54-46, that's my number: the Queens thread

hmm I was just on my way home. gonna check the MTA site I guess.

whoa this is gonna be a bitch, I imagine the buses will be crazy. I think I'll go to Penn station and get on a q32 at the start of its route.

Good luck

yeah thanks for the head's up

mta starting saying "Good Service" again at some point.

yeah it was running by the time I was in queens. oh well, better safe than sorry.

uh oh. sorry.

I was getting on the N train in manhattan when we heard an announcement that 7 train was delayed in both directions due to an incident at 108th street. Which doesn't make a lot of sense since there is not 108th st stop.

We took the R to Northern Blvd and 54th st and walked home from there, which is a usual back-up plan.

I like that 54th street station. lotsa historical oddities in it.

wait I'm thinking of 65th st (that was our backup when we lived in woodside)

hate that northern station

never been down in the 65th st station. That's the one by ex-Spicy Mina, now "Woodside Cafe", another Nepali-Tibetan-South Indian-Pakistani-American-Italian place.

I sadly never made it to spicy mina. is woodside cafe any good?

65th station has this:

http://images.nycsubway.org/i1000/img_1015.jpg

which is one of the few sign references to the IND 2nd system that was never built - in the magical world where it had been built, there was going to be a line from queens blv to the rockaways.

there's also a few places where 65th street is referenced as rowan st, which was the pre-number name. but it's not officially part of the station name like some others, so it's just sorta there.

http://www.subwaynut.com/ind/65r/65r16.jpg

anyway just weird things to see if you're ever there.

We went to Spicy Mina twice and to be honest weren't that impressed. Could never tell if it was a "you have to order the right dish on the right night while Mina's in the right mood" kind of place or just pure chowhound hype. Haven't been to Woodside Cafe. For Tibetan we absolutely can't get enough of Phayul in Jackson Heights. And we now go to Chao Thai at least once a week. On the elmhurst tip, finally tried Ploy Thai to switch it up and it was really good. There's also now 2 Sichuan places that people are talking about that I'd like to try. Save us from trekking out to College Point for Little Pepper.

isn't 'woodside cafe' also the name of the irish diner next to sean og?

/ have you tried that new (well, not really that new now) 24/h diner under the 7? better than stop inn? at 41st street we live just outside of casual walking distance to woodside so these days we pretty much only end up there for srip. (by 'woodside' I mean 'roosevelt past the library'.)

It may be called something other than "cafe" but I think that's it. And yes, Woodside Cafe is also the irish diner, which used to be Rainbow or something? It's actually not bad, I've been a few times. Haven't gone to "Metro" yet. I have to admit, Stop Inn's burgers are pretty great for a diner. But seriously, we only eat Chao Thai. We hardly go to Srip, they really let us down the last few times we went.

still waiting for the effing G to 'normally' run after 11pm weeknights when Mets torture goes to extra innings

7 train ran fine tonight

http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/10/06/eyes-on-the-street-new-public-plaza-coming-to-jackson-heights/

rad

And I thought they were just reinforcing that street so that bus fuel wouldn't rot the asphalt.

hopefully there will be some tables?

Probably some tables with people selling the same stuff they sell on 74th Street,

Cafescape, the weird ex-Esparks coffee shop in woodside, is being replaced by Lucid Cafe, a much beloved coffee shop that sells Counter Culture coffee and only has one other location, in Murray Hill. My girlfriend couldn't be more excited.

That block has the entrance to Phayul, our new favorite restaurant.

(in Jackson Heights, not the block in woodside)

cafescape was okay as a place to sit for a few hours, but I really resented the way they'd make you give them your computer to type in the internet password / walk to you the bathroom

food and coffee was not great but that wasn't why I went

http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/reb/2710213156.html

apt. 2 doors down from mine is for sale. 10 blocks from Sripraphai...

even woodside co-ops have maintenance fees? jeez

Don't all co-ops? You have to pay the super, the staff, the hot water etc?

and the non-hot water

meant to word that "even the non-hot water"

http://secondavenuesagas.com/2012/01/12/eleven-weekends-of-no-interborough-7-service/

bleh

this sucks! i think they did this last year or the year before too and i thought after such prolonged maintenance, the 7 train would be capable of running when there is mild rain. silly me!

having to take the e/f in is so much more hellish during rush hour than the 7...not to mention what the transfer at qb plaza will look like for these 11 weeks

That's on the weekend, no?, not during rush hour.

But yeah, I take the E/F in the AM with the madding crowd because it is faster, but the slightly more pleasant 7 on the way home in the PM.

good lord. i need to brush up on my reading comprehension skills.

this is far more palatable.

No worries. I had the same problem listening to a story about services changes on New York One this past weekend.

http://gothamist.com/2012/01/17/fuggedaboutit_brooklyn_nycs_next_ap.php

People complaining about it being there but not Queens Center...Queens Center would make sense, it gets crazy traffic, but there's probably a wealthier demographic shopping on Austin St. It is kind of silly that Brooklyn doesn't have one.

A few years ago when I bought my last Mac Pro dual quad core tower, I drove to the mall in Staten Island to buy it. I walked in and asked for it, the clerk started asking what I needed it for, because she figured I'd probably really want an iMac. I started explaining what I do and soon as they knew I was serious and knew what I was getting she went and got the manager, who came by and shook my hand and said "congratulations, you're the only person to ever buy a Mac Pro here".

Ha.

I bet they won't tell you that on Austin Street.

haha yeah there could totally be like 3 in brooklyn at this point. wburg, downtown, park slope. prob more.

austin st. doesn't seem like it's built for the super wealthy demographic, that's what you think when you think 'forest hills' but it really does seem to be more tailored towards the middle class demographic in that part of queens?

are there apple stores in 'malls' in america? it might be an aesthetic decision more than a retail one.

The one in Staten Island is a mall. And not a particularly fancy mall. And I've seen them in malls in NJ I think.

Austin St. is middle class, but the residential area of Forest Hills Gardens has money. But who knows what thinking goes into this process.

I'd think one on Montague, which is a shitty shopping street obv. but still a key money neighborhood, or Atlantic Ave, maybe Court, Smith or 7th ave, all make sense. Maybe under one of the WB waterfront condos or something.

fulton in 5 years

Used to always bug me when I was in Brooklyn, the mediocrity of Montague Street. One of the few things with any personality was the used bookstore, which eventually moved and shortly thereafter went out of business.

I remember that bookstore. Where did it move (before dying?)

There was a cool used bookstore on 5th ave, near 9th st I think, for a while, maybe, but that's long gone. Glad the one on Court survives. That guy must own the building. Him and his dog.

Wish we could talk about great used bookstores in Queens!

The other side of Atlantic, not sure exactly where, never went. I think there is a facebook page. Yeah, Book Court guy owns the building- is it two buildings? - and was able to expand and keep his overhead down I guess. Don't even want to think about bookstores in Queens used or otherwise, recently went in that really junky one in Astoria and remember every time there was some vacant commercial property on 37th Avenue somebody would say "Wouldn't it be nice if it was a bookstore?" and it usually ended up being another beauty parlor.

that junky one going out of business fwiw

that junky one going out of business fwiw