Fare game
The year: 2003. Our Best New Restaurant winner (it was a tie): The Hangar Bar & Grill & Noodles
What We Wrote Then For Noodles: “While the menu is simple, with only ten main noodle bowls, there is nothing lacking in the fresh ingredients used to jazz up the noodles served at Noodles & Company. ... The décor is hip, the chairs and tables are real wood, and the soft colors remove the fast-food feel.”
How They’re Doing Now (The Hangar): Founded by Rochester developer Andy Chafoulias, The Hangar was sold by Chafoulias in 2006 and closed in late 2007 after the new owners faced an eviction notice for $40,000 in four months’ worth of back rent (according to the P-B story). Chafoulias must still believe in the location, though: He was the force behind opening 331 Bar and Grill, the new eatery that opened in the same spot in 2008 before it was sold to Chicago brothers Tom and Jimmy Karabatsos on Jan. 1 of ‘09. (There’s no Cesina hanging from the ceiling anymore.)
How They’re Doing Now (Noodles): Noodles, apparently, likes its Rochester results: the company opened a second location at Shoppes on Maine in May of 2008.
What Those In The Know Say About The Hangar: “I don’t think there was anything about this restaurant that really made it stand out,” says Matt Russell, a P-B reporter who previously covered the restaurant beat. “Being on the far south side of town and being located at an office park near the airport didn’t help much either.”
What Those In The Know Say About Noodles: “Kind of like Chipotle, it offers something different in terms of quality and selection that you now find at other faster-service places in Rochester,” says Russell. “They must be doing fairly well because they just opened a second location at Shoppes on Maine.”
Our Take: As a chain, Noodles ... oh, hell, just writing about it makes us want to go get a Pasta Fresca with Shrimp, add one of those rolls. OK, we’re back from lunch. As for The Hangar: Despite the fact that Rochesterites enjoy one of the shortest commutes—and one of the shortest end-to-end drives—of any city this size in the nation, the airport drive still seems ‘out of the way’ for way too many. Though, like Andy Chafoulias has said, The Hangar might just have been a few years ahead of its time. The Shoppes on Maine developments will start to draw more traffic to the far south side, and to the new 331.