Astoria 'SLDR' Restaurant Nears Opening After 2-Year Wait

ASTORIA, QUEENS — For months, a sleek green facade and a bright neon marquee have emblazoned a prominent corner storefront in Astoria, heralding the arrival of a new burger joint — with a promised opening date of "Winter 2021."

As that season came and went, some Astorians were left wondering whether they would ever get to dine inside SLDR Burger Bar, the restaurant planning to open on the corner of Broadway and 33rd Street.

Now, SLDR's owner tells Patch that the eatery is finally on track to open soon — by late spring, if all goes well — following a two-year move-in delayed by city bureaucracy and construction complications.

"I'm excited to bring something new to Broadway," said owner John Arvanitis. "It's a passion project."

Arvanitis, 27, is part of an Astoria restaurant dynasty: his father, also named John, founded the landmark Omonia Cafe in 1977 on the corner across Broadway from SLDR (pronounced "slider"). In 2019, John Jr., along with his parents and siblings, opened the Greek restaurant Amylos Taverna a block away.

For decades, the SLDR storefront was home to Romano's Famous Pizza & Gyro, an Italian-Greek restaurant that closed in 2020. All those years, the storefront loomed large for the younger Arvanitis, who remembers gazing at it from inside his father's cafe as a boy.

"Promiscuous eaters"

Once open, SLDR will center on a menu of 12 different sliders, or miniature burgers — supplemented by soft-serve ice cream, fries, and other fast-food fare. That tasting-menu model will give customers the chance to sample SLDR's entire burger repertoire in a single order, Arvanitis said.

"People are more promiscuous eaters in this age of visual bombardment: text, media," he told Patch. "We want information really fast and we get bored quickly, so we want to try a greater variety of flavors."

Arvanitis first signed the storefront's lease in May 2020, beginning construction three months later. He chalked up the delayed opening mainly to a city rule that barred him from obtaining a liquor license since the upper floors of the SLDR building lacked a certificate of occupancy — an issue that Arvanitis finally managed to resolve in recent weeks.

Various "misleadings of architects and expediters and engineers" also lengthened the process, Arvanitis said.

Besides food, SLDR will also feature a unique, computerized beer-ordering system, in which customers will select brews on a dozen iPad-like tablets, each of which is linked to its own beer tap.

"Customers are welcome to decide how much beer they want to drink, they’ll show ID, they’ll go up to these screens themselves," Arvanitis explained. "As they draw the beer, they’ll be charged accordingly for the length of their pour."

Come late spring, Arvanitis said he's eager to welcome regulars from Amylos and Omonia to the new space, and meet some newcomers as well.

"I’ve scrutinized every detail to make sure that it’s perfect," he said. "And I hope the unfolding of it is something that pleases people as much as I’ve been pleased and honored and humbled to be able to create it."

Have an Astoria news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.

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