Coming 'N Going

I hear that a dining establishment run by the Taliban is moving in. It'll be called FATWA.

By old timers you mean folks who got before after 2005, right?

Because some of these newbies act like Baristaville was created once they discovered it...

What with their "Upper" stuff, their "why can't we go to our local schools?" and their "why does the Watchung Post Office close at lunch?" (having never experienced the joy of the vines and Lucy pix's...).

French Asian Fusion & Sushi Bar??

Pass.

The awning sign is a marquee. (A marquis is a French nobleman--so maybe that was a deliberate, ironic typo!)

I can't begin to say how annoyed I am with BofA for closing this little branch. We've banked there since way back when it was ... uh, Montclair Savings/ Collective/ Summit/ Fleet etc. I even wrote a nasty gram to the corporate office. (lotta good That did.) They so helpfully pointed out that we could do our banking at the Bloomfield Ave. branch (really, is there one down there? Useless - unless you live nearby and can walk to it.) or the one on Valley (yes, the one where everyone who is not actually banking there is parked and where Saturday morning gridlock is common). Yay!

Maybe they'll put in a drive-thru coffee shop.

Maybe they'll replace it with a 55 unit condo complex, complete with an IMAX theater, Ben & Jerry's franchise, Bally?s Total Fitness and 14 parking spaces.

LOL hrhppg!
good one your highness!
forget the 14 spaces though, since they'd have to be underground, and surely they would find some historic cavern beneath it that can't be disturbed!

Daikichi is getting hit from all sides: First the INS raid, then Toro Sushi, and now FAWA.

French/Asian cuisine is great and has become much more mainstream thanks to the likes of Jean-Georges. Looking forward to trying FAWA. Upper Montclair village needs more restaurant variety.

We really NEED another nail salon. Oh please, please, please!

I remember filling out a FAWA each year for my kids' college financial aid packages.

Damnit!

The (un)funny thing about the closing of that branch (that I have to go to like EVERY DAY) is that right now, I live and work within one block of that branch, but I can drive through on the way to somewhere else...whereas I live and work much farther from the Bloomfield avenue branch, but nonetheless I will HAVE to walk there since parking is such a nightmare and they have no drive-through.

Asshats.

Wet II

A bank

The now defunct branch was a seven minute walk down Claremont Avenue, at most. Damn it--what will go there? Maybe a drive through Spa and Pet Primping Emoporium.

It doesn't make much sense that BOA bothered to install the upgraded ATM there, just before the branch's demise. If they even bothered to do a study on the branch's activity, they would have discovered that it rarely was idle. The convenience to all has been jeopardized, thus forcing those loyal patrons, to fend for themselves.

I can't believe the number of people who still go to a bank branch to do their banking. What with direct deposit, online bill pay, direct debit, ATM's, etc. I don't think I've step foot into a bank in over a year.

It's the 21st century, people! Get with the program!

Yikes. That's terrible news about Montclair Video being replaced by yet another sushi joint. We already have such a rich tradition of Montclair video stores being replaced by banks, it is truly a shame this had to happen. My only guess is that Boiling Springs Savings is now so busy, they didn't realize this new location was available for expansion. What makes this news even more heartbreaking is the fact that if I ever decide to eat at FAWA, if I need to pay in cash, I'm gonna have to walk all the way over to Capital One, which if I remember right, is quite a hike from that spot.

Who goes to banks anymore? I think I've been in one once, maybe twice in the last five years.

You can't get rolls of quarters from an ATM.

You can't feed Montclair's parking meters without quarters.

What's a parker to do?

More Asian Fushion sushi? Bah- too much fushion and sushi.

Have you ever been in a nail salong that wasn't busy though?

I vote for a Lilly Pulitzer signature store.

"Old timers know the location as the former Thompson Liquor Store, which, in the 50's displayed a stuffed polar bear ... "

Hold on a minute! Wasn't the bear in Angelbeck's? Gosh, how I miss him.

French Asian and Sushi? They should have stuck with just a good old French restaurant. This area is really lacking in one to my knowledge. And don't mention Epernay, I had a bad dining experience there and refuse to go back.

"I vote for a Lilly Pulitzer signature store."

I second that emotion!

I hear that Passione on Walnut St. is a decent French restaurant.

As a tenant who uses coin-operated washers and dryers, it's imperative that I get quarters. There is no coin changer in the laundry room of the apartment building. My bank is only open late one night a week. Other banks won't make change for non-cutstomers. So, I get quarters at Commerce Bank. There's a branch on Bloomfield Avenue and Grove Street.

No time was wasted to remove the nomemclature that once was a viable banking destination, as I passed by there today. Yes, there are things that a computer can't do that makes a trip to the bank necessary. An ATM is one! Not everyone can be so lucky, as some, who boast about their long absence. Still, the banking industry is attempting to automate everything to layoff more tellers. There are services that automation can't provide and never will. Once this is realized, some people will "get with the program" in the 21st century.

Ok, good point. If you need quarters, or change, you need a bank. One of the times I was last in a bank I ran into that 'won't make change for non customers' rule myself. I was stunned. I had never heard of such a thing. Now, I understand why they might not want to cash checks for non-members -- that incurs risk -- but when I present them with an amount of American currency, I don't understand why they can't replace it with an equivalent amount. Where I'm from, banks don't have a problem with this.

Yes, I agree. This is a good example. The industry is training the remaining tellers to be salespeople, avoiding the services normally performed. It has somehow become an inconvenience to a bank for a customer to request simple services and, as punishment, puts them through rigorous exercise!

Just had birthday lunch at Fawa with my pal Mike - yummmmmm! Absolutely lovely teriyaki, incredible desserts!

I'd rate this one a 'keeper!'