Openings and closings: Omega opens on Fifth Avenue, Balducci’s to close

Clockwise from top left: Omega, Dynasty Restaurant & Coffee Shop, Kobe Club and Balducci’s

Omega has opened its Fifth Avenue flagship store. Crumbs Bakeshop, at 1675 Broadway between 52nd and 53rd streets, has a “ready soon” sign in the window. The Dynasty Restaurant & Coffee Shop on Avenue B and 14th Street will reopen as the AlphaBet Cafe within two weeks. In Park Slope, the grocery store at the corner of Sixth Avenue and St. Marks Place will become another location of Cubana Cafe in July. The Odd Twin Trading Company, a vintage clothing store, hung up its sign at 164 Fifth Avenue at Degraw recently. Filene’s Basement, which has a store at Broadway and 79th Street, has, for the moment, avoided a possible bankruptcy by talking to creditors about restructuring its debt. The East Hampton location of the Kobe Club will close, and the space will become a new location of Chinese restaurant Philippe. The owner will donate a percentage of the summer’s profits to the American Cancer Society in the name of former New York Post real estate columnist Braden Keil. 

But other retailers have not been as lucky as Filene’s in avoiding closure. The Beatrice Inn has been shut down. Balducci’s, a gourmet grocery store, is closing both of its Manhattan locations, on West 66th Street and at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Chelsea, at the end of the month. The chain has other locations in Connecticut, Maryland and elsewhere, according to the company’s Web site. Clinton Restaurant, on the corner of Clinton and East Houston streets on the Lower East Side, is up for sale, though the restaurant is still open. The R&S Strauss auto parts store on East 14th Street at Avenue C has closed. The space was reportedly sold in January, but the purchaser is not named. TRD