Search Results for: birthday

VAN BRAMER ROBBED, BUT WILL PARTY ON

August 12, 2013 by editor 3 Comments

Nice and quiet on the river ...and off — Nice and quiet on the river …and off

The New York Post reported that the home of Jimmy V was robbed while he was away this weekend. There seems to be a rash of robberies going on in his section of Sunnyside. Thankfully it’s not going to stop him from celebrating:

Join Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer

To Celebrate his 44th Birthday!

Join Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer to celebrate his 44th birthday and thank friends, volunteers, donors, petitioners, and just plain supporters of his efforts to make a better NYC! Join the party at Shi Restaurant, 47-20 Center Boulvard, LIC on Monday, August 19th from 7:00 – 10:00 PM.

You know what else Jimmy’s birthday means? Summer is almost over. Thus it’s time for us to take one of our regularly scheduled hiatuses, in order to escape the pressure of deadlines and to give others, aka those who don’t live in LIC, the opportunity to bask in our glow. But this time we’re going to do it a little bit differently: we’re going to publish right through our vacation! Why? Because what we have to share is just way too important to wait until after Labor Day. Plus, papa’s got a brand new ipad. So no matter where you may be headed, be it Nags Head or Nantucket, stay tuned right here and don’t miss a thing.

Councilman Robbed – they didn’t come in thru the bathroom window neither

New Bar on Vernon Blvd. Set to Open Thursday – housed in the former Lounge 47 space, to be called Woodbines and will serve craft beer and have an Irish themed menu

Chocolate Factory Announces New Season – let’s see, I’d like a dozen almond clusters, five champagne truffles, and a pound of fudge

3-D Printing Industry Finds Home in LIC – …oh, while you’re asking, tack on a Kate Upton and Heidi Klum

LIC Scarf Designer Creates Wearable Drama – a profile on local LIC designer Rachel Rowberry

Woman Almost Drowns Near Anable Basin – last night

Mentoring Students to Prevent the Summer Slide – huge story in the NYT all about a local man who created a great local mentoring program

Chinese Invest in Queens Real Estate – Quick, name a New York neighborhood that has investors from China buying properties. Midtown? TriBeCa? The Upper East Side? Guess again. They’re going to Queens.

AUGUST IS HERE, BUT NOT THE DOLDRUMS

August 8, 2013 by editor 3 Comments

The Pretty Ladies of LIC. Who would think that the Midtown Tunnel was across the street?

Come August, long weekends are de rigeur. Especially if one is not taking off the whole week, or like myself the whole month. Thus, it’s a great time to catch up on one’s summer reading …about LIC, and therefore today we provide you with a whole bunch to carry you through until Monday …or Tuesday, …or Tuesday September 3rd.

Before we start, let’s get the nasty business out of the way. First off, from a town in Spain called Brunete, comes a recommendation to push dog owners to clean up after their pets. Which The New York Times describes as a “worldwide battle.” Yeah, based on LIC that’s an apt description.

Next up, comes another nasty rebuke. This one involves a delay, or maybe even a postponement to a date unknown. It regards the play area that was supposed to be built for PS78 in front of Citylights. Here’s the back ‘n forth:

LIC Parent: “We were notified by the SLT, as well as announced at the June PTA meeting that the SCA was approved to build a playground in front of the school/Citilights building. Now summer is more than half way done and weve observed no work at all. Can you please give us a status on this project for ourselves,as well as an update I could communicate to other parents?

Response: “I looked into it and the project is on hold due to issues with the Co-op board.” Thank You – Monica Gutierrez, Project Support Manager, School Construction Authority, (718)472-8114

And there you have it: One small town’s response to a problem, and one large city’s response to a problem.

Let’s move on to something a little more fun. The New York Times is holding a contest looking for the “Unofficial Mayors of New York.” Whether you know it or not, LIC actually has an unofficial mayor, and it’s not Jimmy V. His name is Frank Carrado, he’s 82 years old, he’s lived here in LIC his whole life and documented it with photos, and there’s a good chance you may have already encountered him on Vernon Boulevard handing out a card calling him the Unofficial Mayor of LIC. We’ve got the link, if you know Frank and agree he should be nominated, please do.

Finally, a massive Kids Club/Pre-school is coming to the latest TF Cornerstone rental, aka “The Amenities Building.” They plan on catering to 1800 kids a week, with some packages totaling as much as $17K. At that price your kid better come out with a swing like A-Rod’s and speaking Mandarin.

Or, if you’re looking for something a little lower key, there’s always LIC Kids and the fabulous James Bobo:

Hello! We are having an upcoming Open House, on August 15-16 from 5-8pm, and we would love to promote this free event on your site. We are offering a diverse schedule of demo classes, orientations, and question & answer sessions all free to the public.

