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

yeah the quality of the treats is lacking but like barrington levy says the vibes is right

jahn's in jackson heights is also a quality vibes ice cream shop

Brian Charette to hit in forty minutes at the JH Jazz Festival.

Sounds great

Including guitar player, with whom I have been unfamiliar up until now

Matt Chertkoff. Believe he is playing the 8PM show at the Queensboro as well.

Been having fun at the Jackson Heights Jazz Festival this week and hope to have some more today on the last day.

1. Finally made it to Terraza 7 last weekend for a 3pm kids show by Sonia De La Santos, who Opal is a big fan of. Some of her band are regulars there. What a cool place for sure. A bit nervous having 2 year olds dancing up there on the mezzanine though.

2. Went back to Forest Park for the first time in many many years. First time with Opal. Was great, have no idea why we've been neglecting it. Didn't even realize there was a parking lot over by the carousel. Opal loved the carousel and the train ride and she said "you know what would be a good idea? If I got one of those balloons". We had to disagree with that. Then played in the playground and fountain area by the skate park. Will definitely be taking more advantage of that and make it part of the rotation.

i'm told the forest school on mondays at forest park is a good time for toddlers/kids. haven't taken mine yet as my "work from home" day is friday.

had a great time at the queens county farm museum recently, kiddo loved feeding the goats and running around. also it's 5 minutes from the strip of amazing indian places on hillside ave in floral park. highly recommended. and free!

yeah we've done the farm. Also big fans of the petting zoo that's part of the Queens Zoo in flushing meadows.

yes! paired of course with a trip to lemon ice king of corona.

all good toddler outings culminate in destination food. college point target -> little pepper. jacob riis -> roll n roaster. etc.

TS: roads vs aves

1. Finally made it to Terraza 7 last weekend for a 3pm kids show by Sonia De La Santos, who Opal is a big fan of. Some of her band are regulars there. What a cool place for sure. A bit nervous having 2 year olds dancing up there on the mezzanine though.

also meant to mention, been looking at pools. There's a tiny kids pool in Windmuller park across the street from my house, a real hidden gem, if tiny. But twice now my wife has taken Opal to Fisher Pool in East Elmhurst, a huge kids pool and wading pool that was just redone. A real gem.

In fact just was reminded that Cumbia River Band will be playing a free show in Travers Park next Sunday evening, I think.

I think opal would freak out to see Sonia de los Santos and not here her okay her favorites.

Makes sense.

Dan glad you enjoyed forest park, it’s an underloved place in multiple senses. Have had nice times with the kids at that carousel. You should also check out overlook which is a different section of forest park. You can walk from there to some decent eateries in Kew Gardens.

As far as pools, Astoria Park was nice when we went a couple years ago. There’s a coop down the street from us called Birchwood that has a decent outdoor pool and you used to be able to buy day passes but now you have to buy a membership.

Queens county farm museum is great too as is queens zoo. Btw the farmers market at the qc farm is really really good although small and I think they run it at least a few days a week. Adam what part of queens are you in again.

K (7.5) always says she hates Brooklyn and loves queens, which sort of tickles me.

i am in ridgewood, right off fresh pond rd. i used to live right on fresh pond which i do not recommend. you're in forest hills right? we can meet up in middle village in some terrifying trump bar on metropolitan

got some ridiculously good asparagus at that farmers market!

Nowadays on a weekend day might be a nice spot for a queens ilxor meetup -- I've taken the kids there before.

https://youtu.be/kdZXKI2Bmu8

Jimmy Van Bramer stepping down from Queens Borough Pres race due to family matters, I think his mother's health?

poisoned by the deranged john brown smokehouse amazon fan dude

oh man, i didn't know that guys story. I eat there all the time!

just got off the phone with Costa Constantinides. Is he the guy now that Jimmy's out?

My friend who has been following the race closely (and leans left) likes Costa and Miranda. Apparently Miranda is a Bernie guy.

Came to post that the Terraza Big Band is nominated for a Grammy.

The indian food in jackson heights isn't all that great and is totally inconsistent. Get nepali food at Mustang Thakali Kitchen.

Astoria is a good place to visit to get a meal, but not somewhere I'd want to live. Very euro-trashy!

