Astoria (New York)

Mediterranean Diet at Kopiaste Taverna

A new Cypriot spot flourishes in Astoria

Where to Get Fancy Grilled Cheese and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Near Long Island City

Welcome to Drinks, Dinner, and Dessert, in which we share three picks in one neighborhood, keeping an eye out for deals, off-the-menu items, and new stuff to check out. This week, get off the M train at 36th Street and use these suggestions to guide you through Long Island City.

Q&A: Suzanne Yacka, Astoria Foodie, Dishes on How to Become a Go-To Neighborhood Eatery Expert

[See More Interviews: Restaurateur Carlos Suarez on Rosemary's | Dan Ross-Leutwyler of Bellwether | Chez Jose's Jose Ramirez-Ruiz and Pam Yung] Becoming an authority on the latest New York eateries is for the most part left to food professionals.But if you're a foodie who loves to serve tips on loc ... More >>

Where Was I Eating? El Mariachi Restaurant

Great guesses the second time around. I was eating the steak enchiladas smothered with cheese at El Mariachi, a low-key Mexican restaurant in Astoria.

11 Best Burgers of 2011, NYC

​Bacon cheeseburger at Prospect Heights' Dean Street In honor of National Hamburger Day (why so close to Christmas, meat-masters?), we here present the 11 burgers that stuck most in our minds. And we promise they taste as good as they look.

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at The Chew; Madison Square Garden Goes Foodie

​A behind-the-scenes look at The Chew, which starts Monday, starring Mario Batali, Top Chef alum Carla Hall, Michael Symon, Clinton Kelly of the show What Not to Wear, and Daphne Oz, Dr. Oz's daughter. [NY Times] PepsiCo is launching an initiative to increase its access to chickpeas by growin ... More >>

Corner Bistro Goes to Queens, R.U.B Goes to Long Island

Voice​Yesterday, it was Bare Burger and the Shake Shack, and today, there's more meat movement to report.

Bare Burger Is Set to Open, and Shake Shack Is Set to Have Outdoor Seating

Bare Burger/FacebookBrooklyn's getting some new buns.​Although Shake Shack's been busy ignoring shameless copycats and sparking idle talk of a Grand Central turf war, it's also been tending to the Brooklyn outpost of its empire.

Vesta's Giuseppe Falco Reflects on the Astoria Restaurant Community, Giant Squash, and Baby Jesus Cake

Photo courtesy of VestaThe dining room of Vesta, Giuseppe Falco's first restaurant in Astoria.​ Three years ago, Giuseppe Falco partnered with Leo Sacco to open Vesta Trattoria. The seasonally focused Italian restaurant and wine bar quickly earned an enthusiastic following in Astoria, a neighb ... More >>

Live: The Roots Play To The Crowd At Astoria's New Outdoor Venue

​The Roots Studio Square Wednesday, May 4 Better Than: Whatever '90s cover band was playing elsewhere in Astoria. An hour into the Roots' Wednesday night show, located at the Astoria beer garden Studio Square, Black Thought finally got the crowd to sing along. The trouble was, the song the a ... More >>

Open and Closed: Say Hello to West End, Goodbye to Café Flo

Restaurants and bars, they come and they go. Here are a few making their debuts and bowing out this week. Vai, the Upper East Side spot that just got a Soho outpost, has closed. The building is reportedly being torn down. [Grub Street] Café Flo in Astoria did not survive a four-alarm blaze that r ... More >>

Certain Parts of Queens Are Looking a Little More Like Certain Parts of Brooklyn

Salt & Fat​It was only a matter of time (and rents) before this happened, but little bits of Queens are starting to look like little bits of Brooklyn.

FREAKS & GEEKS

Public Access gone wild

Rapist Strikes in Astoria

Watch out for this Astoria rapist!​Here's a sketch of a rapist who attacked a 19-year-old woman at about 12:30 a.m. last Thursday, January 20, at 26th Avenue and Second Street in Astoria, just south of Hellgate Park. He approached her from behind, pushed her to the ground and sexually assaulted he ... More >>

Lottery Burglar's Luck Still Hasn't Run Out

​The NYPD's now asking for the public's help in finding a burglar who busted through the front door of Nature's Chemist, 23-92 21st Street in Astoria, at about 12:15 a.m. on Friday, January 7, and stole a passel of lottery tickets. The guy was captured on video at another store turning in some of ... More >>

L'Artiste--A New Reason to Visit the Arrondissement of Astoria

Think 'Borough Continental'

Robert Sietsema at Lima Limon; Lauren Shockey at L'Artiste

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema indulges in "Peruvian Viagra" at Lima Limon in Little Latin America; Lauren Shockey discovers classic bistro fare at L'Artiste in Astoria.​ Sam Sifton awards a mostly enthusiastic two stars to Millesime: "holy cats, is there a beautiful, even exciting b ... More >>

Garbage-Pocalypse Follows Snow-Pocalypse: This Is Your Life, New York

​Gosh, don't you sort of miss the early days of the blizzard about now? It was all pretty and clean (for a moment), and we were all "trapped" on vacation. And now things are back to normal, sort of, except smellier and with more bags of trash hanging around with which to attract vermin and vom ... More >>

Artichoke May Become the Next Shake Shack

You can run, but you can't hide.​Speaking of chains: It seems that Artichoke's recent expansion to Tenth Avenue and to MacDougal Street is but the tip of a very large ice pick. In an interview with Grub Street, Francis Garcia, one of the pizzeria's owners, says that Pizza Hut "had better worr ... More >>

TRICK OR DRINK?

