Last week, it was announced that Route-111’s Hauppauge/Smithtown-dividing strip, colloquially billed by locals as “Restaurant Row” when in full operation, is getting a pair of new residents. What was long-ago Blockbuster Video, and the more-recently closed Burger King, are supposedly soon to become a Taco Bell and a Raising Cane’s, respectively.
This past December, The Messenger reported that, amid strip mainstay McDonald’s shocking foreclosure as the calendar would turnover to 2023, speculation suggested condominiums upon condominiums could be storming through. This purely hypothesized maneuver would complement what’s transpired on the other side of Smithtown Bypass between Bolla Market and what was once St. John’s Hospital.
Just up the road from the northmost end of the Hauppauge hamlet after passing the intersection of Smithtown Bypass and Rt.-111, Chick-fil-A memorably rolled into town. The popular fast-food hub occupies hallowed ground, according to many passionate locals of certain generations, still irked that its beloved 24-hour Bagel Gallery, AKA “Hot Bagels,” was ousted from its lot and sent less than a mile up the road into the “Village of the Branch” shopping center flagship-marked by Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace.
Save for C-f-A’s company rest time on Sundays, this has led to a consistent uptick in daytime traffic congestion within an already-tight area, sending some enraged nearby residents into a tailspin.
Meanwhile, the collective survey says light pollution and noise pollution are two of the leading causes of local resident fury with regard to the next batch of eatery additions.
In a broader discussion on traffic combat, do remember this: Chipotle Mexican Grill of Motor Parkway in Hauppauge, the adjacent lot of which is set to receive a Burger King, has seen its lines and overall clutter-craziness drastically decline compared to when it first opened shop as Hurricane Irene fired off warning shots in late August of 2011. Business has still boomed in conjunction with this pandemic-laid decade’s online order takeover due to the town introducing its second Chipotle, actually across from the rendered-defunct — Wendy’s, Starbucks and Branchinelli’s Pizzeria notwithstanding — Restaurant Row in ShopRite’s shopping center.
Therefore, those with closer proximity to 111 who’d otherwise be flocking to Central Islip or Smithtown Taco Bells for their wee-hour cheesy gordita fix will benefit from the third option that wouldn’t introduce as much traffic, noise and light shows as Chick-fil-A does in the daytime anyway. And yet, people are still crying foul play. Sure, the Volcano Menu may have returned, but Taco Bell isn’t in a Dorito Locos Tacos era of storefront beacon-lit marketing to make your car horns go boom.
Shaving cars off of the end of the aforementioned Taco Bells locations’ — respectively centered around train and police stations and nursing home and suburban residences — drive-thru lines will decrease disturbances in areas that would suffer worse with them than 111 would without options beyond what’s left of Restaurant Row’s heyday — Okey Dokey’s or Santa Fe Grill, anyone?
As for Raising Cane’s, like Chick-fil-A, it’s a chicken joint with Southern roots that was once completely foreign to New Yorkers, let alone Long Islanders. Locals with a penchant for travel describe it as nothing out of the ordinary, somewhere between good and great on the “we’re fish out of water / it’s cheat day, let’s affordably feast” scale. An ample sample size of a collective affinity for Taco Bell can be qualified, whereas Raising Cane’s maybe can’t be quite yet— but those raising hell over Cane’s and Bell should not prematurely raise anything other than loose change from their central console and cupholders.
Here’s why: the more options to choose from in the same cluster strip, the less traffic each individual establishment will draw. With Wendy’s the last remaining of the Burger big three… have you seen Starbucks at noon on a Tuesday? Have any of you ever tried a Frozen Coffee and omelet bites from Dunkin instead?
With only three food-and-drink options left, the drive-thru line for a Starbucks or a Wendy’s will routinely spill into incoming traffic. You add Taco Bell, Raising Cane’s and something to replace McDonald’s in the mix, and maybe, just maybe, less heads will roll, and honk, from passersby.
Cautious heads aside, think about it like this: it could be much worse. More condominiums could be coming to play pepper with this packed-to-the-brim road, and we’ve seen plenty of that. It’s better to have more options, more stoptions. As good as Branchinelli’s is, the older you get the less frequently you can eat pizza in bulk. And the older you get, the less you want to look at homes you’ll never afford and say as you pass them by: “hey son, you know I used to rent VHS tapes there?”
“What’s VHS?”
“…”
