Astorian Weekend Edition, 16.07.09

Looks like another nice weekend in Astoria. Thursday evening brings plenty of fun things to do in town, from a free wine tasting, to a celebration of pampering, to Green Drinks in LIC, to an evening of style shopping. It's my birthday that day, so I'll be celebrating as well.

This weekend head over to the Sculpture Center (44-19 Purves Street) on Saturday to get your fill of social, cultural, and artistic discussion. Remember that nearby you'll find Dutch Kills Bar (27-24 Jackson Avenue), so head over there to continue the discussion over a cocktail.

And don't forget Astoria's own Musical Saw Festival on the 18th at Trinity Church (31-18 37th Street)

Summer weekends are all about relaxing, so LIC's newly expanded Gantry State Park (behind 47-20 Center Blvd) could be perfect on Sunday for a relaxing afternoon of lazing around. A swim could be fun, too. Or spend the time over on 30th Ave at Ovelia (34-01 30th Ave) sitting outside with a frappe and friends. Il Bambino's new outdoor patio (34-08 31st Ave) is newly open, too.

Enjoy your weekend, whatever you do!

Astorian Weekend Edition 30.04.09

Thursday,shop at Ethereal Boutique (47-38 Vernon Blvd) in Long Island City and 10% of the proceeds will benefit Hour Children. They will be featuring styles from MINT Jodi Arnold™ and artwork by local artist, Vicky Barranguet. There will be wine and gift bags for the first 20 guests to purchase MINT Jodi Arnold styles!

Friday night Dutch Kills Bar (27-24 Jackson Ave) finally gets its unveiling! There's been plenty of buzz so now the big test, check em out and let us know if they rocked it.

This Saturday, City Year New York is having its 3rd Annual LICense to Serve Day in Long Island City. It's all going down from 9:30am to 3pm at Dutch Kills Park and Hour Children's “My Mother’s House”. There will be painting murals, playground games and gardening.
Volunteers need to register prior to the event by contacting Nick Florest at (646)-247-7735.

Sunday brings the first Spring Fling Market to Astoria. From 10:30am to 4:30pm join 40 vendors bringing us a variety of handmade, handcrafted and general cool stuff at the Cretan Omonia Association Hall building (32-33 31st St.). There will also be music and freshly made sweets and pastries.

Somewhere along the way, stop in at the Chicken Shack (35-02 30th Ave.) and get your grub on. I was pleasantly surprised not only by the quantity of food but the quality was pretty good too! Don't scoff at it, 2 people can get way overfull and still have leftovers for $20!

Update on Dutch Kills Bar

News via liQcity. Sounds like April is the month they're going to open:

"We just got our refrigeration in this week, so we’re back to a construction site for just a couple more weeks. We’ll be opening in April.Our sinks, our plumbing, and the refrigeration are things we take very seriously. We’re juicing fresh to order behind the bar, so all of that has to be meticulously planned, and we can’t just slap that together and expect the same level of quality that we have at the other bars. We’ll also be introducing a hand-cut, made-to-order ice station behind the bar, so when you order a drink, someone will actually cut the ice right in front of you."

Dutch Kills Bar whipping online media into a frantic cocktail [liQcity]
Dutch Kills Bar Opens Soon [Joey in Astoria]