New York City - Queens -
Queens sunset, New York
The geographical center of New York City is actually in Queens. Near this location, investors held the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. The area still includes an interesting museum and some architectural and artistic relics of the events (including the Unisphere, a 300 ton spherical grid of steel sculpted to look like the globe--as seen in Men In Black). The area is now called Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The northern end includes Shea Stadium and the U.S. Tennis Open stadium; further north still one can walk along the edge of a marina in Long Island Sound. The park also includes a science museum, a zoo, pedal-boats, and frequent special events.
Get in
For information on how to walk or bicycle to and from Queens, check . Except for the Whitestone and Throgs Neck bridges, all the bridges can be crossed by pedestrians and bicycles. Be prepared, however, for long walks--and don't forget that Queens is very, very big--and not well-designed for a walking tour. Do not attempt this without a map!
Sadly, most Queens visitors spend their visit on a bus to or from LaGuardia Airport or JFK. A proper tour of Queens is worthwhile. It can be conducted by a stalwart driver, as the roads can be tough to navigate. Much of Queens (but unlike Manhattan, not all of it), including many of the most interesting parts, can be seen by subway. A trip on the 7 train, made nationally famous by the contempt of former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, is a cultural experience in and of itself. The 7 runs elevated through most of Queens, so you'll be able to get a good sense of much of the borough through its windows. A good tour of Queens should include at least three meals in three different ethnic enclaves.
Activities
You can also visit the beach without leaving Queens--as the Ramones put it, "we can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach." Rockaway Beach is actually a fine stretch of relatively unpolluted sand on its own island linked by two bridges to Long Island. Aside from the still-visible Empire State Building, and the frequent planes landing at nearby John F. Kennedy Airport, it is perhaps the most pastoral experience in New York City. The cleanest beach can be found at Gateway National Park (also known as Jacob Riis Park). Note that women CAN go topless at any public New York beach, though not very many do.
Attractions
Much of Queens is relatively suburban--in every borough, the closer you get to Manhattan, the more rare it is to find a stand-alone house. The more urban clusters are in the northwest: Astoria and Long Island City (LIC). LIC also contains Queens' only skyscraper, the "other" Citibank building, located directly across the East River from the more prominent angled-roof skyscraper in Manhattan. Rising 50 stories, the building, the result of Citibank's unsuccessful attempt to create a new business district in LIC, is the tallest building in New York State located outside of Manhattan.
• P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, (718) 784-2084 - Th-M noon-6pm. Supported by the Museum of Modern, this innovative (and cheap) contemporary art museum is in a former public school building. The conversion left most of the original features of the school - the large ex-classrooms are perfect for installations - and the bathrooms are a blast from the past. P.S.1 is a few blocks south on Jackson Avenue from the Citibank tower; the entrance is a concrete slab (how fitting) which occludes view of the school itself. P.S.1 also has a nice cafe and outdoor seats where every able-bodied New Yorker can enjoy a smoke.
• Steinway & Sons Pianos, 1 Steinway Place, Long Island City, (718) 721-2600 - They offer free guided tours during fall and spring to see the skilled crafts men at work. Phone ahead, a month in advance is recommended, to reserve a place on these popular tours, and to check the days and times. Otherwise take the online factory tour on their website.
Queens is no longer the temporary home of the Museum of Modern Art which has reopened in Manhattan. But in Long Island City one can still find the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park overlooking the East River (next to Price Costco on Vernon Blvd.) and the Museum of African Art.
(A general tip on NYC Museums: if you work for a large company such as IBM, GE, or Citigroup, check to see if your company is a member--this goes for all museums in NYC; different museums have different sponsors of course.)
Across the street (Jackson Avenue) from PS.1 is a fascinating site as well: 5 Points which is one of the few "legal graffiti zones" in New York City. Visit the website for an advance taste. The entire building is decorated (including the inside if you can, ahem, find a way in). 5 Ptz is underground New York at its finest--although artists must apply for permits from a shadowy figure with e-mail addresses posted on-site (which perhaps ensures that high standards for the spray-painted art). Few taggers have defaced the site with their idiotic scrawls; rather, the art is better, fresher, and more colorful than many stale PS.1 exhibits. Be sure to walk around the entire length of the building. Just under the 7 train, which runs overhead on 5 Ptz's north face, you'll find a large enclosure for truck loading, which features some of the best artwork of all. A fire escape runs up to the roof, and of course, every space within arms' reach is decorated as well. If you're into this stuff, you'll want to bring a camera.
