QUEENS — An e-cigarette store has recently opened on Lefferts Boulevard and Austin Street in Kew Gardens, one of several new shops filling storefronts that had been empty for several years.
The vacant storefronts, located in a busy section of the neighborhood, across the street from Kew Gardens Cinemas and near the Long Island Rail Road station, have frustrated local residents for the past three years.
Misty Saloon, the e-cigarette store, has already filled the space at 80-60 Lefferts Blvd., and a Peruvian restaurant and bubble tea shop is slated to open in the remaining two storefronts.
Jib Jones, the 24-year-old owner of Misty Saloon, said he picked the location because he wanted the store to be on Austin Street and close to Forest Hills.
But some residents said that they would have preferred to have another restaurant or a food store at that location.
Murray Berger, executive chairman of the Kew Gardens Civic Association, Inc. said that while he was not thrilled that the e-cigarette shop opened in the neighborhood, “the street looks a lot better” now that the shop replaced an empty space. “There is no question,” he said.
Misty Saloon offers a number of e-cigarette devices and about 40 flavors of vapor, including key lime pie and vanilla custard, Jones said.
Jones and his business partner are also opening the bubble tea store called Boba Juice on that same corner, which will also serve a variety of smoothies and crepes. That store, Jones said, should open in about 2 weeks.
The third business opening on the block, Peruvian restaurant Corvina, is still under construction.
