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Drug-related violence

Posted by Steve on April 24th, 2008

As first reported on the forums a couple days ago and confirmed by yours truly on one of my many walks, the former location of Rockaway Bedding on AQUA’s North Side of Queens Boulevard will now be a pharmacy. CVS? Rite Aid? Duane Reade? Sorry–it’s going to be a “pharmacy and surgical supply [store].” Yes, one of those.

Let’s review the tenants of that storefront in the past few years, shall we?

1. West Coast Video: not really cool, antiquated, but at least mildly OK
2. Rockaway Bedding: useless, not OK at all
3. Yet another pharmacy and surgical supply store: completely unacceptable

In case you’re unfamiliar with these places–and if you are, I hope you pay us a visit in Forest Hills sometime–they’re not the kind of pharmacy that has candy and magazines and a blood-pressure machine in the back. They charge five times the going rate for medication and display canes in the window. They will sell you a sitz bath. There are something like three of them within a one-block radius of the old Rockaway Bedding.

A related forum report–same thread–claims the Rite Aid across the street, which I use all the time and is at least a neighborhood hub of sorts where people can run into each other buying Hershey’s Miniatures and Cape Cod potato chips, will be closing to become “a First Med place,” which appears to be a McDoctor’s. I’m reserving judgment on this one until I see or hear solid evidence that it’s true. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m not reserving judgment. This would be the worst thing to happen ever.

Tags: Forest Hills, Retail | 16 Comments

The price of a slice

Posted by Mickie T on April 16th, 2008

Back in high school, a friend of mine observed that, in NYC, the price of a plain slice of pizza is usually the same price as one subway fare. Interestingly, this has held true for over two decades. Has this equilibrium been thrown out of whack by the new subway fares!?

Barely. It’s holding steady, but it’s not looking good for pizza lovers. At the Queens Central Labs, I conducted an incredibly in-depth, scientific phone survey of pizza places in Kew Gardens, Rego Park and Forest Hills and found that a plain slice is still being sold at most establishments for $2.00. Out of 11 pizza joints surveyed, six still offer the “subway rate”, while five have broken the conventionally accepted price barrier, up to 50 cents more!

Tags: Food and Drink, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Rego Park | 1 Comment

Delicious event for folks not observing Passover!

Posted by Mickie T on April 15th, 2008

“Taste of Forest Hills 2008”

Sponsored by:
The Wine Room of Forest Hills & The Shops at Atlas Park

Saturday, April 26, 2008 1:00 - 4:00 pm

15 Borage Place, Forest Hills Gardens, NY 11375
Tel. 718.268.7710 -  Fax: 718.268.8771

Amish Market, La Tavernetta, CPK, Q-Thai Bistro, La Vigna, Garcia’s, Dee’s Brick Oven Pizza, Pasticcio, The Family Restaurant, Metro Café, Da Silvana, London Lennie’s, db Wine Bar & Restaurant, Morrison’s Bar & Restaurant, My Kitchen & La Dolce Italia are just a few of the fine participating businesses who will be here to savor your appetites!

General Admission

$30 per person CH Members

$40.00 per person non CH Members VIP Admission $50 per person includes VIP gift bag, special raffle drawing &complimentary glass of wine.

If anyone goes, let me know how it is. Thanks! -MT

P.S. “savor your appetites!” ?

Tags: Food and Drink, Forest Hills | No comments

Orchard St., Smith St., AUSTIN STREET!!

Posted by Mickie T on April 12th, 2008

“Skip the chain shops lining this popular strip for homegrown stores.”

Austin Street makes it into Time Out New York’s “Best Streets to Shop” feature (Issue 654, April 10 - 16, 2008)! Eight little gems - including our personal favorite, Stoa - get their props in this collection.

“Argh, come visit me at Games Workshop!”

Yes, they mention The Body Shop - a chain, they admit - but despite the dominance of chains on Austin St., they need not rely on them for this article. Look at which stores they had to select for the other shopping strips they feature: CB2, Filene’s Basement, Lush Soaps, Loehman’s! They even give a shout-out to Laytner’s on the UWS. But the Laytner’s on Austin Street? Sorry, didn’t make the cut.

Tags: Forest Hills, Retail | 3 Comments

What’s up at the old UJ’s site

Posted by Mickie T on April 7th, 2008

Looks like somethin’s cookin’!!