In Flushing Meadows Corona Park (also on the 7 line; exit at Shea Stadium) the Queens Museum offers cultural events, Worlds' Fair Memorabilia, and a sprawling scaled-down Panorama of the entire city. It's incredibly accurate--except they've yet to remove the World Trade Center.
Just off Northern Blvd. in the area between Astoria and L.I.C.--at 35th Avenue and 36th street--you'll find the Museum of the Moving Image, which showcases movies and the televisual arts with revolving exhibitions. Kaufman-Astoria Studios (home of the Sopranos, among others) stands next door; there's also a gigantic movie theater, and a nice new 24 hour diner/bar (which serves pitchers of beer) known as Cup. Take the R/V/G or the N/W line.
Dining
Snobbish Manhattanites never come to Queens, which is one of its great appeals for those of us who live there. There are a few top-notch bars in Queens, but it's the restaurants that really shine, for a simple reason: Manhattan food is Yuppie food; Queens food is aimed at genuine ethnic inhabitants. To put it another way, come here if you like spicy food. If you want a real taste of Hong Kong--or Tibet, Indonesia, Colombia, Peru, India, Argentina, or just about anyplace (including France)--you'll find it in Queens.
Suggested general areas for culinary roving:
• Flushing for Korean and Chinese (Fay Da on Main St., among others, offers reliably good Dim Sum). (The 7 line ends in Flushing Main St., and you'll think you've gone all the way to Hong Kong.) If you're driving you'll notice an endless selection of Korean BBQ restaurants along Northern Blvd. as you move in the direction of Nassau County. Flushing is substantially bigger than the Manhattan Chinatown.
• Woodside near 61st St. is home to the Thai restaurant widely considered the best in New York, Sripraphai. You can access it via the 7 train.
• Jackson Heights near 74th street for Indian and Afghan (try the Jackson Diner a few feet north on 74th from Roosevelt Ave. (E and F express trains stop there, as well as concurrent lines, and the 7).
• Jackson Heights near 82nd street (take the 7) for Colombian, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Mexican. Pollos A La Brasa Mario has branches in many Queens locations, and two here (one is at 83rd and 37th Ave; there's also a flagship closer to 81st street on Roosevelt.)
• Elmhurst offers great Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, and Indonesian food. Try Pho Bang if you like Vietnamese (there are also other Queens branches, including one in Flushing on Kissena Blvd.) Penang (Malaysian), which has branches in many U.S. cities, is located in the same complex on Broadway, just beside the LIRR bridge.
• In the Middle Village/Ridgewood/Maspeth region (near the end of the M line) you'll find Rosa's Pizza (one is at Fresh Pond Rd. and Metropolitan Ave.; another is down Metropolitan Ave. at the end of the Middle Village strip). This is one of the great undiscovered pizza parlors of Queens. It also has branches in several locations.
• Fancier food can be found in Forest Hills, including Nick's Pizza on Austin St., which is fine brick oven-style chow. In the basement of the hotel at station square (right in front of a LIRR stop) you'll find Bartini's, a small lounge offering 1000 different martinis (although I suggest stopping at two).
• Astoria offers great Greek and Czech food, as well as some of the hipper bars and diners in Queens. (You're right next to the movie studios.)
• If you just want a hamburger, you'll find the Jackson Hole Diner along Astoria Blvd. between Jackson Heights and Astoria, just west of LaGuardia airport. This is a real diner (formerly the Airport Diner as seen in "GoodFellas") converted to suit Jackson Hole (another NYC-only chain). Jackson Hole burgers are good, although they need salt. Imagine a half-pound hockey-puck-shaped meatloaf and you're pretty close. But it tastes good.
• There's some fine dining to be had in Hunters Point--or so it's said, just southwest of Long Island City. Spacious riverfront restaurants appear here and there in the warehouse zone. It would be wise to drive or take a taxi.
• Along Cross Bay Blvd. in Howard Beach you'll find Captain Mike's, what appears to be a converted yacht now selling crabs, shrimp, and beer (dine at the bar or take it home; summertime only).
• Corona is home to an Italian and Hispanic community and the famous "Lemon Ice King of Corona". A favorite place for Mets fans to stop after the game, the corner shop offers over 20 flavors of ices including cantaloupe, watermelon, rum raisin, licorice, pistachio, pina colada and my favorite peanut butter.
• Like Manhattan, Queens is blessed with many great Irish pubs, scattered randomly throughout the region. The regulars are generally real regulars, not just yuppies looking to get laid.
Queens Cuisine extends much farther out, of course, but one can only cover so much territory.
Adapted from WikiTravel under the Wiki License
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