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

Do you ever visit your friend Tamar when you are in Queens?

I don't go much of anywhere in the borough cept Mets and once in awhile MOMI.

signed the contract on our place in FH, fwiw

Kudos. Looking forward to the housewarming :)

I grabbed some John Brown's just as they were closing last night to go and I have to say...the brisket wasn't that good. It was dry. Collard greens weren't great either. Some of fattier bits at the end of the brisket tasted great, but the rest of it, I didn't like. I remember loving the burnt ends so maybe you just need to stick with the fat and carmelization.

We tried Sage General Store in LIC for brunch, not wowed. French toast was good, but the chilaquiles were just like dry chicken over (soggy) tortilla chips smothered in sauce. And they gave us unfresh salad. LIC Market was better, but unfortunately much less comfortable with a kid. Sage has nice atmosphere so just wish the food was better.

Yeah. Sage has been there forever and is OK, maybe a bit long in the tooth. The only option for a long time.

For serious foods in that area...went to M Wells Dinette 2 sundays ago. Got out of the heat in the room filled with glaciers, then had an amazing and decadently rich meal.

Yeah, we had actually initially planned to do the M.Wells Dinette, but didn't realize that PS1 opened at 12. Then when we went back, we realized it was a Warm-Up saturday, and they had suddenly changed the policy so that our memberships didn't get us in free. We argued with them for a while ("I am not here to take my toddler to see a DJ show! I just want to spend an hour looking at art and go home!") and finally got in, and then the toddler only lasted about 15 minutes. But I did see the glaciers, and the fish pond.

they had this beet salad, honeyed beets with truffled ricotta and honeycomb and who knows what else. Amazing.

yeah it was totally amazing the last time I ate there

we'd only been to the old location. There was a bit of a wait on that sunday, but it's not hard to kill time there.

I kind of love the list of famous Forest Hills residents:

Hank Azaria (born 1964), actor and voice artist[14]
Walter Becker (born 1950), half of the musical duo Steely Dan[15]
Joseph Bowler (born 1928), artist and illustrator[16]
Michael A. Burstein (born 1970), science fiction writer[17]
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955), self-improvement lecturer and author of How to Win Friends and Influence People[18]
David Caruso, (born 1956), actor in CSI: Miami, and NYPD Blue[19]
Candy Darling (1944–1974), Warhol Superstar who appeared in a number of his films[20]
Sergei Dovlatov (1941–1990), Russian short story writer and novelist
Geraldine Ferraro (1935–2011), member of U.S. House of Representatives, television personality[21]
Art Garfunkel (born 1941), singer-songwriter[22][23]
Ernie Grunfeld (born 1955), former player and general manager of the New York Knicks[24]
Alan Hevesi (born 1940), disgraced former Comptroller of New York[25]
Steve Hofstetter (born 1979), comedian/radio personality[26]
John V. Hogan (1890–1960), radio pioneer[27]
John Francis Hylan (1848–1936), Mayor of New York City (1918–1925)[28]
Ethel D. Jacobs (1910–2001), thoroughbred horse owner and breeder, wife of Hirsch Jacobs[29]
Hirsch Jacobs (1904–1970), thoroughbred jockey, husband of Ethel Jacobs[30]
Donna Karan (born 1948), fashion designer[31]
Helen Keller (1880–1968), lecturer, author, fundraiser, activist[32]
Alan King (1927–2004), actor/comedian [33]
Andrea King (1919–2003), actress[34]
David Krumholtz (born 1978), actor[35][36]
Gary Kurfirst (1947–2009), concert promoter and record producer[37]
Michael Landon (1936–1991), actor known for his roles on Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie[38]
Harvey J. Levin (1924–1992), internationally recognized pioneer of communications economics, holder of Long Island's first professorial chair[39][40]
Jack McAuliffe (1866–1937), world lightweight boxing champion[41]
Min Xiao-Fen (born 1961), pipa player and vocalist [42]
Michele "Big Mike" Miranda (1896–1973), consigliere of the Genovese crime family and one of the most powerful New York gangsters in the 1950s and 1960s[43]
Carroll O'Connor (1924–2001), actor, best known for his role as Archie Bunker on All in the Family[44]
Rick Overton (born 1954), actor and comedian[45]
Susan Polgar (born 1969), chess grandmaster[46]
Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), bassist and songwriter of seminal punk rock band, the Ramones[47]
Joey Ramone (1951–2001), lead singer and songwriter of the Ramones[48]
Johnny Ramone (1948–2004), guitarist of the Ramones[49]
Tommy Ramone (born 1952), record producer and musician with the Ramones[50]
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), psychiatrist known for his theories of Orgone energy[51]
Daniel Ribacoff (born 1959), private investigator and polygraph expert for The Steve Wilkos Show[52]
Ray Romano (born 1957), actor-comedian, best known for Everybody Loves Raymond[53]
Chris Rush, stand-up comedian[54]
Renato Russo (1960–1996), Brazilian bandleader
Joan Shawlee (née Fulton; 1926–1987), actress[55]
Paul Simon (born 1941), singer-songwriter[23]
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (born 1966), member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida's 20th congressional district.[56]
Tatiana Troyanos (1938–1993), mezzo-soprano known for her work at the Metropolitan Opera[57]
Bob Tufts (born 1955), former Major League Baseball pitcher[58]
Jeff Wayne (born 1943), musician known for his musical version of The War of the Worlds[59]
Katharine Weber (born 1955), novelist, author of five novels, including Triangle and True Confections.
Leslie West (born 1945), of the hard rock band Mountain[60]
Henry Willson (1911–1978), Hollywood agent[61]
Jack Wyatt (1917–2008), host of ABC's Confession; Episcopalian priest[62]
Gideon Yago (born 1978), journalist, former correspondent at MTV and CBS News[63]
Manuel Ycaza (born 1938), jockey inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame[64]