The former UJ\'s

Tags: Development, Food and Drink, Forest Hills, Real Estate | 18 Comments

Soon: Learn AOL in FoHi!

Posted by Steve on March 31st, 2008

Hey, everyone, I’m back from my national lampoon of a European vacation, and imagine my surprise to see — well, very little new when I got back. However, I do have to mention one thing that caught my eye: a strange new store (or “shop,” as the British say) coming soon to the heart of Austin Street, in the location of one of the former leather-goods stores: It’s Your Internet, a place where you — yes, you! — can experience this very Internet in non-digital form. “Finally,” the sign cryptically boasts, “brick and mortar contains the Internet!” Uh, right!

In the window is a long, long list of all the things you’ll be able to do at It’s Your Internet. You can start a blog, just like this one! You can make friends on MySpace! But my favorite, hands down, is “learn AOL.” I can’t think of a better use of your Internet time. In 1996.

Look, the truth is I have no idea what this place is or what you can do there, besides learn AOL, of course. The website currently gives up precious few clues, even though I was under the impression it was my Internet. We’ll find out.

London and Barcelona were fabulous, by the by. I highly recommend both destinations. And thanks so much, Mickie, for contributing in my absence. Feel free to post all you’d like in the future.

Tags: Forest Hills, Retail | 27 Comments

Saddle up, get greased! This is how Central Queens rolls.

Posted by Mickie T on March 23rd, 2008

If you’re interested in bicycling, or bringing more fame to central Queens nabes, or both, I highly recommend checking out the Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee. It’s been around for about a year, and I just went to my first meeting earlier this month.

The TAQC meets the 2nd Monday from 6:30p-8p each month (unless otherwise noted) at the Greater Astoria Historical Society located at 35-20 Broadway, 4th floor - the Quinn Funeral Home building. The next TAQC meeting is April 14th.

The committee is full of very nice people working on some great projects, most notably the very first Tour de Queens! There are already bicycling events in two other outer-bees: Tour de Brooklyn (which I did last year) and a Tour de Bronx.

The Tour de Queens is scheduled for Sunday, June 8, 2008, and is still in the planning stages, so volunteers are welcome. You can register for it, too! The next planning meeting is March 26th at the location above. The route is approx 20 miles, beginning and ending at the Queens Museum, in front of the Unisphere in Flushing Meadow Park.

One area ripe for improvement in the TAQC, though, is its narrow focus on Western Queens. In fact, its original name was the Transportation Alternatives Western Queens Committee. The group is a lovely bunch of folk, but they need a little education about Queens east of Steinway Street.

For example, when, in the course of a discussion, I mentioned “the Union Turnpike station,” the general response was “where’s that?”

“Um, it’s at Union Turnpike at Queens Boulevard.”

Someone was helpful enough to “correct” me and add, “I believe that’s actually called the Kew Gardens station.”

Yeah, whatever. The point is that these Queenzies don’t know their 73rd Street from their 73rd Avenue. So, if you’re into bicycling, come to a meeting or two and make sure central Queens is on the map!

On the other hand, the Five Borough Bike Club offers lovely rides throughout Queens on a regular basis. Again, a nice bunch of people and their rides range from “smiley face” easy to “up with the roosters” competitive. Not to mention that most of their rides involve riding to FOOD! Our kind of people!

We rode with them alongside the abandoned Rockaway Branch Conrail Extension tracks from Rego Park to Ozone Park, which is ripe for a “rail-to-trail” conversion to a greenway, like the Highline in Manhattan. A fascinating ride.

You don’t have to be a member to join the rides, but membership allows you to get the newsletter, website access and other perqs.

By the way, I highly recommend bicycling around town! As you may know from reading my forum posts, my spouse and I enjoy bicycling around the city. We’re total amateurs, not the types with giant calves and bikes made out of aluminum foil. After 3 or 4 years of casual biking, we crossed a threshold in our confidence and endurance last summer, did 35 miles of the NY Century Ride, and spent many weekends biking to and from our place in FH through Queens into Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Queens presents a lot of challenges for the casual weekend cyclist, but we have found that so much of Queens opens up to you on the bike. Riding over the Queensborough Bridge or the Pulaski Bridge provide great views and new perspectives. And it’s much less crowded and cheaper than the gym!

Tags: Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Guest blogger steals keys while Steve is out!

