One of Tokyo’s Oldest Soba Shops Couldn’t Make it in New York City

Sarashina Horii, an offshoot of one of Tokyo’s oldest soba shops, will close its doors at the end of June, Crain’s New York Business reports. The restaurant, operated by Create Restaurants, a major hospitality group in Japan with some 800 restaurants in its portfolio, opened in Flatiron about two years ago, marking the first time it served its noodles outside of Japan. The soba shop will now shutter amid larger closing plans that include Japanese grill Aburiya Kinnosuke and sister restaurant Soba Totto, which are also run by the hospitality group. “The economy has been a big problem,” Shannon Ryoo of Create Restaurants tells Crain’s. The restaurants relied on business executives from overseas, who have been slower to return to New York City due to high travel costs, he says.

Angelina Bakery opens a second location

Angelina, the Parisian cafe chain famed for its rich hot chocolate, opened a second location in the city this week at 1121 Lexington Avenue, at East 78th Street, on the Upper East Side. The new storefront is a slimmed-down version of Angelina’s cafe near Bryant Park, which became the company’s first U.S. outpost when it opened there in 2020. There’s no full-service tea room or restaurant, but the pastry case is lined with hazelnut sponge cake and Mont-Blancs in a variety of flavors, Upper East Site reports.

Elected officials cut the ribbon on a new doughnut shop

Elected officials convened in Fresh Meadows, Queens, on Thursday to cut the ribbon on Duck Donuts, a doughnut chain with more than 100 locations across the country, QNS reports. The shop at 61-32 190th Street, in the Fresh Meadows Place mall, is the company’s first outpost in New York City. Customers choose from an array of toppings and glazes, like maple icing and bacon, then watch as their doughnuts are prepared. Opening hours are Sunday to Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A fancy spice company appears on ‘Shark Tank’

Queens-based spice company Burlap & Barrel will appear on Shark Tank this evening. The company, which mostly served restaurants when it started in 2016, has targeted home cooks in recent years and is looking to expand, Crain’s New York Business reports. “We’re doing all the stuff to just get ready for this crazy, crazy bump in traffic that we’ve heard from many other Shark Tank companies is just going to come in a wave,” co-founder Ori Zohar tells Crain’s. The episode airs on ABC at 8 p.m.