Hungry? Great!
The York University Development Corporation will be opening two new restaurants, two new stores, and a salon in York Lanes.
Christopher Edey, director of YUDC, says the new selection is going to add space and function, like places to sit and hang out, to the existing York Lanes franchises.
“It’s going to offer more sitdown table service and the kind of experience you don’t get at York Lanes,” says Edey.
While Blueberry Hill and Mangia Mangia are no longer at York Lanes, new franchises like Thai Express and Qoola Frozen Yogurt have been opened. Falafel Hut was relocated, and Popeyes and Indian Flavour underwent major renovations.
Salon Concepts Spa will occupy the space previously held by A&F Opticians, while two new restaurants, Cucinetta and Shopsy’s Sports Grill, are expected to open for business in the upcoming weeks. Shopsy’s will have a patio. Cucinetta, opening September 23, will focus on fast and casual Italian meals and desserts.
John Nerpiti, co-owner of Cucinetta, says Cucinetta is a project that has been in the planning stages for three years.
“Having already had a relationship with York and other restaurants, we knew what kind of environment it was and what students expected,” says Nerpiti, who is also the owner of Z-Teca at York.
At Cucinetta, customers can expect a variety of pasta dishes, pizzas, and salads for prices ranging between four and 10 dollars. Many students raised concerns about the lack of affordable, healthy food, and late-night options at a York Federation of Students’ town hall meeting held last year in November.
Pyrave Thayananthan, a secondyear public administration student at York, feels York Lanes still needs improvement when it comes to food options.
“I think [York Lanes] should have healthier options and the restaurants there only offer fast food,” says Thayananthan. He believes York Lanes would benefit from places like Quiznos or another restaurant like Berries and Blooms.
Edey says the franchises that enter York Lanes are selected based on their menu variety and price points.
“You can never represent every cuisine and every student’s personal taste in a building the size of York lanes,” says Edey. “We try our best with the feedback we get on Twitter and from emails from students in terms of what they’re looking for.”
Edey also notes York Lanes will undergo more changes in the upcoming years, focussing on the design and feel of the mall to give students more seating and formal hang-out space.
Victoria Alarcon
Senior Staff
Ah, so the I-95 Corridor BRT is executable on the exiistng HOV lanes. Good to know. The write-up in the I-95 Corridor TDM Study seemed to suggest that it was only the plans for the HOT lanes which made it possible: DRPT being nice to VDOT, I assume.It may not be the core of the application, but it’s a nice example of the virtues of planning. The TDM Study was done a couple of years ago. It analyzed trip patterns from/to the I-95 Corridor and came up with a bunch of recommendations for transit based on them. The last section, paraphrased, said, God knows how we’re going to pay for all this. But of the VRE expansion recommendations, VRE has already gotten stimulus money for the dozen locomotives they’d need; the infrastructure expansion they’d need (third track from Fredericksburg, fourth track from Alexandria) are also needed for SEHSR and so are in the Virginia HISPR application. Many of the bus expansion recommendations have made it into the TIGER application. What looked a couple of years ago like a useless piece of paper is beginning to look like it might happen. The readiness is all.