which opened on the lower level in 1978,
closed in the late spring of 2022. An
unlicensed smoke shop briefly occupied one of the storefronts on the lower level.
While Milon and Panna II had been catering to the
Instagram crowd in recent years, some locals still found the BYOB restaurants a familiar comfort on evenings away from the weekends.
This article at
6sqft has a nice recap of the restaurants here;
Eater, too. (
A photo of the glory days i
s below via 6sqft.)
The number of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants along the so-called
Curry Row or Little India here and around the corner on Sixth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue has been dwindling in recent years. As many as 27 establishments were clustered on the block in the 1990s; today,
there are two on Sixth Street.
Economics and competition certainly played a part ... and, in recent years, we've seen new buzzy options, such as from the Unapologetic Foods team (Rowdy Rooster and Dhamaka, with
two more concepts on the way)... and higher-end experiences like
Bungalow at 24 First Ave., which opened in March and recently received three stars from the
Times, and
Jazba on Second Avenue and 13th Street.
On Friday night at Panna II, the lone maître d' said business has been slow.
Flower Power Herbs & Roots, now in its 30th year, is at 406 E. Ninth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. 
