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

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.

Good news everyone, my building got its first bonafide hipster couple. Guy had extremely skinny jeans, girl had an arty tote bag and an anchor tattoo on her foot. Good coffee can't be far behind now!

Or they'll move to a shitty part if greenpoint in a few months.

yeah that thought crossed my mind -- "will they survive out here?"

I've known hipsters who've moved to Sunnyside (quick bike ride to greenpoint and Bushwick!) and not last a year!

it's hard to be in a place without support systems

would read
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/outborough-destiny-jonathan-lethems-dissident-gardens

This sounds cool:
http://gothamist.com/2013/09/19/junk_car_drive-in_coming_flushing_m.php

I want to hear more about this Astoria hate. My broker keeps trying to push this gut renovated place at 38th St. and 29th Ave.? It was a bit of a hike to the train and I am only interested because I have never ever lived in a brand new place and am kind of OCD about my house being clean. JH is still my first choice (by default since Sunnyside has barely any apartments available).

I was just in Astoria today -- we went and hung out in Astoria Park a bit, which I thought was very nice, and then we ate greek food at Taverna Kyclades, which was amazing and a really good deal. Just having Kyclades in my neighborhood would be a pretty sweet amenity. Beyond that, I don't particularly love or hate the neighborhood. It doesn't have a lot of aesthetic charm and it's sort of a mish mash of things commercially, but there's a lot of good food. It doesn't have a hip vibe the way certain brooklyn neighborhoods do, it's much more of a mix of various immigrant community businesses and mostly straight-laced yuppie businesses.

Kyclades has the best tsatsiki, best saganaki and best grilled octopus I've ever eaten. Chicken and fish were also solid. Portions were ridiculous -- even the appetizer octopus was like a good-sized meal.

Never been, always intimidated by the wait.

We went a little before noon today and there was no wait. And they offer their lunch specials on Saturday, so it's a good time to go.

Good to know.

Not as popular/acclaimed, but we've had good meals at Agnanti, which has the benefit of being at the very end of Ditmars at the Park, a really nice location.

Eating lunch at non-brunch places at brunch times is often a good way to avoid waits imo.

ok I need to rag on queens for a minute, today I saw this fat lady and her fat mom coming into my building with two huge shopping bags of food from the OLIVE GARDEN. That's fucking queens. Some days I like FH and some days I'm like "how the hell did I wash up on this island."

there are parts of brooklyn with fat olive gardeny people, they are just further away

^^^ otm. there's an olive garden in east new york that i've driven past a few times!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KGF9EKE0L.jpg

queens is ruled by a fat olive garden person. what did you expect?

I used to love Taverna Kyclades when I lived over there. It sounds like their stock has risen since we moved (which, to be fair, was a long time ago) ... we considered them the more accessible neighborhoody fish place that we could always get into, compared to more expensive and crowded ones like Elias Corner near the beer garden

i just find it weird that anyone goes there in new york city when you're pretty much always in spitting distance of at least mediocre (i.e. better than OG) cheap italian food xp

dmr, Zagat gave them a super-high rating

wild. well they deserve it, it's a good place. I liked Agnanti too but only made it over there a couple times. it was a lot farther from our apartment.

the only olive garden I have ever been to is the one in chelsea and it was cause my gf wanted to fulfill her suburban guilty pleasure craving or whatever. I got the sense that it was the nice-night-out-with-the-family place for a lot of poor people in the city. it isn't even cheap and the salad and breadsticks are elementary school cafeteria style so it's not even a good guilty pleasure.

yeah the prices are pretty comparable to any red sauce italian place, so I really don't get it. Maybe there's something about branded restaurants for families -- when I was a kid I would get really excited about cheesecake factory, friday's, bennigan's, etc.

all you can eat is a pretty good selling point for fat people

I want to go to the Cheesecake Factory, after reading that big article in the New Yorker about their perfecting food processing/delivery. I always talk about wanting to go to these chain places but the one time I went to TGIF because I was in Delaware for a wedding and had no other options, it was totally the worst thing ever.

cheesecake factory is way better than the olive garden

I honestly remember cheesecake factory being pretty good. They had a cheesy pasta that was like drugs for me when I was a kid. And I used to love their ridiculous ben-and-jerry's style everything crammed in cheesecakes. No idea whether my 12-year-old palate can be trusted.

i've got a friend who likes to have birthday parties at the applebees at atlantic mall. half price apps after a certain time!

I was gonna say both the atlantic mall and queens center seem like they could support a cheesecake factory, but I guess applebee's has that market locked down

I've never eaten at Olive Garden but I find Applebees to be pretty much as you describe Olive Garden -- not even good as a guilty pleasure.

Chili's otoh -- I would never turn up my nose at that

applebee's is like mutant food that shouldn't be consumed by humans, olive garden is just overpriced pasta w/ generic sauces on top

I really wanted to try Red Lobster, did some research, there's one in Queens that has the most horrific yelp reviews. I thought it was in the mall, but it's not, it's in that weird Target/Macy's Furniture building a block away from the mall.

the building with the costco has a chain thingy called Miller's Alehouse -- they have a huge yet shitty beer list.

I wish that costco building were more easily accessible, I love their food stall

lol how they managed to get such an array of crappy beers on draft is amazing xp

oh wait you meant in rego park

I didn't even know there was a rego park costco

xp - We sometimes do Costco picnics at the Sculpture Park. Their food stall food is ridiculously good and cheap. I swear that their turkey provolone sandwich melt thingy is one of the best sandwiches I've ever had.

BEERS & ALES ON TAP
Amstel Light
Angry Orchard
Audible
Bass Ale
Batch 19
Blue Moon Belgian White
Blue Moon Seasonal
Bud Light
Budweiser
Coors Light
Dos Equis Lager
Foster's
Goose Island 312
Goose Island Honkers
Guinness Draught
Harp Lager
Heineken
Henry Weinhards
Icehouse
k*ll*an’s Red
Leinenkugel’s Seasonal
Long Hammer IPA
Magic Hat
Miller64
Miller Lite
Michelob Amber Bock
Michelob Ultra
Newcastle Brown Ale
Rogue Dead Guy
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Samuel Adams Seasonal
Sea Dog Blue Paw
Shipyard Export Ale
Smithwick’s
Stella Artois
Third Shift
Yuengling Lager

... and many more regional favorites! Check with your local Ale House for more.
BOTTLED BEERS

Amstel Light
Beck’s
Bud Light
Bud Select
Budweiser
Coors Light
Corona Extra
Corona Light
Heineken
Heineken Premium Light
Icehouse
MGD
Miller64
Miller Lite
Miller High Life
Michelob Light
Michelob Ultra
Negra Modelo
O’Douls
Omission ( Gluten Free )
Pabst Blue Ribbon 16oz Can
Red Stripe Jamaican Lager
Rolling Rock
Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Samuel Adams Light
Smirnoff Ice

yeah there is not a single beer I'd actually be excited to have on that list and only a handful that I consider solid

I had never heard of Batch 19, but apparently it's Coors's shot at a "pre-prohibition-style lager"

oh good lord
http://www.drinkhacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/sea-dog-bluepaw-beer.jpg