1304 and 1308 Ulster Avenue are two storefronts in one building, and they have a door between them. On one side is YoYo Chicken, a halal-certified fast-casual counter. On the other is Soho Eatery, a self-serve market and café in the former Goodwill building. According to Hudson Valley One, YoYo Chicken's dining room opens directly into its neighbor, and each business also has its own front entrance on the avenue.
That inside door is unusual on a road where most stops are reached from the avenue itself. It matters now because two things are happening on the same 2.5 miles. The Albany and Ulster Avenue corridor added a run of everyday places to eat in 2026. In June, Ulster County started a plan to decide what the road should become, and safe access to the businesses along it is one of the goals. The new openings are part of what that plan has to account for, and the plan is taking public comments now.
Four Openings Between Kingston Plaza and Kingswood Commons
None of this year's openings is a destination restaurant. They are places for a weekday lunch, a quick coffee or takeout on the way home, and they opened across most of the year:
| Business | Address | Opened | Hours or service as reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jersey Mike's | 1204 Ulster Ave., Kingswood Commons | Ribbon-cutting April 9, 2026 | Daily, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Pho Panda | 300 Plaza Road, Kingston Plaza | June 2026 | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon–Sat; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sun |
| YoYo Chicken | 1304 Ulster Ave. | Early September 2026 | Dine-in and takeout |
| Soho Eatery | 1308 Ulster Ave. | Late September 2026 | Daily, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
Hudson Valley One reported that Jersey Mike's opened with a ribbon-cutting on a Thursday morning in April at Kingswood Commons. The outlet called the location Kingston, "technically Town of Ulster." That describes most of this road: many addresses carry a Kingston mailing label, but the businesses sit in the town. Jersey Mike's also takes online orders for pickup, which makes it a stop people can plan around instead of waiting in line.
At the Kingston end of the corridor, Pho Panda took over the Kingston Plaza space that used to be Super Bowl Cuisine. The Times Union described a menu that combines Chinese-American staples and barbecue with bánh mì, 13 kinds of pho, several vegetarian dishes, bubble tea, house-made caramel flan and mango sticky rice. It serves dine-in and takeout.
One Building, Two Front Doors
The pair at 1304 and 1308 is the clearest example of where this strip went in 2026. One operation in one building now covers breakfast through late evening.
YoYo Chicken came first. Hudson Valley One described an expanding chain whose name started as a family nickname for one of the owner's children. The menu is chicken tenders, smash burgers, wraps, milkshakes and fountain drinks, all made with halal-certified ingredients. The paper's reviewer singled out the single smash burger on a potato bun with sautéed onions.
Soho Eatery opened in late September. The same outlet reported a hot bar, a salad bar, snacks and drinks, smoothies, and a coffee and espresso counter that staff pointed to with particular pride, citing imported beans and unusual flavors. As of the end of September, a deli and a breakfast bar were still in the works. The owners told the paper the concept was meant to fill a local gap for a fast, inexpensive meal "that's not fast food," for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Soho opens at 6 a.m., which makes it one of the earlier stops on the avenue.
A place that is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. has customers coming and going from early morning to late evening, and they arrive from Ulster Avenue.
The Road Those Doors Open Onto
The Ulster County Transportation Council's project page defines the study area as about 2.5 miles of Albany Avenue and Ulster Avenue. It starts at the roundabout in the City of Kingston and runs north to Route 9W in the Town of Ulster. The three Ulster Avenue openings above sit along that stretch.
Hudson Valley One wrote in October that the corridor "has long been associated with serious accidents, dangerous turning movements, inadequate pedestrian crossings and speeding." The plan is the county's attempt to deal with that. The UCTC lists the improvements under consideration as traffic safety, travel time, access to public transit, walking, biking, and safe access to adjacent businesses and neighborhoods.
That last item puts the 2026 openings and the planning study on the same subject. The county's October 8 announcement says the plan will look at "land-use and access-management improvements," along with traffic calming to control vehicle speeds and better options for walking and biking. The same announcement lists stronger connections to adjacent businesses and neighborhoods among the improvements being considered. A strip that has just added several busy counters is part of what that work will be looking at.
The study isn't limited to drivers. Hudson Valley One listed possible recommendations including expanded sidewalks, bicycle lanes, improved transit access and "safer entrances to businesses and neighborhoods." That means the trip from a nearby neighborhood to a lunch counter on Ulster Avenue on foot is also within scope.
What the Plan Produces, and When
The plan does not schedule construction. According to the UCTC, its main output is a list of short-term, mid-term and long-term recommendations. Each will describe the problem it addresses and how it could be carried out. Those recommendations then become the starting point for future design work, which "could lead to construction."
The timeline is just as specific. The project started in June 2026 and is expected to take about 12 to 14 months, so the finished recommendations should arrive around summer 2027. The UCTC is running it with the New York State Department of Transportation, the Town of Ulster and the City of Kingston, and has hired the consulting firm Stantec to help.
A Technical Advisory Committee guides the study team. Its members include representatives from the City of Kingston, the Town of Ulster, NYSDOT, police and fire, and residents, as well as "several corridor businesses and organizations." The people who run businesses along the road have a seat in the process. Anyone else can take part through the public channels.
The first public step was an open house scheduled for Tuesday, October 20, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Office for the Aging Senior Hub, 5 Development Court. The county's event page listed a poster gallery and comment boards for the full session, with a presentation and Q&A from 5:30 to 6 p.m. County staff and consultants planned to present preliminary findings from traffic data collected over the summer. As of this writing, those findings have not been posted, and the project page tells visitors to check back for draft documents as they become available.
Where to Put Your Ulster Avenue on the Map
The open house was not the only way to comment. The UCTC runs an interactive map where anyone can drop a marker on a spot along the corridor and describe what feels unsafe or where traffic gets stuck. You can also read the comments other people have left. The county has not posted a closing date for the map.
If you drive, walk or bike this road, you already know the spots worth marking. Here's how to get your comments in:
- Open the project page on the UCTC site and find the interactive map. The study area runs from the Broadway roundabout north to Route 9W.
- Drop a marker where something specific happens. Examples include a left turn into a lot that feels risky, a crossing that is hard to make on foot, or a stretch where the walk to a bus stop has no good path.
- Read the existing markers before you add a new one, so your comment adds to what is already there.
- Ask to join the mailing list by emailing Brian Slack, Ulster County's Deputy Director of Planning, at [email protected]. You'll hear when draft documents are posted.
The county's open house page also links to the map and carries information about the October session.
The 2026 openings are the reason these comments are useful now. In April, Kingswood Commons got a sandwich shop that takes online pickup orders. In June, Kingston Plaza got a pho counter open until 10 p.m. most nights. In September, the building at 1304 and 1308 Ulster Avenue began serving from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Every one of those trips starts with a turn off a road the county is now studying. The county says public involvement will play a central role in shaping the recommendations due around summer 2027, and the map is where that input goes now.
At Grist Mill Real Estate, we've worked from 265 Main Street in Saugerties since the 1970s, and we follow Ulster Avenue the way our neighbors do, one lunch stop and one left turn at a time. If you'd like to talk about how the corridor plan or the new businesses along the strip could affect your part of the Town of Ulster, give us a call. We're glad to share what we know.