In Astoria, you can do both

The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday

Welcome to The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday, where we endeavor to remember the very best thing we stuffed down our gullets over the past 24 hours. Why? Because the only thing better than enjoying a meal is wallowing in the memory of one savored in the recent past. Today's fond reminiscences ... Jess ... More >>

Fat Pants Friday: Baked's Peanut S'mores Bar

​ Last weekend, en route to the Red Hook Ballfields, we stopped at Baked and ordered a peanut butter-banana s'mores bar. The bakery was crowded and the lady behind the counter was slightly harried, so instead of the peanut butter-banana thing, we ended up with the almost-identical peanut s'mo ... More >>

Church Bingo Scam in Queens Nets $830,000, Old-School-Style

​We thought this "oldest trick in the book" sort of con only happened in movies with smooth-talking snake-oil preachers and gullible townsfolk, but clearly, we were the gullible ones here! According to ABC, three wayward church-goers implemented a bingo scam in Jackson Heights that netted them ... More >>

New York's Cheap Eats Issue

Out today is New York's Cheap Eats issue, wherein Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite round up the year's myriad developments in (mostly) affordable eating. They've got your burgers, your new-wave Asian (Fatty 'Cue, Baohaus, Umi Nom, et al.), your vegetarian, your noodles, fried chicken, and so on. B ... More >>

FDNY Saves Puppies and Kitties in Pet Store Fire Peril

​Okay, we're calling it a day. Depressed that you're back in the normal grind of things after a lovely three-day weekend? And that the weather sucks? So is everyone else, asshole. Cheer up! How? Funny you ask.

Local Big Black Acolytes Austerity Program On The Virtues of Pranking Your Own Label and Their New EP, Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​Astoria duo Austerity Program take the lunging acrimony of classic pigfuck and subvert it through the evil scrunch of modern extreme metal. They've always sounded a little like Big Black--what with ... More >>

Kalif Canady, 22, Shot to Death in Queens

View Larger Map DATE: Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, 1:17 a.m. LOCATION: 4th  St and 27 Ave., Astoria, Queens. The police say 22-year-old Kalif Canady, of 27th Avenue, was shot to death at the above intersection which is near the Astoria Houses, a public housing development. He was shot in the head. He ... More >>

Edible Queens and Joe DiStefano Join Forces to Create Queens Food Blog

llahbocaj/flickrFood in Queens: here, there, everywhere.​Roving reporter, serial masticator, and sometimes Fork in the Road contributor Joe DiStefano knows a thing or two about eating his way through Queens, so we can't think of a more fitting author for World's Fare, the blog he's just launch ... More >>

Have You Seen... Astoria Mugger, Would-Be Rapist

​On Sunday around 4 in the morning, this guy came up to a woman as she came out of the 31st Street subway station in Astoria, knocked her down, took her cellphone, and then tried to rape her. Failing in this attempt, and took off. He's described as Hispanic, 5'6", and 165 pounds. If you have ... More >>

Pix from Ovelia, a Modern Greek Restaurant in Astoria

​The nearly unpronounceable kolokithokeftedes are fried zucchini patties served with an ouzo-laced tomato dipping sauce. This week, Counter Culture triremes into Ovelia, a modernistic boite in Astoria that retains its ancient outlook. The portions are generous, the tariff light. Anything that ... More >>

Some of Our Favorite Restaurant Names, Part 3

​A storefront in Murray Hill, Flushing, Queens, proclaims poultry insanity. Here we go again, offering yet another picture gallery of our favorite names for restaurants, liquor stores, coffee bars, caterers, and other food- and booze-related establishments.

Vegetarian Delights of NYC: Skordalia and Grilled Veggies at Ovelia in Astoria, Queens

​ ​Vegetarian and even vegan delights abound among the Greek restaurants of Astoria. One that I stumbled on quite recently was at Ovelia, a Hellenic spot that eschews photos of the Parthenon and little windmill models in favor of seeming like a modern cafe. One of my vegetarian favorit ... More >>

Queens Joins the Edible Family

​The Edible family just got a little bigger: The powers-that-be behind Edible Queens have just announced the debut of the magazine, which is edited and published by Leah McLaughlin. The premiere issue includes a trip to Flushing -- the city's "more diverse and affluent Chinatown" -- with Antho ... More >>

Murphys Law+Antidote

A New Crop of Thais Pops Up in Woodside and Astoria

Vegetarian Delights of NYC -- Bolanee Kadu

Jack-O-Lantern fritters are crunchy and sweet (click to engorge) The meatiness of Afghan cuisine can be a turn-off to vegetarians, and the smell of lamb grilling over charcoal is a feature of most of the city's kebab houses. But dig deeper at Balkh Shish Kabab House and find that strictly v ... More >>

A Pair of Bosnian Cafés Compete on a Queens Corner

Queens Bar Hits All the Right Notes, Then Misses on the Music

Queens' Nights: Celebrate College-Like Antics in Astoria

Feta Unfettered

Getting beyond Greek salad

A No-Name Destination Serves Up Tchotchkes and Tipples

Garden Party

Outside is the perfect setting to cure all that ales you

Close-up on Astoria

Listings

Fair-Weather Friends

Best Bets for Boozing in the Breeze

Beat the Parents

Death in Astoria

An Eyewitness to Flame and Frenzy

Pass the Mashed

Attic Scales on the East Side

Queens For A Day