Ran Craycraft's Blog – May 2011 Archive (25)

NY Times: Bohemian Hall in a class by itself, Studio Square overrun by frat boys

The Times was crushing on Astoria this week, with three articles in three days. This time, they took a closer look at NYC's beer garden wars. The article points out an interesting note that there are currently 54 beer gardens in the City, up from "1" just a few years…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 28, 2011 at 2:00pm — 6 Comments

Pair of Red-Tailed Hawks Nesting in Astoria Park

The Daily News published an article today about a pair of red-tailed hawks who are now calling Astoria home. The birds were spotted under the Triborough RFK Bridge by some local watchers who dubbed the pair Andromeda and Atlas.

The article estimates that there are 40 pair of…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 27, 2011 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment

Did you know Steve Madden calls Astoria home?

We all know about some of the more famous brands like Kaufman Astoria Studios, Steinway Pianos, and (formerly) Sabra hummus. But did you know footwear giant, Steve Madden is also Astoria-based (shown by "A" on the map to the right)?

If you want to get all cartographically correct, that's Sunnyside, but their address is listed as "Long Island City", so we might as well claim them for Astoria, too!

We tend to forget about…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 26, 2011 at 12:00pm — 3 Comments

NY Times Reviews APAC's 'The Human Comedy'

Just in time for its last week of performances, The Astoria Performing Arts Center's revival of WWII-based musical, The Human Comedy was reviewed by the NY Times.

…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 25, 2011 at 12:00pm — No Comments

The Happy Hour Guys Pay a Visit to Sunswick

Astoria locals and nationally known brew crew, The Happy Hour Guys paid a visit to one of our favorite bars in the world (there, we said it), Sunswick 35/35.

Take a look inside:

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 25, 2011 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Thief Robs Four iPhones in Queens

Police are investigating the theft of 4 iPhones over the course of a 10 day period in Long Island City. The bandit was caught on video and is estimated between the age of 16 and 20, 5'5" and 5'9"

Anyone with information in regard to any of these incidents is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 25, 2011 at 9:30am — No Comments

auto_blog_testestestest

It is auto_blog_test

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 25, 2011 at 7:42am — No Comments

NY Times Gives Away Our Secrets

Photo: Evan Sung for The New York Times

Yesterday's NYT namedropped almost every restaurant that's opened in Astoria and LIC over the last year. We thought it was a pretty well-written article that paints our neighborhood in an…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 25, 2011 at 7:30am — 3 Comments

Astorian Plays Unique Version of "The Simpsons" Theme Song

The Saw Lady performs a popular tv theme song on the musical saw in a NYC subway stop.

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 24, 2011 at 4:30pm — 1 Comment

Priceless Art Vault Revealed in LIC

[Photo credit]

The real estate blog Curbed tipped us off on a high security compound filled…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 24, 2011 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Queens Couple Raising Chickens in their Apartment

Crain's New York have chronicled many facets of Astoria over the last couple of years for the world to read that we live out every day. However, a recent article details a part of Astoria even we weren't familiar with...

Photo: Buck Ennis for Crain's New York

The article…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 24, 2011 at 7:30am — 2 Comments

New Smoking Ban Starts Today

Hopefully, you quit smoking for the Apocalypse, if not, we have some tough news for you.

[Photo Credit]

Not only did we not get Raptured, but we also can no longer light up in New York City's parks or beaches. Looking back, may not have been the best idea to put our savings into Doomsday…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 23, 2011 at 10:00am — 7 Comments

Smile! Female Burglar Busted on Camera

The NY Post published this video of a woman fleeing from an Astoria apartment on Thursday evening after nabbing some electronics. Have you seen this…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 23, 2011 at 7:30am — No Comments

More than a Taste of Queens

We still haven't eaten a bit since Tuesday's Queens: A Taste of the World event at Citi Field. A few hundred hungry foodies packed into the Caesar's Club and had a feast for the ages. Many notable Queens establishments were on hand as well as a couple of distinct Brooklynites.

Here's a…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 12, 2011 at 5:00pm — No Comments

CONTEST: SeamlessWeb Gift Cards

Good news -- the kind folks at SeamlessWeb gave us some gift cards and, being the awesome people we are, we've decided to give them to you.

But you know us -- we like to see how creative we can get with our giveaways. So, in keeping with tradition, we're giving the card away to the winner of a contest.

For the first giveaway, we're offering up a $25 SeamlessWeb Giftcard card.…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 11, 2011 at 12:00pm — 31 Comments

Filipino Comfort Food Coming to Astoria

We just noticed a sign in the window of the former Bistro Les Minots promoting the future space of Manila! Manila! Resto Grill--serving Filipino Comfort Food. Anyone else have further details?

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 11, 2011 at 10:30am — 3 Comments

Local Foundry in Today's NY Times

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

The NY Times released a photo today from the Modern Art Foundry in Astoria where they were preparing to pour bronze into a mold for the sculpture "Looking Up" by Allston…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 10, 2011 at 5:07pm — No Comments

CONTEST: Ticket to Tonight's Taste of Queens

We scored a ticket to tonight's Taste of Queens at Citi Field and you know how we do...we give it away! If you'd like the ticket ($100 value), submit a pic in the comments below of your favorite taste in Queens.

Whether it's a photo of your favorite entree, your favorite suds, your favorite restaurant, or your favorite homemade recipe. Share your delicious pic below for a chance to…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 10, 2011 at 12:30pm — 14 Comments

Blame Hipsters for Census Miscount

Due to the unrest around our recent census data, the NYC City Council began a formal hearing yesterday to attempt to find an error in the calculations.

During the hearing, several local representatives hypothesized about why our census data appears so wrong--stating specifically that Astoria lost 10,000 people since 2000 and 12% of African Americans left Manhattan for greener pastures in Staten Island. Hmm.

Some of the common theories…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 10, 2011 at 11:00am — 7 Comments

Buy-one, Get-one-free Mini Golf This Weekend in Queens

(Sorry, this is NOT Flushing Meadows Golf Center)

So it's no secret, we're big fans of the Pitch & Putt in Flushing. For our money, there aren't many better ways to get outside, be active, and enjoy a few cold ones with friends. But did you know there's also a mini-golf in the same park? We…

Continue

Added by Ran Craycraft on May 6, 2011 at 1:30pm — 3 Comments