47-10 Vernon Blvd

May 17, By Christian Murray

A gastropub is scheduled to open in August where the storied Lounge 47 used to operate.

The pub, to be called Woodbines, will be owned by Pat Burke, who runs three other bar/restaurants throughout the city—including the Courtyard in Sunnyside.

Burke said that Woodbines, named after the cigarettes his grandfather smoked in Ireland, would offer 16 craft beers and a high-end bar menu.

“We want a bit of an older-styled place,” Burke said, adding that the interior would feature “distressed wood” to create a comfortable atmosphere. He said the exterior of the pub would be changed to reflect that too.

Last week Burke told Community Board 2 that he would not use the backyard space—acknowledging the noise complaints that local residents lodged against the former owner of Lounge 47. Those complaints led to Lounge 47 having to close the backyard space, playing a role in its closure earlier this year.

Burke told the community board that he is in the midst of soundproofing the ceiling and some of the walls—costing about $28,000—which he was not required to do so  by law or by his landlord.

The community board has given Burke the approval to operate Woodbines until 2 am on weeknights and until 4 am on Friday and Saturdays nights. The board has also stipulated that he can’t use the back yard.

William Garrett, who represented many of the neighbors at the Community board meeting, wanted the board to limit the hours until 11pm on weeknights and 1 am on weekends. However, the board—acknowledging Burke’s decision not to use the backyard—was more lenient.

“We don’t anticipate being open that late, but we like to have the flexibility to have that option,” Burke said.

Burke, 39, who is originally from County Cork,  came to the US when he was 20.

He became the owner of the Courtyard when he was 25—and then opened the Brickyard Gastropub in Manhattan 3 ½ years ago. Last year, he established a bar in Williamsburg called the Kent Ale House.

Burke is excited to be venturing into Long Island City.  “Looking at the neighborhood and all the new residents…it’s a great opportunity.”

Pat Burke, the owner of Woodbines, at the Courtyard

The owner of a well-established Court Square cafe has some ambitious plans this summer.

Leslie Nilsson, the owner of Sage General (24-20 Jackson Ave.), plans to convert her well-established café into more of a bar/restaurant scene. Furthermore, she is in the midst of opening a bakery—with a focus on macarons– in the Hunters Point district.

Nilsson will be tackling her Sage General makeover first. She said that she will be closing the café down over the Memorial Day weekend to install a bar. She said that she expects to have her full liquor license by the end of June—and to have introduced a new dinner menu.

Meanwhile, she is also working on opening J. Marquette, a bakery located at 12-07 Jackson Ave, in August.

macarons

The bakery will put an American twist on macarons, a traditional French meringue-based confectionery, which comes with a variety of flavors in the middle.

“Our tag line is: ‘French in origin, American in spirit’”, Nilsson said.

Nilsson said the shop will bake flavors such as bourbon pecan, raspberry lemon, bacon brownies, malted milk balls, captain crunch—as well as chocolate and vanilla.

She said that she will be selling them at the LICFlea, which opens in June.

The shop is being named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan’s first European settlement. Nilsson said her parents are both from Northern Michigan.

Nilsson has hired Hans Baang, who worked for the now-defunct Little Oven, to bake the macarons.

Nilsson said that the new bakery will supply Sage with its baked goods—since she needs more space at the café/bar/restaurant.

J. Marquette will also offer dog treats and artisanal products—such as hand creams with special scents.

Nilsson has plans to open a number of bakeries throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn and has a real estate scout looking for sites.

J Marquette and Han Baang

May 15, By Bill Parry

The 3^rd annual LIC Arts Open gets underway Wednesday, with its organizers touting the event as an opportunity for local artists to showcase their work.

The event, which goes from May 15 through May 19, aims to bring the community together through the art. It will showcase performance art, films and fine art.

The first 3 days of the event will focus on the artwork in Long Island City’s many galleries, restaurants and stores– while the remaining two days will spotlight the artists’ studios.

The organizers have split LIC into three sections, where the artwork displayed in certain geographical zones is showcased on separate days.

The artwork in galleries and restaurants in the Court Square/Jackson Avenue area will be highlighted on Wednesday evening. The artwork in galleries/restaurants/stores near Queens Plaza will be the focus on Thursday evening, and the artwork on Vernon Blvd. will follow on Friday night.

On the weekend, the festival’s focus will shift toward those artists who have their studios in LIC. More than 200 artists will open their studios —while the public can be view them in action— between noon and 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. Some of their artwork will be for sale.