Maybe any neighborhood in NYC is going to have an equally good list though, IDK.

Susan Polgar hasn't lived in Forest Hills for a few years but the Barnes and Noble over there does have a lot of chess books.

I find the ones that were born or grew up there more interesting, maybe because my kids are going to grow up there most likely. Simon AND Garfunkel AND Becker AND all of the Ramones.

Was looking for some names I didn't see then realized I was thinking of the Townsend Harris alumni list.

Walked around Flushing Meadows Corona Park this weekend and was surprised at how pretty some parts of it are -- sort of looks more like a modern european city park rather than the more naturalistic style of the Olmstead parks.

There was some kind of hispanic unity/possibly religious festival going on and at most moments we were the only white people visible to us in any direction, and I kept having this thought that I felt kind of bad about that I was surprised there was such a nice spot in New York City that hasn't been taken over by rich white people yet.

It gets nicer and nicer the closer to the US Open it is I bet.

We checked out the LIC waterfront and the flea last weekend. The waterfront feels more like Arlington VA or something than a part of NYC somehow -- nothing but new high rise buildings, slightly conservative mid-range restaurants -- even the personal style of most of the people we saw just wasn't very New York somehow, to be rockist about it. The LIC flea market is kind of a pale imitation of Brooklyn Flea but there were some pretty good food vendors. I liked the barbecue from the Astoria place (forget the name).

If I move to Jackson Heights will I eventually get run down by strollers? Should I stick to Sunnyside/Woodside? Virginia Plain email me, I don't have your phone number anymore!

depends which part of Jackson Heights. Some of Sunnyside's got strollers too.

You will get run down by halal food carts though.

lol, gentrification moves fast these days but the greatly exaggerated reports of it move even faster. I certainly don't see that many ex-Park-Sloper types get on the train at the Jackson Heights stop on the E in any case -- maybe a small and slowly growing faction of vaguely hipstery twentysomethings but that's about it.

of course, I'm assuming "strollers" is being used in a kind of coded way for yuppies with kids. Cause it's not like the various immigrant families who live there don't push their kids in strollers.

The legendary horde of Park Slope invaders in Jackson Heights is practically non-existent and is sighted about as often as the mysterious enemy in The Desert of the Tartars.

Just got back to test this out. No strollers in sight. My move within the next 6 months will either be to (in order of preference) Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, Woodside, Sunset Park. Saying goodbye to Williamsburg after 10 years.

I am going to eat ALL of Jackson Heights.

I would choose Jackson Heights out of those -- best food, easy to get to the city (especially midtown), some really nice old buildings

I don't know. The part of Jackson Heights that seems to be where most people end up living is enough of a schlep from 74th st that you may as well live any number of places, though it's nice not to be too far. Personally, I'm happy to have ended up where I am in Woodside. Where the other neighborhoods are easy to get to but my own area has it's little charm.

