Welcome back LICsters from your long holiday weekend. For those who ventured afar, whether it be to the mountains or the sea, we’ve provided a full recap of how the 4th went down here in LIC. To cover this monumental event, I had to forgo my chateau on the Cote, and gave my pilot the week off. In so doing, I had a rare empty night on my exceptionally busy social calendar, and thus decided to do some venturing of my own, but locally.
That is how I found myself at Astoria Seafood. After being tipped off about it by a friend who lives in Astoria, and then noticing a favorable review in The New Yorker six weeks ago, the restaurant vaulted to the top of my list. With seven in tow including little ones, we herded into the VW micro-bus for the journey, only to find out that Astoria Seafood is really in Long Island City. Though stranded in a no-mans land of factories and garages, it’s very walkable from Queens Plaza/Court Square, and a perfectly doable hike for building an appetite and then working off a huge meal if one lives in Hunters Point.
We don’t do reviews on LICtalk, but between the picture above, the NY’er article, and everything you read on Yelp, one can get a pretty good sense of the place. The food is great and reasonably priced, and the restaurant itself is chaotic and informal, not to mention BYOB. Yet until you make the effort to go, you won’t really know. At which point you’ll be in a position to answer ‘Could this be the best restaurant in Long Island City?’
//July 4th fireworks fans and waterfront revelers may have noticed an extraordinary light show at the top of the Empire State Building that evening and again the next night. It was in honor of the The Grateful Dead and for those in the know it was synched up to their song U.S. Blues on the radio and internet. This is far from the first time the ESB has paid tribute to the band, as we noted in a story over three years ago. Then as now, we suspect one of the owners1 is a big Deadhead.
Tables for Two: Astoria Seafood – “People of all ages, ethnicities, and economic brackets are drawn by a powerful common denominator: fresh fish, prepared simply and sold at a fraction of what it costs almost anywhere else.”
Empire State Building Light Show Synchs With Grateful Dead on July 4th – includes a video of the light show. Better live, but still pretty cool.
New Renderings for Condo Building on 43rd Avenue – 86 units in Court Square
Silvercup Studios Expanding to Bronx – didja even know they had a 2nd lot in LIC? You would if you read LICtalk religiously.
- essentially the Malkin family [↩]
John Harp says
July 7, 2015 at 5:01 pmThe NY Times also did an article entitled “Dancing With the Fishes at a Restaurant in Queens” file date May 08, 2015.