Friday night stop at the ATM and try out the new Island Cafe & Lounge (35-15 36th Street). It's brand new and helmed by Top Chef contestant Josie Smith-Malave. It's definitely a new kinda place for the hood; let's see how they do. If their $11 drinks scare you off, try out the huge fishbowl-sized caipirinhas at Time Cafe! (44-18 Broadway) For a mere $8, you'll be sipping for at least a half hour. Tasty indeed and such a cute space (see photo).Saturday go window shopping or actual shopping at the coolest random item store around! It's Marco Polo Gift House (44-10 30th Ave) to the rescue for those hard to shop for friends and loved ones.
Hungry from shopping, catch an early dinner at Aces (32-07 36th Ave). I had the skate there and LOVED it. After dinner let your ears be entertained by our pal DJ Lo-Fi, he'll be spinning over at the always hip and happening Hellgate Social. Fun with the tunes and always no cover- just like we like it. Ladies, count on RightRides when your ready to go home. No more long and lonely (and sometimes scary) walks to the train/bus/cab
Sunday head north. Not too far north, but up towards the park. The Ultimate Frisbee season is officially here! Hooray for Spring :) Need a break after tossing the disk around, find your way over to Freeze Peach where a bunch of folks are having a book swap around 2pm. Bring a book or two and find yourself something new to read.
I tried out the Island Cafe this weekend and it was great. The space is beautiful and very relaxing. The food was good, we had a few small plates including mussels (least favorite), tuna shashimi, crabcakes (awsome) and steak and cheese sliders (favorite). The sangria was good but could be a little spicier. A little bit pricey for small food but a great addition to Astoria restaurants.
ReplyDeleteJust got back from Island. The food was great, the atmosphere was unmatched, but our waitress sucked. She kept saying she "was new here", but other than that, she really didn't know how to be a waitress, not even knowing the menu.
ReplyDeleteGuys filling our water were attentive, a couple of guys in suits stopping by to see if everything was good, and giving us a free wine apertif, but the basic overall server was not up to the price of the place's par. Heaven forbid we needed some advice on a wine pairing, she didn't even know about the food on the menu itself.
We were there Saturday night for drinks, and same disappointing service from a bartender, more concerned with talking to a hostess than offering us another round of $10 drinks, which I would have happily accepted, but didn't have the opportunity to ask for. So we left hoping for more tonight.
Overall, unbelievable mood and food, just lacking in service. Don't take this the wrong way, the food and place are excellent and worth a try, but hopefully they improve the other pieces.