Location (formerly Spicy Mela)
June 13, 2016 By Christian Murray
The owner of two Indian restaurants—and an additional eatery in the Falchi Building—has plans to open an international taco restaurant on Thomson Avenue near LaGuardia Community College.
Roni Mazumdar plans to open a restaurant at 31-31 Thomson Ave., where he will offer items such as tacos stuffed with Peking duck or Greek beans.
“It won’t be the same old tacos,” Mazumdar said. “It will be healthy and there will be many, many options.”
The restaurant will be called Wala Labs and it will be his third sit-down restaurant, with the others being The MasalaWala, located in the East Village, and Tapestry, an Indian-style restaurant in Greenwich Village. He also operates an eatery at the Falchi Building, which is located at 31-00 47th Ave. in Long Island City.
Mazumdar, who hails from India, spoke before Community Board 2’s City Services and Public Safety Committee last Wednesday as part of his application for a wine and beer license.
He sought hours of 6 a.m. through 2 a.m., stating that he wants to turn the restaurant into a night-time destination and not just a place for LaGuardia college students to have lunch.
“The plan is to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner—and do late deliveries,” Mazumdar said. “This is a unique opportunity for us.”
Mazumdar did not provide a timeline as to when he plans on opening.
The Board, however, said that there is very little activity in the area and that at 2 a.m. it would be the only place open within a block.
The Board gave his application the green light, although with the provision that he close at midnight.
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5 Comments
Such an odd location to open a sit down restaurant. There is no foot traffic here at night or on weekends besides students.
I love when restaurant owners post here pretending to be customers. Why don’t you leave the phone # also?
An authentic street taco joint would be great.
Hunters Point could really use a good taco place. Skinnys, The Creek and the Cave and Casa Enrique are each nice to have in the hood, but there is not a single real taco joint.
I just tried the tacos at the new Gantry pub on Vernon (where communitea used to be) and they were shockingly good. Taco Tuesday!