GREATS of Craft, a bar specializing in craft beer, is opening in Long Island City tomorrow. Located at 10-15 43rd Avenue across the street from the Z Hotel, this will be the second location for ‘Greats,’ the first being on 1st Ave and 54th Street, which opened five years ago.
In addition to craft beer, the Manhattan location offers a full bar, and coffee offerings during the daylight hours, which looks like it will be carried over to LIC. Better yet, the new location will have a rooftop bar with an expansive view of the Queensboro Bridge. You had me at craft beer!
//AMALGAM, potpourri, hodgepodge, call it what you will, but they all describe the mix of stories about LIC this week. No strong themes, just life. In addition to the bar opening above, comes news of the squalor just a few blocks north in Queensbridge. Quite simply, the place is a dump and we are throwing good money after bad by trying to maintain it. A cause I’ve been writing about for nine years and counting.
//While we are on a rant, let’s keep going with yet another topic that I have been pursuing for Long Island City now coming on a decade. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the rendering of the new Variety Boys & Girls Clubhouse really sticks in my craw. The futuristic look topped off by a residential tower could not be any more of an exact, and enticing, replica of what I’ve been demanding for Hunters Point. 125,000 square feet with a state of the art gymnasium, regulation-sized pool, and… oh we can skip all the other razzmatazz highlighted by a planetarium, just give us more rec space because the nearby density is a 10x multiple of what is in walking distance in Astoria.
Ironically the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy (HPPC) called for ‘open space’ on the final development plots in Hunters Point South in a recent editorial. I’m fine with that, but think it’s a non-starter real long shot given the needs, the times, and quite frankly the value of the location. A better compromise might just be a Rec Center like that in Astoria for these plots. But if it’s really for common use, then you need to price the memberships at the same level as those in Astoria, otherwise it’s just an amenity for the developer and a select few.
//Real estate, the wheel never ends, nor does the saga of the Paragon Paint Building on Vernon Boulevard. In this case there will be a new chapter after a decade or so of limbo/non-action. Or at least a new owner, taking their shot on trying to get it rezoned. Curious to see if anything comes of it…
//There were plenty of picnic blankets on the Gantry Park lawn this past Sunday for the first time in 2024, and this weekend brings further news that good weather days are fast approaching. The arrival of live music at the newly named Malt Drive Stage at Culture Lab. The new name came with a new sponsor, TF Cornerstone. Though I’m not sure what the link is between the name and the sponsor, don’t let any real estate broker tell you your throwing your money away by paying rent: free live music!
The Greats of Craft – website
The Greats of Craft II – instagram
Queensbridge Houses Residents Complain Over Squalid Living Conditions – raze…
Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens awarded $3 million capital grant for new Astoria headquarters
HPPC calls for recreational space to be included in development of Hunters Point South
ZD Jasper Buys Long Island City Waterfront Development Site for $47M – no more haunted house?
Debbie’s – The Infatuation gives it’s mini-review of the Dutch Kills live-music offshoot upstairs, all good
LIVE at Culture Lab 2024 – starts this weekend
[…] few weeks ago we pondered the meaning of the new naming rights claimed by TF Cornerstone for the live music presented at Culture Lab LIC: Malt Drive Stage. A few […]