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

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

The Olive Garden in the city is a lot more expensive than a regular Olive Garden in suburbia. Same for Red Lobster.

Guilty fact. Once a year I get a Papa John's pizza even though I live a couple of blocks from really good pizzerias.

I feel you. I love getting Costco pizza when I shop there even though I have both a good sit-down margherita place and decent enough slice places around me

Costco pizza is good!

I keep talking about going to applebees like it will be a great suburban pleasure but this has sobered me up. what was I thinking??

It's definitely tasty it just doesn't taste like *Real New York Pizza* or whatever. It's more like an improved version of pizza hut

New craft beer store/bar just opened up right off Queens Blvd, by the 495 overpass I think called Q's Kraft Bier. Stopped in tonight, owner and his wife and daughter were there, very nice. Seems like they want to really create a neighborhood hangout kind of vibe. Selection was small but I think they're still getting things together. Can't say yet whether it's a place worth a trip from outside the neighborhood, but it's more or less on my way back from Costco so I'll probably stop in from time to time.

Apparently Lethem did a reading of Dissident Gardens in Sunnyside last night, with special guest the now-living-in-Jackson-Heights-but-as-yet-unencountered-by-me Franklin Bruno.

My girlfriend was there. Franklin's been living in Jackson Heights for a few years at least. I did the printing for the vinyl version of his last album and would drive him home. It was designed by comic artist Dave Heatley who I knew from college.

Wait does that guy live in the neighborhood too? Think I just saw his wife and kid and maybe him too.

Yeah, that was them.

Now I've gotta go pick up my kids a block from where I presume FB lives. Will be keeping an eye out.

Sorry if I outed them. Dave drew the Jack Heights cartoon character a few years back.

Haha, no worries. He drew that map of JH everybody was talking about a while back. I usually see his family at various events but he is not there too often. Never remember his last name.

Damn Nixtamal -- so good.

I feel like between that and Flushing-Meadows Corona Park I could probably stand living in Corona. It definitely seems like a great place to live if you're a latin-american family -- volleyball and barbecue in the park, nixtamal, all the kids stuff like the science center and the zoo right there, etc. And the neighborhood just has a pleasant vibe somehow.

Also check out this place when you're down there:

http://empanadascafe.com/

further away from Roosevelt but good.

Oh yeah, I've passed that place. Somehow I had a good feeling about it. It's directly on the way from Forest Hills (we either drive or take the bus up 108th).

Corona's a nice neighborhood but it is so crowded. The preschools are completely oversubscribed and the schools are overcrowded and the library is packed to the gills. So many children. Lots of opportunity/need there--if I only knew how to get some government grant or outside funding to serve the community/grow some sort of lucrative pre-school center or tutoring service or ESL school . Maybe one day the library will be 3X its current size and be able to begin to meet the demand.

Mrs. Redd sent me a text message the other day that she had walked by the JH library which had about an hour until it opened but a long line already queued up.

Oh geez that happens here too. Especially on beautiful days when the park or at least McDonalds should beckon.

Looked up Corona multi-family prices and they were higher than I thought (not that I can afford to or want to buy one right now). Hard to imagine they command the kinds of rents that justify those prices.

can make a lot in rent if you fit 20 people in them

lol at cruel Morrissey-like wit of VP

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/02/queens-museum-_n_4200249.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Still have never been to the Queens Museum of Art but this seems like good news for the borough.

worth it for the panorama alone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/arts/design/the-expanded-queens-museum-reopens.html?ref=design