Twin Trees: The Original

AI restoration of bar at Twin Trees in 1953 (PD)

 Twin Trees restaurant on Avery Ave and Chemung St, located on the outskirts of Tipp Hill and the city of Syracuse and blocks from Solvay, will be closing either for a long period or for good on 8 November after seven decades in the same family. With the second restaurant within walking distance just several streets away and a number of franchises around Onondaga County, owned by different family members (and even a semi-official one in Palm Beach County at one time), it seems that the problems facing the industry (especially with small businesses, as well as when older owners retire and have no family interested or available to carry it on, or even an outsider, like with diLauros on the north side, dating back to the Edwardian era) of rising costs and staffing shortages likely led to the flagships end. The sophomore down the road will likely be the de facto flagship from now on. Their style of pizza unique to the area has a few imitators. I'll try to head over for one last go, as well as take a snap for posterity and the blog before it's too late. I was hoping that the floof group could order pizza from there for the furmeet at Singers around the corner, even though at least one of us must have gluten free, despite one person on Yelp! claiming that it was on the menu. If there isn't enough of my pizza, I could run to the second one and try to be back in time for the next group shot (not that simple without a car, on the clock or a budget, even if veo had a bike closeby), or have them come round (have fees to worry about, and the original didn't always deliver, possibly for that reason, even when third-parties took over).
 It's bad enough when a local business closes. It's even worse when it's one that spans a lifetime and people of every vintage since have memories of it. All of the spinoffs in the suburbs just can't replace the founding Twin Trees restaurant, nor can whatever else goes in there if it comes down to that.

Goodwill Halloween Pop-Up Store

Goodwill Halloween Pop Up Store

 I don't have too much time for this one, so I have to put this in here straight away. While the proposed new Goodwill in deWitt remains in property purgatory, just a couple miles away, there is yet another property that might also stay vacant at this rate. Goodwill could get the former Charneys on Erie Blvd E in Empire Plaza if it's still available in one years time. The Mid-Michigan Bureau launched a Halloween Pop-Up Store to compete with Spirit of Halloween and Halloween Express in Birch Run, MI. Their counterparts in the Finger Lakes, based in Rochester, whose market area covers a third of Upstate and includes Syracuse, would have to consider it. These pop-ups have mainly open in outlet centres owned by Simon Property Group, who have one in Waterloo, which would also work, but right here in CNY is where more people live and would want such a place. While regular locations have a section for new and donated goods, the pop-up is exclusively for Spooky Season. Of course, AI is not always right and everything is not out of doors like a car boot sale, mind. I get the gist, and maybe the concept will reach this end of the Great Lakes next year. If the regular store finally pulls through, then perhaps the former Jo-Ann Fabrics in either Fayetteville or Clay or Goodwill don't compete with themselves or Spirit too closely (although the Clay one would be in Marketfair North, which has the Spirit for that end now, and you can't have both, although COR Centre down NY 31 have no qualms with Ross, Sierra, and T.J. Maxx altogether, but that's different). For used costumes, it will keep them out of the skip and tip.

Former Save-a-Lot locations

Former Save-a-Lot with Tractor Supply Co. in Bath (former P&C and Eckerd)

 Save-a-Lot, a chain of no-frills grocery stores, have closed locations around Upstate NY in recent years. Here is a selection in the Finger Lakes, CNY, Twin Tiers, Capital Region, and WNY.

Dansville - TBD; moved to Airport Rd

Bath - previously Deals Super Duper on Geneva St (moved to location pictured, then W Morris St)

Syracuse (west side) - S Geddes St; previously Carls Drugs and Fays Drugs; now Wilson Dental

Syracuse (north side) - Butternut St; previously Chicago Markets and Peters; now vacant

Cortland - NY 222; now CP Foods

Albany (Delaware Area) - NY 443 & US 9W; previously Fays Drugs

Albany (Uptown) - NY 5

Wolcott - Park Lane; previously indie

Lancaster - Aurora St; now vacant

Milk Bar

Milk Bar downstate flagship at nights, 2012

 A tip from the floof group led me to start this one for Milk Bar, another chain chiefly in major cities in North America. It's not exactly the same milk bar seen overseas or the State Fair for that matter. I suppose it could be in the same locations as Ghiradelli in our last post as both chains also satisfy your sweet tooth. Unlike the west coast brand, Milk Bar products aren't as easy to find outside their own stores. Sure, they can be ordered online, of course, but that's too easy and expensive at the same time. Nothing beats the experience of going to these places. One person had brought up the ice cream.

