☞ SHOP: 1280 Amsterdam Restaurant Revealed

The old Blockbuster video space at 1280 Amsterdam has been preparing itself for a new eatery and now that establishment has been revealed. We recently walked by the plywood wall at the corner of 123rd Street and more signs were up announcing that the space belonged to the Green Tree Chinese Restaurant.  There's actually a small Chinese take-out right next door to this new restaurant so its unclear if that business is just expanding its current operations.

In our opinion, this cusp of West Harlem and Morningside Heights would have been a great corner for a better restaurant such as the nearby Kitchenette (lower photo) which always has lines out front during the weekend. Max SoHa is also right at that opposite corner along with the its own cafe and Columbia's campus is only a couple of blocks south. As for Chinese fare, there's so many cheap take-out joints in the area that it will be hard for a restaurant with this much commercial space to be successful unless the food and look of the restaurant are on point. Decor wise, downtown's Chinatown Bistro has great ambiance but we're guessing this new business will not have the type of money needed for that sort of renovation: LINK