I saw a place on 65th st and 38th ave. Didn't love that corner, so where Woodside had been number two last week, that small area bumped it down. I am only looking for within a 5 minutes walk of the subway and there are just so many more apartments in Jackson Heights that I had to extend my look out there.

You might want to extend that walk to 10 minutes. In Jackson heights a lot of the nice apartments are about an 8 to 10 minute walk from the 82nd street stop.
In sunnyside as well, there's nice apartments close but also nice ones about 10 minutes away. My walk is probably like 8 minutes but my apartment is nicer than when my walk was about 3 minutes.

7 minutes then! For some reason all the apartments people have been showing me are like 2 blocks from the subway.

has anyone else gone to the new Italian place on queens boulevard in ss? there was a fairly long wait to get in both times we went. and it's filled with white 30 somethings. times they are a changing etc

Now but I've been to Vesta a bunch. Glad to have it in the area.

Don't forget Woodside has the express 7 stop and LIRR. In any case, you can't write off Woodside based on one little area, since block by block it varies widely. It's mostly not very attractive.

I found the perfect place on Woodside Ave. by Doughboy park ( I think you live near there?) but then supposedly the girl decided not to move. I also saw the building appear on the bedbug registry, so maybe it's all for the best.

I live on Woodside Ave across the street from Doughboy Park, so you were either in my building or one of two right near it.

55-05

was your number

yes. that's my building. it doesn't have a bedbug epidemic. it's cleaner than most buildings I've seen and fairly well-maintained. Certain apts have mice, certain have roaches, we've fought both at times but haven't seen either in a few years. Pretty par for the course for NYC. If something opens up I'd recommend it. Generally nice people, nice to look out the window and see a park. Fairly close to 52nd st and 61st 7 trains, or in a pinch, M and R at Northern Blvd. Pretty good parking. etc. We walk to Astoria to go to Queens Kickshaw, we walk to Elmhurst for Thai food, to Jackson Heights for Nepali/Tibetan, Gola Kebab! Sammy's Halal!, to Sunnyside for Mangal Kebab.

I live across from Cooper Park right now, so I don't really want to give up seeing trees and walking my dog on grass.

I am hoping she changes her mind in the next 3 months which would be better for me anyway (this is to buy btw). I looked again at the registry and it only seems like there were a couple of incidences maybe 2-3 years ago.

Help me convince LauPo to move too.

I tried already. I don't think it's gonna happen.

She was all about moving to Sunset Park when I was looking there. For one day.

Trying to see if I can get ilxor curmudgeon to come out this way during his visit next weekend.

I live across from Cooper Park right now, so I don't really want to give up seeing trees and walking my dog on grass.

lol wth are you me? That's where I lived before I moved to Forest Hills (well, a block from Cooper Park on Metropolitan).

Anyway, Mumford at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium happened yesterday. Sort of curious how the stadium was as a venue, though not curious about how the show was.

The entrance and sign are pretty sweet looking

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-64lAMODatno/Uh1y2_6yBkI/AAAAAAAAD3c/icZGQwfVmMo/s1600/New+Stadium+Entrance.jpeg

er the sign is anyway

I have been directly at the north entrance of the park for 10 years now. I am making an offer on a place in JH on Saturday. I am super anxious about this whole co-op board process.

Oh hey, nice. I'm just about to submit my co-op application here in Forest Hills. The process is more a pain than anything else, as far as I can tell. There's just a lot of crap you have to put together, depending on the co-op. But doubt a building in Jackson Heights is going to be super strict about approving you as long as you have some money in the bank and some income.

Supposedly, most buildings in Sunnyside/Woodside/JH that I looked at, the co-op board won't approve if my current residence is not already listed/sold. I still have a mortgage on it. But I don't want to list it until I have somewhere to live.

Hmm, I think you kind of have to sell your place anyway, just to get a new mortgage (unless you are just buying all cash from the equity in your old place or whatever -- if you've owned by Cooper Park for 10 years, that seems possible!) -- I'm renting now, but that's my understsanding. Have you talked to a broker or lawyer at all about it? I can e-mail the name of our Queens RE lawyer, who's pretty good.

Sent you an e-mail.