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Posts Tagged ‘Stillwell Avenue’

Steve’s New Grill House Opens on Stillwell in Coney Island

Posted in Food & Drink, Redevelopment, tagged BK Festival, Coney Island, restaurant, Steve Bitetzakis, Steve's Grill House, Stillwell Avenue, Thor Equities on April 9, 2012| 2 Comments »

Steve's New Grill House at the BK Festival on Stillwell Avenue. April 8, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On Easter Sunday, Steve Bitetzakis opened his new Grill House at the BK Festival on Stillwell Avenue next to Scream Zone. The menu is the same as his previous spot on the Boardwalk– hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, shish-ke-bab, chicken wings, french fries and knishes. Old friends and longtime customers were happy to see him back in business. The eatery is housed in a newly purchased concession trailer. The decorative flags, hand-painted signage and seating that gave the Boardwalk eatery a homey ambiance appear to be the next order of business.

Steve’s was among several food stands and trailers opening for Easter on Thor Equities’ Stillwell East lot leased to the BK Festival. On Memorial Day Weekend, rides and attractions are expected to fill the festival lot and it will be called “Steeplechase Amusement Park.”

Located on the Coney Island Boardwalk since 1993, Bitetzakis was one of the “Coney Island 8” evicted by Zamperla. In February he called off plans to have his modular building moved down Stillwell and instead sold it to Zamperla, which is remodeling it and the adjoining Beer Island to create their own beach bar on the Boardwalk.

Steve Bitetzakis, the owner of Steve’s Grill House on the Coney Island Boardwalk since 1993, with his son at their new location. April 8, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Steve’s family has a long history of operating food concessions in Coney Island. His father Gregory Bitetzakis was the co-owner of Gregory & Paul’s and operated the G & P’s on West 10th Street opposite the Cyclone until his retirement in 2009.

As ATZ reported over the weekend, the majority of the original “Coney Island 8″ eateries are coming back this season. The relocated Cha Cha’s, the Grill House’s neighbor on the Boardwalk, also opened on Sunday. When we stopped by the new bar and restaurant on the north side of Surf across from Nathan’s Famous, John “Cha Cha” Ciarcia was holding court at a front table and regulars were dropping by for their first drinks of the season. Cha Cha’s new address is 1315 Surf Avenue, the space formerly occupied by Surf N Turf Grill.

Steve's New Grill House at the BK Festival on Stillwell Avenue. April 8, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

UPDATE June 25, 2012:

We’re sorry to report that Steve’s is ~~temporarily~~ closed. After losing his spot on Stillwell when the BK Festival closed to make way for the new Steeplechase Park, Steve’s trailer was relocated to Thor Equities’ Surf Avenue lot at West 12th Street. While Cha Cha’s Steeplechase Park finally managed to open on Mermaid Parade Day after a four week delay, the satellite locations on Surf remain closed for now. In addition, Steve’s new location has literally left his trailer up against a fence. The original plans for the new Steeplechase park and the other two locations called for opening the fencing during business hours. It turns out that city regulations will not permit it.

Photo of the Day: Granville T. Woods Memorial Trolley Pole

Posted in history, tagged Coney Island, Coney Island Hall of Fame, Granville T Woods, Stillwell Avenue, trolley, trolley pole on April 4, 2012| 5 Comments »

Trolley Pole from the 86th Street Line on Stillwell Ave at Mermaid Ave. March 23, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Outside McDonald’s in Coney Island is Stillwell Avenue’s last remaining trolley pole, a vestige of the 86th Street trolley line which went from Bay Ridge to Coney’s Stillwell Terminal and ended in 1948. Located at the corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues, the trolley pole is now used by Mickey D’s to advertise lunch specials, but we’re naming it the Granville T. Woods Memorial Trolley Pole because this street corner happens to be Granville T. Woods Way. It appears to be the last trolley pole on Stillwell Avenue.

Granville T. Woods invented the overhead conducting system which made the trolley possible. He held more than a dozen patents for electric railway technology including a power distribution system first tested and demonstrated to the public at Coney Island in 1892. In 2008, the African American inventor was honored with the street naming and was inducted into the Coney Island Hall of Fame.

As far as we know, Coney Island has forty-four surviving trolley utility poles. In February, ATZ wrote about the loss of two century-old poles on Surf Avenue and the 43 that remain on Surf (“Thor Destroys 119-Year-Old Relics of Coney Trolley History,” ATZ, February 21, 2012). When trolley service on the Surf Avenue-Seagate line ended on December 1, 1946, the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce requested that the poles on both sides of Surf Avenue be left in place in the amusement area to be used for holiday decorations.