The open studios will be a major component of the festival, since they will allow attendees to see local artists who are typically out of the public’s eye.

LIC Arts Open co-founder Richard Mazda said that attendees will learn that LIC artists tend to be older and more established than artists from the trendy areas of the city.

“Williamsburg gets all the notice because its art community is just out of college and is more social with the club scene,” Mazda said. However, in LIC “the artists are older and can afford their own studios, and they produce wonderful work.”

The Arts Open will also feature an encore showing of many of the films that played at the Queens World Film Festival. These films will be played at the Secret Theatre (4402 23rd Street).

Meanwhile, for music lovers, there will be a concert at the Gotham Center on Saturday. “This will feature 10 musicians,” said Jeffrey Leder, one of LICAO’s development directors. “The show is curated by LIC-resident Pat Irwin of the B-52’s,” Leder said.

The entire LIC Arts Open will begin at Leder’s art gallery, located at 21-37 45^th Rd., on Wednesday, from 5 pm to 7pm. His gallery will debut a new exhibit of the paintings and drawings of Jorge Posada.

“I assure you it’s not the work of the former Yankees catcher,” said Leder, with a chuckle. “I’m surprised how many people ask me that.”

The Foundry

May 13, By Bill Parry

When Buzzfeed, a news and entertainment website that generates 40 million viewers per month, released its list of The 22 Coolest Places in America to Get Married, The Foundry, located at 42-38 9^th Street, was ranked #20.

The managers at the Foundry were caught off guard by the ranking.

“We didn’t even know about it,” said Julie Miller, the event manager. “We only found out about it when one of our vendors sent the list to us.”

Miller said the staff at the 107 year old former metal foundry was super excited and that they “busted out the champagne.”

“What’s really cool is we’re the only ones listed in New York City–and the state,” Miller said. In fact, The Foundry was the only wedding venue in the entire northeast to make the list.

Miller said that having the venue mentioned on a website like Buzzfeed is a real plus in the wedding business. “It helps get the word out about us,” she said.

The Foundry hosts an average of three weddings per week, and sometimes as many as five. The sprawling industrial complex also hosts corporate parties, promotional events and shootings for TV, films and commercials, but weddings are the biggest money maker.
While the publicity generated by the Buzzfeed list is certainly welcome, Miller said, business has been extremely good in any case for quite some time.

“This week, I’ve booked four weddings for next year alone,” Miller said on Thursday. The bookings came in before Buzzfeed’s list was released. However, “We should see its [the list's] affect down the line.”

Beige warehouse: location where the new club gets water access

May 13, By Bill Parry

A new Long Island City-based canoe club has formed, founded by a number of past LIC Community Boathouse members.

The group—called HarborLAB (LAB stands for Learning Adventure Boating)—was created by Erik Baard, who founded the LIC Boathouse in 2003.

Baard stepped down as the chairman of the LIC Boathouse in 2008 and since then has been involved in a series of highly-publicized arguments with a smaller, affiliated boating group– called The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club—which later assumed control of the LIC Boathouse.

For Baard and other former LIC Boathouse members, HarborLAB represents a fresh start.

HarborLAB had its inaugural fleet launch on Saturday, when its members took part in the Bronx River Flotilla, a 5 km canoe race on the Bronx River. The new club currently has about 25 members and about one dozen canoes/kayaks. However, by June the group anticipates that it will have about 30 canoes/kayaks.

The club plans to offer programs in environmental education, stewardship and restoration from a launch site located on Newtown Creek. The club is able to get access to the water via a relationship it has forged with the owner of a warehouse at 53-21 Vernon Blvd.

The group is currently storing its boats in the backyards of friends in Sunnyside and Glendale. However, members are trying to raise funds for their own boathouse next to the Vernon Blvd. warehouse launch site.

In the meantime, Baard is still doing battle with the Gowanus Dredgers Club. Baard is being sued by Dredgers members for violating copyright law, when he established the LIC Community Boathouse Facebook page after he left LIC Community Boathouse.

Baard claims that the Dredgers were merely an affiliate group and never merged with the LIC Community Boathouse, so it isn’t theirs to claim.

According to police, the incident took place on a Queens bound train on Sunday, May 5 at about 1 a.m. In the video, an unidentified man punches a victim and then leaves the train at 69th Street.

