Beloved, local character and restauranteur, Joe Torres Sr., was honored during a street co-naming ceremony in Soundview on June 26, in the presence of family, friends, neighbors, former customers and elected officials.

 

“Joe Torres Way,” a section of street encompassing Westchester and Thierrot Avenues was renamed in memory of Torres on the recommendation of Assemblyman José Rivera and Freddy Jr Perez, president at FPJ Amusements & Entertainment Services, Inc.

It was an apt tribute to Torres Sr., who owned and ran Joe’s Place, an upbeat, family-friendly, Puerto Rican themed restaurant, located at 1843 Westchester Avenue in Soundview, for more than two decades. The local icon died in March 2020 following complications relating to COVID-19. His obituary was published in The New York Times.

 

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., his father, outgoing city councilman, Ruben Diaz Sr. (C.D. 18), District 17 Councilman Rafael Salamanca, District Leader Tommy Torres (A.D.53), Marcos Crespo, senior vice president for community affairs at Montefiore Health System, former Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell, photographer and recent honoree on the Bronx Walk of Fame, Joe Conzo Jr., and his father, Joe Conzo Sr. were among those present to pay tribute to the late Torres Sr.

 

Singers, Nayibe La Gitana and Frankie Vazquez, kept everyone entertained and dancing to the beats of salsa music on the day, while Eva Bornstein and Janet Sanchez, both from the Lehman Center for Performing Arts and good friends of Torres, delighted in the occasion, hugging each other and saying they felt sad yet happy that the restauranteur’s legacy was being honored.

 

On the menu at Joe’s Place, prior to the establishment’s closure, was a variety of seafood, steaks, and Spanish dishes. Torres was known to cater to both regular people, as well as the rich and famous, including baseball star, Alex Rodriguez, and award-winning performer, Jennifer Lopez. Salsa great, Eddie Palmieri, and other notables from the world of salsa were also known to frequent Torres’s restaurant, both as customers and as performers.

 

Liza Torres, the restauranteur’s daughter thanked everyone involved in putting the event together and said her father would have loved it. “It was super painful not being able to have a funeral last year,” she said, adding that her father would have been more impressed by the number of people who showed up for the celebration than by the street co-naming itself.

 

Her voice breaking a little as she spoke and gesturing to all those gathered, she said, “This, right here, is what he would have wanted.”