Best,

LIC Kids Team

LIC Kids Enrichment center, 5-02 50th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101 718.392.KIDS (5437)

http://www.lickids.com/

Grow with us!

Ok, the weekend is here, and if you’re staying in LIC we’ve got the Sixpoint Beer Crawl on Saturday, a perfect way to lead into Shakespeare in Gantry Park that night. Also the LIC Flea, Yoga, and finally a big blowout at 5Pointz celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Hip-Hop on Sunday at 5pm. Who needs St. Tropez? But you may still want to take Monday off.

Special Delivery, of Sorts, for Wayward Dog Owners – this ain’t no birthday present

A Call for the Unofficial Mayors of New York – why not nominate LIC’s Frank Carrado?

Then and Now: the evolutionary arc of LIC – a profile of Mr. Carrado wrapped in the history of LIC

Manhattan Firm to Open Pre-School and Classatorium – the beginning of the road to Harvard

Sixpoint Craft Beer and Food Festival – nothing like a few mugs of Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout before sitting down to the bard

Back to The Roots – free party at 5Pointz for the 40th anniversary of hip-hop. 40th Anniversary, 40 Oz., coincidence? I think not.

Local Art Frame Collector Has Unparalleled Collection – which he keeps right here in LIC

Competition Bubbles Up for Local Craft Brewers – with a shout-out to LIC’s Rockaway Brewing

5Pointz Documentary by the BBC – where has everybody been all these years?

NEWS EXPLOSION IN LIC

May 30, 2013 by editor 5 Comments

A lot of changes coming, but there's still the Crabhouse — Here’s a real old-timer in the neighborhood

Yessirree, this town is humming! There is a ton of news to report, some of it new, some of it not so new. As is frequently the case, real estate tops the list. TF Cornerstone’s latest rental, an 820-unit amenity filled behemoth, has already leased 160 apartments without blinking. Lucky residents will be able to avail themselves of bbq grills and cabanas, tennis and volleyball courts, jungle gyms and dog runs, and for Bill Murray there is even a pond! Also, two new moderate sized buildings have been announced: a hotel on 21st Street south of the bridge, and a residential conversion by Queensboro Plaza. Finally, if you want to read the latest on the Elghanayan split(the family that basically owns every deluxe residential property in LIC), then we’ve got it here. Net-net: when it comes to family and money, Thanksgiving and Passover will never be the same.

Moving on from real estate, there is no better way to do it than via bike. There’s a great story below that gives you all the details on biking and bike paths in Queens. And did you know there’s a Tour de Queens? In the kids with cake department, LIC Kids is throwing a party this Sunday …can you believe they’ve been open for six years already? They’re practically old-timers! Finally, LIC makes the Daily News’ Top-10 people watching list. With a record 12 links to pass on today, that honor is really just icing on the cake.

In Queens, The Newest Amenity Is Up On The Roof – all about the amenities on the new TF’ building, these days they seem to be de rigeur

New Loan Allows New Residential Conversion – oh so that’s how RE works

Hotel To Rise At 21st Street and 44th Avenue – at only four stories, I doubt there’ll be many amenities

5Pointz Owner Meets With Criticism On New Building – and the design plan shows lotsa amenities

Family Nears Final Piece of Property Divorce – Elghanayan story. Could they just peel off a single condo for me? Just one? (LICtalk internet tip: type the name of this article into search engine to get around firewall)

Christine Quinn Pledges New Tech Hub In LIC – how about you finish Shady Park first, then we can talk about bigger plans

New School Plans For Success Academy Unsuccessful – I’m not so sure this is the end of the matter by any means

Bicyclists Hit The Road All Across The Borough – just in time for summer

Tour de Queens – Sunday July 7th, 19 miles long, it’s only $20 bucks. No doping …err dopes allowed

LIC Kids Is Turning 6 Years Old and Throwing a Free Birthday Party – an institution in the ‘hood

LIC Museum To House Muppet Gallery – Leonard Lauder donates 33 Picassos and 45 other cubist paintings to the Met last month(boring!), and we get 400 items from the estate of Jim Henson. You tell me which borough is the predominant cultural home …of the 21st century!

The 10 Best Neighborhoods in New York For People Watching – umm, this must be in no particular order, because LIC is #9 and Times Square is #3

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

July 27, 2012 by editor 5 Comments

If we needed any other proof that Long Island City is becoming the center of the universe, the enormous amount of film being shot in our neighborhood is ample confirmation of our usurping the top slot from Manhattan. Ok, ok, it’s mostly TV shows on remote cable channels, but I did see Stanford Blatch on Center Boulevard this week. What this mostly means is that there are fewer places to park on the street, which doesn’t bother me much because I keep my Bentley in a temperature controlled garage, and of course it spends the weekends down the road in Southampton anyway.