Ghiradelli

San Diego Ghiradelli location in former cinema

 Ghiradelli in the Bay Area are a leading brand of premium chocolate dating back to the Victorian era. They have locations mainly in major cities. Parent company Lindt & Sprüngli have even more, but that would require a separate post. There's one downstate, of course, yet Ghiradelli should expand to smaller markets, namely those Upstate. Ghiradelli products are available in stores coast to coast, yet I just learnt that they're also a chain through a Facebook post about cocoa of all things. My doctor wants me to have low-cal sugar-free cocoa, which Ghizza might think is beneath them, but anyway, this one will be a bit of a challenge since they're streets ahead of Gertrude Hawk and even Fanny Farmer from the old days. Might just stick to malls and strip centres in the main markets.


Syracuse - Destiny USA, former Unos

Rochester (Pittsford) - former Fays/Eckerd/Rite Aid, NY 31

Buffalo (Cheektowaga) - Walden Galleria

New Hartford - Sangertown Square, NY 5 & 5A

Albany - Crossgates Mall, US 20 or Colonie Centre, NY 5 & Wolf Rd

Johnson City - Oakdale Commons

Ponderosa Steakhouse

Ponderosa in West Branch, MI (Grok xAI enhanced)

 I thought I had done this one already, but I guess not. Ponderosa had several locations in CNY, the Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Southern Tier/Twin Tiers, and the Capital Region (I'm just an Upstate girl, you know). The sister chain Bonanza were more out west. Here are where they were (she finds everything!): TBD unless otherwise indicated.

deWitt - NY 5; now Kudos Medical (formerly American Medwell and Visage [unrelated to band])

Syracuse (Westvale) - Onondaga Blvd; demolished, soon to be Byrne Dairy

Liverpool - Oswego St/Old Liverpool Rd; now Francescas

North Syracuse - US 11; now the Daily Diner

Oswego - NY 104; now demolished

Auburn - NY 5

Oneida - NY 5

Geneva - NY 5 & US 20

Cortlandville/Virgil - NY 13

Watertown - NY 3

Bath - NY 415 (Steuben County is both in the Finger Lakes and Twin Tiers)

Johnson City - NY 201

New Hartford - NY 5

Herkimer - NY 5 & 28; now Costello Eye Physicians & Surgeons

Johnstown - NY 30A; now Sams Seafood & Steakhouse

Guilderland - US 20; now Hana Japanese restaurant

East Greenbush - US 9 & 20; now Chinese buffet

Colonie - Wolf Rd

Latham - US 9

Rotterdam - NY 5 & Eastern Pkwy

Schenectady - Altamont Ave

The end of the blog?

Allied moving lorry

 I have decided to leave Syracuse when I have the money, and possibly New York State. I just have no true connections here anymore. I just feel if I make a fresh start in a new city, I could start over. It may be just as hard to establish relationships with people who have their people as it is back home, but I won't have the baggage there, just the literal kind I have to unpack. The last time I moved house outside CNY, it wasn't my choice. Decades later, I would have to change doctors, pharmacies, and everything. It would be easier to get a job since they won't look at my past the same way they would here. I'm not getting younger and I'm not ready for an analyst. If I do leave the state, it would be hard to do the blog anymore unless I learn something second hand, but it would be the least of my problems since I have to get away from the cold weather one third of the year to a city and state with no real future, and people unwilling to take me seriously. I would like to come up with a doable new home and start buying new things before the next cold snap. My niece would have to tidy up and take in a lodger that can get on with our cats, who I will miss terribly, but I will have my own to take care of. This hasn't been an easy decade, century, or lifetime. I've thought about Florida, even if just for the winter like a pensioner, but I'm not even that old, mind, and I have to find a job that would let me go up and down the east coast. There are pros and cons to both states that we won't get into here. I've never flown only because of the cost and not aviophobia in my family. I also don't want the only way I'll ever fly is to have my ashes attached to a drone because that's too morbid, and cremation is for Hindus and Buddhists. I just don't want to wait until the next lifetime to have a better life, and these blogs have kept me busy, but behind every one of these sites is a real person with the same hang-ups as everyone else. Maybe this will pass and I won't go anywhere, or I will be ringing Allied, Mayflower or Sams and filling up moving boxes.