Stan Fox, the former owner of Playland Arcade, told ATZ that about ten years ago, Charlie Tesoro of the Chamber asked him to count the poles on Surf Avenue. “There were sixty-four,” says Fox. “Since then some have fallen down. Others were removed.” The ones in front of MCU Park were removed when the stadium was constructed, he says. Fox updated his trolley pole census and said there are currently 43 poles on Surf Avenue as well as this solitary pole on Stillwell Avenue.

Brooklyn & Queens Transit Trolley 2585 on 86th Street line in front of Stillwell Avenue Terminal, between Mermaid & Surf Avenues. August 11, 1944. North Jersey NHRS Collection via Coney Island Island History Project

Thor’s Coney Island: Building Plans “Disapproved” by DOB

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, Henderson Building, Joe Sitt, New Construction, Stillwell Avenue, Surf Avenue, Thor Equities on March 31, 2011| 9 Comments »

After the Demolition: New View of Surf Ave in Coney Island. February 11, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

In the words of T.S. Eliot: “April is the cruellest month…” Last April, Joe Sitt of Thor Equities announced plans to demolish the buildings he owned along Surf Avenue in Coney Island. Now when visitors step out of Stillwell Terminal, their first glimpse of Coney Island will be the blue construction fence surrounding Joe Sitt’s Wasteland–the newest empty lot in the real-estate speculator’s collection of empty lots. The temporary one-story building that Sitt filed a variety of plans to build beginning in October has yet to break ground because the DOB “DISAPPROVED” the plans as many as 16 times over the past six months.

Surf and Stillwell was the site of the now-demolished, century-old Henderson Music Hall. The Henderson had survived being cut in half in the 1920s to make way for the widening of Stillwell Avenue. When the City rezoned the parcel for a high-rise “hotel” in July 2009, the historic building was doomed, even though no hotel is scheduled to be built there anytime soon. At the end of the 2010 season, longtime tenants Popeye’s Chicken, Fascination Arcade and Maritza’s Souvenirs were booted out and haven’t been heard from since.

Thor’s proposed construction is a “ONE STORY NEW COMMERCIAL BUILDING WITH ASSEMBLY AND AMUSEMENT SPACES AS INDICATED ON PLANS FILED HEREWITH.” If you look under “plan examination” you’ll see that they have filed for a variety of types of permits (equipment, new building, general construction, foundation & earthworks, fencing) with a corresponding number of disapprovals for each.

Post No Bills: Thor Equities Empty Lot at Corner of Surf & Stillwell, Coney Island. February 28, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

As shown under “all permits,” they have applied for and been issued permits for Foundations, Earthwork, and a Construction Fence in connection with the project. This will allow them to do the excavation and pour the foundations for the job, even while the New Building and other applications remain disapproved.

Last April, Thor Equities released a rendering of a cheesy looking temporary one-story building occupied by hamburger and taco food joints. And a statement: “With the work we are commencing today, by Memorial Day, 2011, all of our parcels along Surf Avenue are scheduled to be activated with family-friendly games, food, shopping and other activities that visitors to, and residents of, Coney are clamoring for….”

Thinkwell's rendering for Thor's Temporary One-Story Building in Coney Island. April 2010

When we first read about Thor’s plan and saw the rendering in Eliot Brown’s piece in the Observer–”The New Coney Island? Sitt Sees Fast Food in Place of Current Buildings”–we thought Thinkwell, a well-known firm in the themed entertainment industry, should be renamed Thinkworst for creating this crappy rendering for the gateway to Coney Island. Thor’s plan to get demo permits from the City seemed calculated to put an end to Save Coney Island’s efforts to create an historic district in Coney Island.

Joe Sitt's Newest Empty Lot (Site of Demolished Henderson Building), Coney Island. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Last April, ATZ complained about “Thor’s Coney Island: Tattered Tents and Deathwatch for Historic Buildings” (ATZ, April 21, 2010). The bedraggled tenting was removed and the City put up fence wraps with colorful advertisements for Coney attractions to camouflage the empty lots. We’re curious to see what kind of bills if any will be posted on Thor’s blue construction fence. Posters for Aqueduct Flea by the Sea?

UPDATE April 4, 2011:

Some readers have questioned whether Thor Equities ever really intended to build anything on the site. Were the building plans just an excuse to get a permit to demolish the Henderson? Why didn’t Thor’s architects resubmit a plan that would win DOB approval? Six months of disapprovals seems like an inordinately long time.

ATZ asked someone in the building trade to take a look at the DOB page and give an opinion. Here it is: it IS strange that they had so many disapprovals for what seems like such a simple building, and i have to think that if they are proceeding with foundations, they either think they are about to get the new building application approved, or they are sensing some change in the regulatory environment and want to get the foundations in so that they can claim to be “vested”. who knows what that would be in this case, but does seem like a lot of trouble to go thru for a one story building (am sure they’re thinking the same thing).