QUEENS — Twist and Smash’d, a neighborhood burger joint that has been closed for several weeks, now has a sign in its window advertising the space as "available," but the restaurant insists that the closing is temporary.
The eatery, which first opened at 72-06 Austin St. in November 2013, shut its doors about a month ago and has remained closed ever since. This week, Century 21 posted a sign that the store is for rent.
The owners of the restaurant could not be reached for comment Thursday. But in an email sent to DNAinfo New York on June 15, one of the owners Brianna Cano, said that that “the restaurant is not out of business. We will be re-opening later this weekend."
She also said that the restaurant spent the previous week at Mysteryland, an electronic dance music festival upstate New York, and the eatery was planning to serve food at the Forest Hills Stadium during Mumford and Sons concerts on June 16 and 17.
“Thank you to all of our wonderful patrons for calling, emailing, and posting. We were away this weekend at Mysteryland USA and currently are facing electrical issues. Stay tuned for more updates, we plan to re-open shortly!,” the restaurant posted on its Facebook page on June 13.
On the same day, the restaurant tweeted that it is “facing issues with our grills."
Twist and Smash'd was listed as a vendor on Mysteryland USA's website, but it was not immediately clear if the restaurant served there or at the Mumford and Sons concert.
Its Twitter and Facebook accounts have not been updated since June 13.
Leslie Brown, president of the Forest Hills Chamber of Commerce, said that the area features numerous burger joints making it hard for them to thrive.
"I feel like they had very stiff competition," she said about Twist and Smash'd.
There is a Bareburger across the street from Twist and Smash'd and Shake Shack opened on the same block in May. Another burger joint, Cheeburger Cheeburger, is located just one block away on Queens Boulevard. Many other restaurants and pubs in the neighborhood also serve burgers.
In 2014, Twist and Smash'd expanded to Astoria, where it opened a sports bar. An employee who picked up the phone at Twist and Smash'd Sports on Thursday said she didn't know whether the Forest Hills location was open or closed.