Posted by Mickie T on March 21st, 2008

Whew, the coast is clear. I’m finally in! Not since “Mission Impossible 8: Alternate Side of the Street Parking in Forest Hills” has the media seen such wire-splicing and infiltration.

Greetings, QC cuties. I’m helping Steve out while he is away. I’ve had a lot on my mind about central Queens since I discovered Queens Central last summer, and Steve has graciously accepted my application to contribute here.

I moved back here to my ‘home town’ in December 2004, after 15 years in Park Slope. I had moved there when it was very much Park Slump, and I enjoyed its steady rise to what it is today. I was last living on soon-to-be-overpriced 5th Avenue, when, during a classic “who should get rid of their precious NYC real estate” debate, my beloved uttered those three magical words we all long to hear: “two full bathrooms.”

Nu? Momma didn’t raise no fool, so here I am, back on the Boulevard of Death.

Speaking of which, Queens Boulevard is today’s topic. Ever since Steve said “go”, I have been wracking my brain trying to think of an introductory story that encapsulates my observations since I’ve been back in FoHi. Thursday morning, my spouse reported to me this great moment in FoHi congeniality.

Near the intersection of 71st Road and QB, a car hit the back of a truck. The driver of the car got out asked the truck driver for his insurance, and the truck driver screamed at the top of his lungs, “You want my insurance papers? You’ll have to suck my dick to get those!!” And the response from onlookers? A low, drawn out, “Oy,” from a local woman.

Tags: Driving, Forest Hills, Queens Boulevard | 1 Comment

TONY: FoHi is NYC nightlife mecca

Posted by Steve on March 13th, 2008

Is that you, Goot?Before I head out on my big European vacation, I wanted to call attention to the awesomest Forest Hills feature in Time Out New York since the one that revolved around me (warning: formatting now completely screwed up). I subscribe to TONY, but thanks to jellystone anyway for tipping me off. You gotta admit you never saw this one coming: the Forest Hills pub crawl.

That’s right! TONY profiled bars in eight neighborhoods. Seven of those are widely known for their nightlife. But somehow the Hills made the cut, so there we are, right alongside such luminaries as the LES, Park Slope, Hell’s Kitchen, Harlem, the UWS, the UES and Williamsburg. Are we just the token Queens destination? Nah–if they wanted to hit up Queens, they could have done Sunnyside or Astoria or even emergent LIC, right? But they didn’t. And I don’t see Staten Island or the Bronx represented in there.

Read the rest of this entry

Tags: Food and Drink, Forest Hills, Media | 11 Comments

Confirmed: Bonfire starts this week

Posted by Steve on March 10th, 2008

In case you missed it, a self-professed Bonfire Grill co-owner confirmed in the comments today that the eagerly anticipated new restaurant will open this week, probably Thursday or Friday. Contrary to my previous suspicions about the place being smaller than the old Wine Gallery, it will, in fact, be slightly bigger. I’m off to Europe this coming weekend and probably won’t get the opportunity to go until I get back, so definitely sound off here or in the forums if you make it. And be gentle–new restaurants often come with growing pains.

Tags: Food and Drink, Forest Hills | 9 Comments

Stoking the ‘fire

Posted by Steve on March 8th, 2008

Oh my, I have been gone for quite some time–you know, busy busy busy, etc. etc.–but on this Friday-night-slash-Saturday-morning, I wanted to check in and say that I have just returned from a late-night walk down Austin Street and was pleased to see the Bonfire Grill signage is pretty much entirely up on the old Wine Gallery storefront. Sorry, no photo, because I’m not one of those people who carries a camera around with me at 1 a.m. or, well, ever. Have I weighed in on Bonfire Grill? No? Well, allow me to do so: An Austin restaurant owned by the same people as two well-respected, successful Manhattan restaurants is a good thing indeed, and a bar scene that comes along with it is a very nice bonus.

Splitting Hairs somehow pushed her way inside earlier this week and coerced an opening date of March 10 (this Monday!) out of the owner. Also: There will be brunch! This is the most exciting debut in Forest Hills in a long time. I promise a report not more than a month after I eat there.

Does anyone know if the new place is smaller than the Wine Gallery was? It sure looks like it. Did the cleaners next door take over some of the old space?

Tags: Food and Drink, Forest Hills | 5 Comments