Talking about the weekend, let’s get right into all that LIC has to offer for those still in town. If you are a regular reader of this site, you know about my obsession with beer gardens. Well, there might be a reason for it: in addition to being Hollywood East, LIC is at the nexus of NYC beer gardens! Just look at where the locations of them are in the first article, and they don’t even mention that we just got another one smack dab in the middle of LIC(JB Smokehouse)! Fortunately, you know the first place to go when you want the most up-to-date info on Long Island City: LICtalk

As if being beer garden central isn’t enough, not to mention all the other regular, but extraordinary, things going on about town this weekend(PS1’s Warm-Up comes to mind), we have a very special one-off. In fact, it might be one of the very few events for which I would be willing to forgo an afternoon at a beer garden. Ladies and Gentlemen, this weekend and this weekend only, there is a pig roast in town. Our town! Now that my friends, is celluloid worthy!

(All this week’s news links are at the bottom, and there is a lot of news!)

Queens culinary destination LIC Market will celebrate its second birthday on Saturday, July 28^th and Sunday, July 29^th with its 2^nd Anniversary Pig Roast and Clambake. The weekend event will feature food, drinks and fun celebrating the restaurant’s second year in Long Island City. I hope that you will consider news of LIC Market’s 2^nd Anniversary Pig Roast and Clambake for calendar listings, features and more.

For $25 per person, guests can partake in either roastedsuckling pig, rice and black beans, corn, tamales, pico de gallo, romaine, queso fresco and tortillas or cherrystone clams, steamer clams, PEI mussels, prawns, steamed potatoes with salsa verde, corn and chorizo. Hungry for something a little different? LIC Market will also feature steamed 1Ž2 pound lobster with lemon, parsley and drawn butter or a rack of BBQ beef short ribs with housemade chipotle BBQ sauce for $22 per person during its anniversary weekend.

Thirsty? You’ll drink up with (6 each) $25 beer buckets and $4 mimosas and sangrias ($20 per pitcher).

Since 2010 residents of Long Island City, Queens have enjoyed the fresh flavors that Chef/Owner Alex Schindler has brought to the area through simple yet flavorful menus and an in-house market featuring house-made food items and specialty ingredients sourced just for his patrons. LIC Market (Long Island City Market) is the result of Schindler’s quest to bring the food, service and community atmosphere lacking in big-city dining to the neighborhood that he loves. LIC Market is located at at 21-52 44^th Drive (West of 23^rd Street) in Long Island City, Queens, one of New York City’s growing culinary hotspots.

LIC Market’s 2^nd Anniversary Pig Roast and Clambake

LIC Market

21-52 44^th Drive

(West of 23^rd Street)

Long Island City, Queens

Saturday, July 28, 2012

11:00 am – 10:00 pm

Sunday, July 29, 2012

11:00 am – 6:00 pm

$25 per person

Roasted Sucking Pig and Sides

Cherrystone Clams, Steamer Clams, PEI Mussels, Prawns and sides

$22 per person

Steamed Lobster

BBQ Beef Short Ribs

$25 Beer Buckets

$4 Glass/$20 Pitcher

Mimosa

Sangria

Top Beer Gardens In New York City – this is better than winning the lottery

MoMA PS1 Warm-Up Mixes – additional music in case you need a little after-party ’til the buzz wears off

New Boutique Steakhouse In LIC Boasts $3,800 Bottle Of Wine –any discount for cases?

Best Rock Climbing Within Reach Of NYC – #1 is in LIC, of course

Metropolitan Opera Returns To LIC Waterfront – sorry to prick your bubble, but not Gantry Park

In Queens, An Artistic Alteration – big story on the Queens Plaza makeover(reminder, use my search tip to get full story)

LIC Residents Want New Waterfront High School To Have Eco Curriculum – this should read “Resident“, as in singular. How about we start with Reading, Writing, and ‘rithmetic???

MTA Tunnels Under LIC Completed – ok tangential, am I the only resident who thinks this is really cool?

Jimmy V Getting Married This Weekend – guess where? It ain’t Canada

LIC Based Songza Music Service Streams For Business Success – hey guys could you play“Smoke On The Water”, it’s LIC’s unoffical theme song!

King Of Queens’ Has His Eye On New Turf – darn, we almost got thru a whole post without any real estate news. A profile on Modern Spaces owner Eric Benaim

Bicyclist Killer Could Get 15 Years – sadly, not all news is good news in LIC

$20,000 Jade Cup Stolen From LIC Antiques Dealer