CLOSED AGAIN: The Coney Island outpost of Wahlburgers on Stillwell Avenue shuttered for the season for the
second year in a row on Dec. 2. Photo by Julianne McShane
FESTIVE: From left, District Manager
Eddie Mark and Alexandra
Silversmith of the Alliance for Coney
Island enjoyed the lights.
ALL LIT UP: Coney Islanders on Nov. 28 celebrated the holiday lights’
return to Mermaid Avenue. Alliance for Coney Island
Senior killed by hit-and-run driver in Sheepshead Bay
COURIER L B IFE, DEC. 7–13, 2018 3
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Call it a burger coma.
The Coney Island outpost
of Wahlburgers — the burger
chain owned by famous siblings
Mark, Donnie, and Paul
Wahlberg — temporarily
closed its doors this winter for
the second year in a row, the
company’s vice president of
marketing confi rmed.
Cooks at the Stillwell Avenue
spot — located at Bowery
Street, just two blocks from
the Riegelmann Boardwalk —
fl ipped the location’s last patty
of the year on Dec. 2, and the
restaurant will re-open sometime
in the spring under the
same management, according
to company executive Katie
Piepiora, who added that the
company will offer job opportunities
to existing workers
when the restaurant re-opens.
An eatery employee said
business slowed after Coney’s
bustling sunny season came
to a close, a trend Piepiora also
acknowledged.
“Coney Island is heavily
dependent on tourism and
the busy seasonal traffi c,” she
said.
Honchos at the Massachusetts
based burger joint,
which franchises its locations
to independent operators, fi rst
closed the Coney location in
September 2017 — roughly
two years after it opened in
August 2015 — citing management
“restructuring.” Months
later, the parent company reopened
the eatery’s doors in
May 2018 under new management,
Piepiora confi rmed.
Amid last year’s temporary
closure, a New York Post report
alleged that the fi rst franchise
group that operated the
eatery was having fi nancial
troubles , which prompted it to
fall behind on bills for the restaurant
and prevented it from
opening a second planned outpost
in Times Square.
The parent company no
longer plans to open a Times
Square location, according to
Piepiora, who added that the
Wahlburgers’s burger-loving
reps are continuing to look for
more Big Apple–based locations
to expand to.
“At this time, we do not
have plans to open a restaurant
in Times Square, but continue
to look for locations that
provide us and our franchise
partners with the best opportunity
for success, including
within New York, and are excited
about where the brand is
headed,” she said.
The city’s Health Department
shut down the chain’s
only location on the distant
isle of Manhattan earlier this
month, after it failed a health
inspection, according to Eater
New York.
Besides the Coney spot,
Wahlburgers’s only other Empire
State outpost is located on
bucolic Long Island, according
to Piepiora, who added
that the chain has 28 total locations
currently open across
the U.S. and Canada.
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
It’s the return of a beloved
holiday tradition!
Convivial Coney Islanders
gathered on Mermaid
Avenue on Nov. 28 to fl ip the
switch on thousands of holiday
lights along a mile-long
stretch of the corridor — the
fi rst time in more than two
decades that such a display
graced the neighborhood.
One local who brought his
youngsters to the lighting
said he was thrilled to see local
leaders inject some holiday
cheer into the area.
“I grew up here and I’ve
never seen this lit up, so the
fact that they’re doing it is
monumental,” said Charlie
Gil, who brought along his
2-year-old and baby sons, Angel
and Ray.
Do-good group the Alliance
for Coney Island and
the offi ce of Councilman
Mark Treyger (D–Coney Island)
co-sponsored the event,
and the organizers lit up the
street at the stroke of 6 pm.
The new decorations include
a red-and-white “Welcome to
Mermaid Avenue” banner at
W. 15th Street, and blue-andwhite
snowfl ake banners
across Mermaid Avenue intersections
from W. 16th to
W. 33rd streets.
Bigwigs at developer the
Arker Companies — which in
2020 is slated to begin building
a 153-unit below-marketrate
housing complex in Coney,
according to real-estate
blog YIMBY — funded the
event, according to information
from the Alliance.
Mermaid Avenue, which
is home to area businesses,
residential communities,
and schools, is a cornerstone
of the neighborhood, according
to Treyger, who said he
hoped the new lights would
help locals come together
this holiday season.
“It is my hope that these
lights strengthen unity in
our neighborhood,” he said.
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Cops are hunting for the hit-and-run
driver who killed an oldster after
smashing into him on E. 28th Street in
Sheepshead Bay on Dec. 1.
The motorist behind the wheel of
a Toyota van fatally struck 65-yearold
Iosif Morgenshteyn as the victim
changed his car’s front driver’s
side tire on E. 28th Street near Shore
Parkway just before 6:30 pm, and then
drove away, according to a Police Department
spokeswoman.
Offi cers from the 61st Precinct then
rushed to the scene with paramedics,
who brought Morgenshteyn, a Staten
Islander, to Coney Island Hospital,
where doctors pronounced him dead,
authorities said.
Police later found the white 2014
Toyota Sienna with Pennsylvania
plates unoccupied near Emmons Avenue
and Bragg Street and took it
into custody, according to the spokeswoman.
Authorities are also searching for
passengers who were inside the vehicle
at the time of the deadly crash as
part of the ongoing investigation, the
spokeswoman said.
It’s déjà jus!
Coney lights up
for the holidays
Wahlburgers closed for winter for second-straight year
Photo by Julianne McShane
WEAPON: The 2014 Toyota Sienna.
Photo by Paul Martinka