Like there's Astoria "hipsters" who all think they're too cool for sceney Williamsburg (actually just jealous!) and you have people from Long Island who work in midtown that figure Astoria is a good compromise. I'm sorry, I can be such an Astoria hater. But my girlfriend and I always play this game about labeling people as "hipsters" or "queens hipsters", which isn't to say a "queens hipster" is just a hipster who lives in queens. It's a totally different breed.

yeah we've done the farm. Also big fans of the petting zoo that's part of the Queens Zoo in flushing meadows.

Agree wholeheartedly with the above, and pretty much everything else dan selzer has said here.
I like the Farm Museum very much, though. The corn maze, Thunderbirds pow-wow are usually fun.

also it's 5 minutes from the strip of amazing indian places on hillside ave in floral park.

I can't usually afford it, and maybe not the most kid-friendly, but my favorite place to eat around there is Il Toscana by the Douglaston LIRR. Their Napoleon is insanely good.

nick's pizza + eddie's sweet shop is a devastating combo

I'm kind of down on Eddie's Sweet Shop tbh. Ice cream is too sweet and service is too slow so that it arrives melting.

Prefer Portofino to Nick's, though it's a different animal and disappointed the last couple of times I went there.
Eddie's more about the ambience than food. That whole strip on Metropolitan can be like entering a timewarp with the Norman Rockwell vibes. Cinemart might be my favorite movie theater in NYC.

my wife's grandmother used to take her to see movies there long ago

gonna investigate portofinos. haven't done too much queens exploring lately, ridgewood is very cozy in wintertime, but i did take my 2-year-old on her first flushing main street trip the other week. usually i would rather die than pay for parking but i caved and valet'd at the sheraton on 39th ave. it was 6 bucks for a couple of hours, 100% worth it cause it spits you out in a weird mall and then right into the maelstrom. she had a blast. steam rice roll, jian bing, some weird cold noodle dishes in the new world mall, cheese tea, egg tarts. queens is good.

Kpop star hair is cool spot

Good to know about Sheraton. I always used to drive but at some point it became impossible and we’d always wonder why we didn’t just take the 7. When I meet some friends there for dinner, usually fu run, they park at target.

I probably have more live for Astoria now than I dis when I write that. I still def prefer sunnyside/Woodside for any number of reasons but Astoria really does have a lot bringing us there, especially Ample Hills I guess.

Is ample hills a bar?

No, I’ve cream. First one was in prospect heights then Gowanus.

One bar I wanted to check out is Let Love Inn, from the people behind Mars.

Deflatormouse who are you? Is there actually another ilxor here in Forest Hills?

I’ve never set foot in portofino - its 80s mob hit atmosphere has always put me off going in.

I will say that both Gloria and Rosalias are very solid slice places

FWIW I ate at Cafe Henri in LIC for the first time tonight and thought it was excellent.

I don't know how I feel about Astoria. It's fine. It's definitely eurotrash and all my older neighbors are alcoholics. Like, public, yelling at their family alcoholics. The guy across the street from me kept inviting me to check out his tiki bar in his backyard. One guy, who has super long monologues on the street every morning, is a total mashup of Richard Kind and the The Critic. The key foods on the other side of Steinway has insane deals on random stuff sometimes. I do like the smell of shisha the whiffs into my apartment every so often. Anyway, I have been on the fence about moving to Sunnyside/Woodside, JH, Sunset Park (prolly unlikely since I like being closer to the airports) or just getting out of nyc completely next year.

uh next year, meaning this year, I guess. I need to figure it out by this summer.

Anybody have a fucking stoop, let’s get some 40s and some skoal

Portofino is the best pizza in Forest Hills if you live there or happen to be there for something else but not worth the trip from Ridgewood IMHO. Mentioned it b/c it's basically on the same block as Nick's. There are way better pizza/Italian spots between Ridgewood and Forest Hills.

Xpost 80's mob atmosphere is a big plus for me actually. I live in Morningside Heights now but have lived in several Queens neighborhoods including Forest Hills and Astoria.

QNZ is my favorite borough by a mile.

I really loved living in brooklyn, but I prefer current Queens over current Brooklyn by a lot.

^this

Kind of excited at the prospect that, um, “we” will win this Grammy tomorrow, but now starting to worry that it will bring a fresh influx of Brooklyn hipsters.

j/k about this last part, hate when people say things like that

What is the grammy thing? I was a little worried that that show Sunnyside (which I am just aware that it exists and nothing else) was going to ruin Sunnyside before I could find a place there.