By Anna Gustafson
For Forest Hills resident Victor Fiallo, Tierra Sana was meant to become a community cornerstone where residents could congregate, listen to musicians and poets and eat healthy foods that helped people migrate away from preservatives.
Fiallo, one of the Forest Hills’ restaurant’s owners, expected people would be drawn to the vegetarian menu, featuring items like the “Food of the Gods” smoothies and Cajun pescado wrap. Perhaps, he thought, they would be attracted by the frequent live music or even the place’s aesthetics, which include a large open window in the summertime, a fireplace in the winter and brightly colored walls.
Instead, Fiallo said the restaurant is not making money and he and his wife, Stephanie, are looking to the community for help. They held a meeting in June to discuss how the restaurant could change in order to dig itself out of the red and draw more neighborhood residents, whom Victor Fiallo said have not been frequenting Tierra Sana the way he and his wife expected.
“We wanted to have a focus group to ask people what they thought about how we could better service the community, and we got a lot of good feedback,” he said. “We had suggestions to possibly offer meat, to change our hours of operation and we talked about service, which people said can sometimes be on the slow side.”
Fiallo suspects the sour economy played a role in the restaurant’s troubles and said people tend to fall back on comfort foods when the going gets tough.
Forest Hills resident Mike Geffner, who attended Tierra Sana’s gathering, said the restaurant is “a tough sell for the area that’s older and used to eating meat.”
But Geffner said he expects more people will begin to come to the restaurant, especially as Tierra Sana begins to stage more events. Geffner began to organize poetry readings in March, and now there are literary events on the first and last Monday of every month. It also has open-mic nights every Sunday, and there is often live music.
Tierra Sana, which opened a little more than a year ago at 100-17 Queens Blvd., offers mostly vegetarian items that are made from scratch and are preservative-free. The restaurant has a variety of wraps, smoothies, soups, juices and teas, sushi and desserts. For the more vegetarian-wary customers, the restaurant does have fish.
“I’m a meat and potatoes guy, but I eat there and really enjoy their food,” Geffner said. “I’ve probably never eaten healthier in my whole life. I’m eating things I couldn’t prepare myself.”
That, Fiallo said, was exactly what he wanted for his customers, and he is hoping Geffner’s experience will become the norm for his clients.
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for years, and it always struck me how there aren’t many healthy options here,” Fiallo said. “We wanted to have products that weren’t contributing to the epidemic of obesity.”
Fiallo said he hopes to have more meetings with community members, but said he and his wife first need to find partners who will help them run the restaurant.
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.
