Gone are Maguire's Pub and the August Moon gift store near 40th Avenue as well as Funny Face children's clothing store near 41st Avenue. Venerable Marretta's Bakery adjacent to the Long Island Rail Road is up for sale as is Zoo-Rama pet supplies near 41st Avenue. At least two other Bell Boulevard stores, one restaurant and one retail, are rumored to be on the market as well.

But new neighbors Cascarino's Pizzeria, Margarita's Mexican restaurant, and upcoming panini and wine bar Press 195 are helping to cement Bell Boulevard's burgeoning reputation as Bayside's restaurant row and moving away from its past as a retail shopping center.

"It can become the dining mecca of Queens," said Judy Limpert, president of the Bayside Business Association, of Bell Boulevard.

Nowhere is the viability of the boulevard's commercial appeal more apparent than in the recent real estate listing of the six parcels that used to comprise the A. Kraus & Son wallpaper and paint store at 43-23 Bell Blvd., closed in early May and now on the market for a cool $16 million, according to Massey Knakal realtors. The property is being touted as ideal for a developer, investor or user,according to sales literature, and raises the specter of a possible apartment building on 214th Place.

"My voice mail is full every single day with potential buyers," Joe Cappello, Massey Knakal's broker for the property, said. "We're looking to sell it to the person or group who offers the most money with the least amount of conditions."

But even on a smaller scale, Bell's restaurateurs are happily feeding Bayside bellies.

"It's been very busy. I'm very happy with the turnout," said Cascarino's owner Jimmy Coady during a recent lunch rush.

Coady said he adjusted his popular pizzeria's offerings for his Bayside branch, making it more upscale than his College Point or upstate New York locations.

"It's a little bit more lounge-y because it is Bell Boulevard," Coady said. "Without a bar, you don't make it on Bell."

Down the street at 40-11 Bell Blvd., Brian Karp was in the midst of tearing down hair dryers and wall mirrors that belonged to the previous tenant, Hercules salon, to make way for Press 195's sandwich presses and full wine bar.

"We want to be something different," Karp said. "Everything's the same around here, it seems. We're going to do Hudson Valley cuisine and offer microbrews."

Asked why he chose Bayside as the second location for his trendy Brooklyn-based restaurant, Karp said "it's becoming much more of a destination for food. People in Bayside don't want to have to travel to Manhattan for good food."

But while hungry Baysiders may brave the area's notoriously bad parking for a meal, Bell Boulevard's retailers have been hurt by the Bay Terrace Shopping Center down the road because of the lack of parking as well changes in shopping trends and the rise of online purchasing.

Next door to Karp's renovations at 40-17 Bell Blvd., Zoo-Rama owner Pushpa Berera sat in her dimly lit store alone, listening to the aquariums bubbling and one parakeet chirping. With business so bad and a store closure imminent, Berera's shop is now only open four hours a day.

"The rent is too highon Bell," Berera said. Business is so low, too, because of the Internet and the parking problems. After 13 years of selling pet supplies on Bell Boulevard, Berera and her husband plan to consolidate the business at their other store in the Bronx.

But Limpert said the change in Bell's fortunes from retail to restaurants is inevitable and desirable.

"I don't think Bell Boulevard was ever meant to be anything like Bay Terraceshopping center," Limpert said. "It's a little village-y type of place, and I don't think it's a bad thing if it becomes a dining mecca. It's what the market will bear.

"Bayside will always prosper," she added.

Reach reporter Sophia Chang by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.