The suspect is described as approximately 5’9″, 180 lbs with brown eyes and long black hair with a pony tail. He was wearing a dark T-shirt and blue jeans.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

Gustavo Rodriguez aka Silbin Sandavar

May 10, By Bill Parry

A Long Island City man, who makes his living booking recording artists for local music venues, has joined their ranks.

Gustavo Rodriguez, best known for his work at LIC Bar, is the vocalist on a single called The Poisoned Well  that got picked up as the theme song for the new cable series Maron. The dark comedy, based on comedian Marc Maron, made its debut on The Independent Film Channel last Friday night.

“I’m thrilled, it’s wonderful,” said Rodriguez. “I hope it leads to bigger things.”

He credits his job as a music booker at several nightspots like LIC Bar and Queens Kickshaw for surrounding him with what he calls: “Good people who do great stuff.”

Rodriguez gives the credit to Astoria musician Anthony Rizzo who wrote the song for the show. “He’s gotten more into movie and television composing and he always calls me in for vocals,” Rodriguez said.

The song was cut this past December while Rodriguez was spending much of his time helping Brian Porter’s LIC Bar get back on its feet after Hurricane Sandy. The club was closed for 20 days after seven feet of salt water from the East River destroyed the clubs sound system and instruments.

“It’s been a great year despite that terrible episode with Sandy,” Rodriguez said. However, even the hurricane had its positives, he said, “like the help we [LIC Bar] got from The Who.” The rock and roll super group donated replacement equipment after hearing of LIC Bar’s plight.

The 40-year old Rodriguez, who performs under the stage name Silbin Sandavar, has been a guitarist and vocalist since the age of 14. He says his current brush with fame is “a testament to the power of late bloomers everywhere.”

47th Road (btw. 11th Street and Jackson Ave.)

May 10, By Christian Murray

Tobi Kahn, a Long Island City resident, parked his car in a perfectly legal spot on 47^th Road on Sunday, April 28—only to find he had a ticket when he returned to his car the very next day.

Kahn had parked his car along 47^th Road, between 11^th Street and Jackson Avenue, for years. However, unbeknownst to him, the city had changed the parking signs that night without warning.  His public parking space had suddenly been re-designated: “No Parking Except Authorized Vehicles 7AM-7PM Monday through Friday.”

Kahn said that seven cars were ticketed that day.  All of the owners of those vehicles along that strip were unaware that the Department of Transportation was switching the parking rules.

Sign change without notice

“The whole thing was really creepy,” Kahn said. “Why didn’t they not mention it to anyone?”

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents LIC,  is working with some of the victims to see if he can help them avoid having to pay fines that are about $100.

However, he said, he continues to advocate for legislation that would combat instances like these that have emerged all over the city—and in Long Island City before.

Van Bramer introduced legislation in May 2011 that would require the city to provide 72 hours notice before the effective date of a street sign change.  He has said that the Department of Transportation opposes the law since the agency would have to pay its staff to go out and notify the public.

A public hearing was held before the New York City Council Transportation Committee in December and groups such as AAA of New York supported it.

Van Bramer is hopeful that the city council will vote on it and that it will be passed. His office said that incidents such as these highlight the need for the legislation.

Wanted: Nicolas Almonte

May 9, By Christian Murray (update: 7pm)

The police have arrested a Long Island City man who allegedly went on a carjacking and armed robbery spree that took place throughout Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City this morning.

The police said that Nicholas Almonte, 27,  stole a a woman’s Mercedes at gun point at 9:37 am near the entrance to the Queens Mid-Town Tunnel.  He took the vehicle and drove the victim around—before the terrified woman was able to flee near Queens Plaza. The woman was not hurt and Almonte ditched the car.

The police said at about 10:00am Almonte pulled out a gun and took a man’s 2007 Lexus at Thompson Ave and Vandam Street. The victim was not hurt and the car was recovered a short time later at 38th Street and Hunters Point Avenue.

About 10 minutes later, Almonte tried to steal car keys from a woman walking her dog near 50th Avenue and 39th Street – but fled after she told him she didn’t have any.

At 10:20 am, Almonte allegedly held a truck driver up at gunpoint in the vicinity of 38th Street and Hunters Point Avenue. Almonte allegedly stole cash and fled on foot, according to police.

Then at about 10:30am, he allegedly carjacked a man driving a 1996 gold Mercedes at 39th Street and Greenpoint Avenue.

He was arrested in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, this evening.