Queens Mt. Cafe Closes, Foxfire Mt. House Approved, Catskills Go to Queens

Small Bites is a recurring feature that includes a round-up of news and notes from other media, both traditional and social. Click on the links within each item for more info. (We love tips, by the way! Send them here.)

• Roxbury’s Queens Mountain Cafe, which is on the market at $300,000, has officially closed its restaurant. In a letter posted on the door this week, owner Martin Lerner cited “the owners’ personal matters” as the reason. He noted, however, that the downstairs is still available for private parties, and that four guest  rooms in the upstairs of the historic Main Street building are still available for rent.
• The owners of a 1914 inn in Mount Tremper got a green light for their plans to restore the building once known as Mountain Breeze Guest House into a 10-room hotel, restaurant and bar, the Catskill Mountain News reports. Tim Trojian and Eliza Clark, who have been restoring the building at 72 Andrew Lane for two years, plan to open the property this summer as Foxfire Mountain House.
• The Village Voice interviews kid chef Julia Rissberger, an 11-year-old from Oneonta, about competing in the White House’s Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. One of her secrets: New York State cheese.
• On Aug. 1, Catskills chefs such as Ric Orlando of Saugerties’ New World Cooking and purveyors like Larry’s Custom Meats, Vulto Creamery and Wayside Cider will team up with city chefs to serve up a backyard-barbecue-style festival called “The Catskills Come to Queens.”