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

maybe a bit of a schlep, but Spicy Lanka is great. I had jury duty and walked there and kinda rushed them. Nobody was there for lunch and I asked for the check as soon as they brought the food and she thought I wanted it packed up when I just wanted to not have to get her attention again!

Anyway, I'd been there for dinner a few times already before having jury duty, it's great.

you can barely tell there's a world series going on actually

I wonder if iatee could tell it was going on once it actually started.

I do have to say for Forest Hills that the Burns St./Hawthorne Park area for Halloween was cool as fuck -- amazing displays, great trick-or-treating atmosphere, a little crowded but understandable why. K had a blast.

Good ska duo at Espeesso 77 tonight

Espresso

http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2015-11-03/a-guide-to-nyc-coolest-borough

Little Puebla?

I kind of wish the parenthetical "It's Not Brooklyn" was the entire text of the "guide"

way too LIC-heavy. LIC has great *things* in it yet somehow is kind of a boring neighborhood imo. I love M. Wells, Casa Enrique, going to PS1, etc., and the waterfront is nice (although I much prefer the one in Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO) but I never feel like there's much of an enjoyable vibe in the neighborhood itself.

yup.

We have been hitting Dutch Kills lately though.

Yeah I really need to check that place out. They actually opened a place right in Forest Hills too, which I also need to check out (End of the Century Bar, I think) but we just never wind up going out in Forest Hills.

I don't think they own that. It's people who had worked at various cocktail bars, Dutch Kills, Painkiller I think, but it's not theirs. I went on my birthday last year after a great meal at the fancy japanese place across the street. It was really weird. It was lit strangely and the only other person there was some kid in the corner playing on a computer. There were unbussed dishes on the bar and the menu was just printed on some plain colored paper. It looked like they didn't have the budget to fully remodel but they just took over some generic queens bar, covered up a sign and stuck a tiki head behind the bar. The bartender was a bearded bushwick guy and the drinks were great. Pretty odd.

I've been living in Queens for 1.5 years now and I still haven't hung out in LIC (besides going to PS1 when I lived in Wburg). Virginia Plain we need to go.

Also, has anyone been to Casa Enrique?

Yeah, it's pretty good, but didn't seem so out of this world special to warrant a michelin star and destination trips from all other boroughs. Only went once though.

If you were going to have a last meal in Queens, where would you go. The only think I can think of is eating like a thousand arepas. I want to take my friend out next weekend before he moves and had thought about Casa Enrique.

Drive out to Little Pepper in College Point. Always parking. Never too crowded. Some big round tables. Endless good food.

My favorite restaurants in queens generally are Chao Thai and Khao Kang.

Vernon Reid is at Terraza right now as guest guitarist on Prasanna's regular gig.

At least three different under construction mafia mcpalaces in my immediate vicinity have caught fire in the last week.

Yerac, I can show you many LIC places. I finally went to the Kansas City - style bbq place; still haven't been to the critically acclaimed ramen place. In that area, I usually go to yoga, Dominie's, LIC Bar, and Dutch Kills. There is a wine bar there that is nice tho pricey that may be of interest to you. I love the 5 Star for late night Indian food. There's also a few comedy clubs, since you're into that kinda thing.

So it turns out there have been SIX suspicious fires in under-construction or empty houses in my neighborhood since October 20. What the shit.

I am not 'into' comedy clubs! But now I am totally weirded out about everyone telling me that they hate stand up.

Stand-up has to be really good to be any good, is my thing with it. It's really painful when it's not.

This story is getting hilarious, and it's all happening in a mobbed up neighborhood:
http://gothamist.com/2015/12/02/arsonist_cryptic.php

srsly, are there any good oldschool Greek diners/restos left in Astoria? w/in walking distance of MOMI, especially?

there are lots, but most of them are a little far from momi

court sq diner, bel aire diner and neptune diner are all very classic diner-y

astoria is filled w/ all kinds of weird subneighborhoods, but the one momi is in is the weirdest, it feels like it's some random suburban town's downtown

yeah, it really bummed me out that it's all like Panera and Pizzeria Uno over there.

Good drummer at the Terraza Jam session tonight

The MOMI area is a little disappointing that way. People tell me Tacuba across the street is a good place.

There was also a good Arepa place within walking distance, don't remember the name.

Arepas Cafe. It is good but service can be hit or miss. They have another outpost called Arepas Grill that's bigger over in the strip mall on bway and 21st. We go there for the parking! They have/had a bigger menu, I don't know though as they both may have the same menu now, but Grill has stuff like Patacones which Apreas Cafe didn't have. But I haven't been in a while so maybe they both do now. Anyway, great food.

Austin St is a pretty big letdown too, although at least it's a long, continuous commercial strip with a lot of activity, whereas the MOMI area seemed sort of sparse and depressing. Lots of chain retail and restaurants, very little that's good. I guess I'm glad Uno closed, and I have mixed feelings about the Barnes & Noble closing (it was one of the only places to bring small kids on a bad weather day). Bareburger and Nick's Pizza are the only places we ever eat in. Apparently we're getting a Shake Shack, which I guess is cool but I would like an option other than fast casual burgers.

A fair number of empty storefronts right now too; meanwhile dress shops that look like they cater to 1980s proms stay in business.

I had no idea that barnes and noble closed, it was the only place I could hang out while the girl went shopping :( :(

wonder how many more years that company even has

It's open but closing I think end of year. The space is going to be a Target.

I guess that's probably more useful

Yeah I guess, although there's already a Target in that weird round mall next to Queens Center, which is like 5 mins drive or Subway ride from Forest Hills.

yeah I take the bus to that one once in a while. it seems like this one would probably be a little smaller than that one.

i stumbled upon the Bareburger once, it was OK

When we want Target we drive to the one in College Point. It's a lot nicer.

Bareburger is solid. Good burgers, nice beer list, decent atmosphere and extremely kid friendly, like there are very few places I feel more relaxed with the kids than there. That p much checks all my boxes these days.

I like bareburger but surely they've overexpanded in nyc

I think Shake Shack is overexpanding too, fwiw, but they kind of forced themselves to by going public. They already just added (or are adding?) one in the Queens Center Mall. I feel like they're going to kill the "treat" aspect of it, and people aren't going to eat that food regularly enough to justify the number of stores they want to have. Plus we have this other stupid fast casual burger place called Twist 'n' Smashed. Pretty sure it will close within a year or two though.

http://bareburger.com/

looks like they're going national/international. japan?? dubai?

the orig bareburger I think is the one in astoria. It's all over the place. I find the burger a bit underwhelming taste/seasoning-wise, but they have good gluten-free buns and daiya cheese, the least disgusting vegan cheese I've found.

a real point against it is the use of that worthingtons bullshit gourmet ketchup instead of heinz.

Yeah I'm less about their actual beef burger from a purist stance than I am about their various topping burgers, incl the ones with bison, elk, etc.

I kind of like the gourmet ketchup for the fries. Their fries themselves are v good.

this is the weirdest article and I had no idea what she was talking about half the time:
http://www.vice.com/read/awkwafinas-forest-hills-queens-travel-new-york-city

Our thread is one of David Bowie's favorite albums!
http://scallemang.ca/bowie25albums

We should start campaign to get QB Plaza renamed.

queensbowie plaza