Harry’s of Hartsdale, a popular bar and restaurant on East Hartsdale Avenue, across the street from the Hartsdale Train Station, closed for good Saturday night and posted signs today on its doors and its website saying its owners had “retired.”
Harry’s had been in business for 16 years and was the first of many restaurants that now occupy most of the storefronts in Hartsdale village. Before Harry’s, the site was home briefly to a family-style restaurant, known as Rockwell’s. Before that, the site was home for many years to Whittaker’s Pharmacy.
It is not clear whether a new tenant for the space has been lined up. There are no “for rent” signs posted.
Harry’s is the second major Hartsdale business to close its doors within the past few weeks. The Duane Reade located at Four Corners at the intersection of Central Avenue and Hartsdale Avenue has vacated its space on the northwest corner, leaving the entire one-story building there vacant except for a nail salon.
Under the Town’s proposed comprehensive plan, Four Corners would have been slated for “nodes” allowing multistory buildings to be constructed at that specific location with retail stores on the ground level and apartments on the upper floors. But the plan is now on hold.
The existence of an almost empty building at that location might spark interest in tearing down the existing structure and replacing it with a multistory building. Longtime residents say there used to be a multistory building at that location, but that it was destroyed years ago by fire.
In the meantime, speculation continues to grow over the future of the A&P store in Edgemont on Central Avenue. A&P, which is in bankruptcy, is selling off its stores, but no one so far has expressed any interest in the Edgemont location. Employees there say they’ve been told that the store will close in November.
Some residents have expressed hope that a high-end food store might replace the A&P. Others are speculating that now that the Town is allowing new car dealers to open showrooms on Central, a new car dealership might take over the site. And some fear the site might be used for the construction of apartments.