Station LIC
Aug. 13, 2014 By Michael Florio
The railroad-themed bar/restaurant that is coming to Hunters Point is on track to open early September.
Station LIC, located at 10-37 Jackson Ave, was initially going to open in July but owner Greg Okshteyn decided to push back the date to ensure that he had enough time to train his staff and meet his distributors/suppliers.
Furthermore, he wanted to take his time completing the 2 ½ year renovation.
“We spent so much time on the renovations we didn’t want to rush the final stages,” he said. “We’re perfectionists and we wanted to make sure that everything was done perfectly.”
The restaurant has now been completely renovated and a brand new kitchen has been installed.
The restaurant is located inside a triangular-shaped building, which looks like a station house, which has been empty for more than a decade. Okshteyn has already placed a railroad light on the exterior of the building—indicating where the front door is.
Business partner Christoper Ferrante, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and ran Bar 89 in Manhattan, has designed the menu, food and bar program.
The bar/restaurant will feature American bistro-style food, featuring snack items such as broccoli Parmesan fritters, fried green olives stuffed with gorgonzola, jalapeno peppers wrapped in bacon along with sandwiches and salads.
Larger plates will consist of spice rub roast chicken, fried eggplant Parmesan with smoked mozzarella and its own house burger called the Station Burger that will feature grass-fed beef, maple glazed bacon and pepper jack cheese.
Main dishes will cost anywhere from $12 to $18 dollars. Cocktails will cost $11.
Okshteyn said that the bar/restaurant will cater to 71 people, with 44 restaurant goers seated upstairs, 11 at the bar and 16 downstairs in the cellar.
While empty for the past decade, the location has a rich history. It was the home of a successful saloon called Blessinger’s and was also featured in the 1980’s Tom Cruise film ‘Cocktail.’
The restaurant has garnered a lot of attention from the community, as Okshteyn, a LIC resident, said he can’t walk around the neighborhood without being asked when it will open.
“Everyone knows we are going to have a lot of fun,” he said.
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5 Comments
Any updates? I’m guessing there are some permit/license issues…
This is my grandpa’s old bar. I was excited to bring my family on marathon day, but I ran past this week and found it still not open. Will you be open this Sunday for the big race?
Any relation to the Station restaurant in Williamsburg? Found out they deliver all the way to Queens late into the night. I can only imagine their rent!
Good luck to the new Station, I’m sure it will be a million times better! (j/k wouldn’t be hard hehe)
BTW – the sepia toned photo in the header on the LICPOST.com home page directly right of the logo is an image of our spot in 1928. AMAZING!!!
Here is the bar at the end of Cocktail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGKH4HyHXRk