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Birria-Landia, the Jackson Heights food truck that helped launched a wave of birria taco spots in NYC, is once again expanding. Owner José Moreno says a new Lower East Side location opens Saturday, October 29, on the corner of Houston Street and First Avenue. Moreno, an alum of restaurants like Del Posto, debuted Birria-Landia in Queens back in 2019, eventually garnering a two-star review from the New York Times food critic Pete Wells. In addition to Jackson Heights and the Lower East Side, Moreno has a truck at Grand Concourse in the Bronx and one in Williamsburg, near the Lorimer G train stop. The Lower East Side location will be open seven days a week, from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Prices and menu are the same as at the other trucks.
The bid to unionize Trader Joe’s Williamsburg has failed
Workers at Trader Joe’s in Williamsburg will not be unionizing right now. Despite the wave of unionization efforts sweeping food chains across the country, Bloomberg reports that last night’s vote results were 94 to 66 against forming a union at the store. According to the publication, workers have five days to file objections to the tally. If the bid for unionization had succeeded, Trader Joe’s Williamsburg would’ve been the first NYC location to join Trader Joe’s United, formed earlier this year. (The decision to shutter Trader Joe’s beloved Union Square wine shop was reportedly tied to employees’ decision to unionize.)
Lower Manhattan is now brimming with cafe-bookstores
EV Grieve reports that Thayer, a cafe-bookstore, is set to open at 99 Avenue B, between Sixth and Seventh streets, in the East Village. Though by no means a novel format, Lower Manhattan is now brimming with new and forthcoming hybrid cafe-bookstores: There’s one due from Marc Jacobs’s plastic surgeon in Soho later this year, as well as the Lower East Side’s P&T Knitwear, Chinatown’s Yu & Me Books, and the East Village’s Book Club.
Maybe third time’s the charm for this restaurant location?
East Williamsburg hangout Nite Nite announced on Instagram yesterday that it would be closing. It’s the second restaurant from the team — also behind Walter’s and Karasu in Fort Greene — to shutter at 128 Meserole Street in as many years: Apollonia, a Mediterranean restaurant, opened in 2019, only to close during the pandemic; Nite Nite followed in May 2021. Its final service is Sunday, November 13.
