By Alex Garrett 5-15-24
Written in Queens College Journalism Class in 2011 with Professor Tim Drachlis
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Whether it’s shaking hands with customers or serving up some favorites, these restaurant owners make Avenita Coffee Shop on Parsons Boulevard enjoyable.
Father-and-son tandem Francisco Navarrete and Navarrete Jr. have called 83-30 Parsons Blvd. home for their restaurant the last 13 years. When they moved across the street, I decided to cover it for my Queen’s College journalism class in 2011.
‘Overcoming what Navarrete Sr. thought were “too many bumps” in the road, Avenita has become a household name, literally, with about half of the business coming from free delivery.
Back at the restaurant, the Navarrete family is preparing for what they hope is a huge step in the right direction. This step would be moving across the street into what used to be home to a flower shop.
Why move? According to Navarrete Sr., it’s not only the basics of business expansion, but because it involves the legal realm of their situation. Coming into this year, the owners’ lease with 83-30’s landlord was running out and the landlord would only raise the price, and stood against negotiating a lower price for the restaurant to stay.
This caused the Navarrete’s to be on the lookout for a new place, and when the floral shop across the street closed down, Avenita’s brain trust “reacted right away”, according to Francisco Sr. As of now, Sixto Galvenes and Goldsmith Construction Corp. were working to beautify the new digs and finalize the new place.
While I am sure it will take a little while to move everything out, the Navarretes have circled the end of May as the move-in period.
As I finished off my delicious burger and soda, I hung around to see what other information I could retrieve.
Well, I had some help from one of Avenita’s loyal customers, who goes by the name of Jimmy. Jimmy works as a public safety officer at the Queens Hospital Center down the road, he has been at that job for 22 years. He’s been dining at Avenita for 11 of those years.
He’s eaten there because of what he believes is the closeness that you have with the restaurant and its workers. On average, he dines there between 4 to 5 times a week.
Jimmy says he sees the restaurant as a “place of refuge” and he’s able to “get away from everybody” and their problems at the Hospital Center.
How is he able to do that? By going to “sit down, have a conversation” with either Frankie Sr. or Frankie Jr. or both at the same time!
His thoughts on the restaurant’s move are very supportive and positive. According to him, the fact that customers will now be able to park in Avenita’s lot, and also the fact the restaurant will still be in the neighborhood are major factors to the move’s success.
As far as quality of Avenita’s food goes, the health department indeed gave them a clean bill of health, in other words an A! Originally, however, Navarrete and his father were graded with a C-which was a very curious grade. Turns out, the health department included Avenita in their report of the landlord’s entire property.
Well, with the help of their accountant, they filled out papers to re-apply for an inspection and the result was an A, which is proudly displayed on the restaurant’s window.
If you ever end up enjoying some of Avenita’s food, Navarrete Jr. assures that when asked what your favorite meal is, it will hands down be “any dish, you name it!”
OneLegUpAlex 