Queens bars must number in the hundreds — maybe thousands. But don’t worry…. I’ve done the heavy lifting and checked out several of them for you. This is part two covering a recent visit that sprawled from Astoria to Forest Hills. Part one is here and we’ve also done a couple other visits to great Queens bars which you can read about here and here.
The reason for this visit was research. Research for my upcoming book, Great Good Places of New York to be published by Rizzoli in 2018. I’ve been checking out favorite neighborhood bars, taverns and saloons, picking 50 from all five boroughs which I’ll profile in the book. I’m both drawing pictures of each place and writing about them. It’s a hell of a big project, but an enjoyable one. Have any places you’d like to suggest? Lay ’em on me, in the comments below.
Back to Visiting Queens Bars
As we left off in part one, our guide and Queens native Al R., Colleen and I had bounced from Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Astoria to the Irish Rover to Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven. From there, we (along with Al’s lovely ladyfriend Ms. O) headed over to Mike’s Pub, a fine Queens throwback if there ever was one.
Mike’s Pub: a corner Irish bar in Queens. There’s dozens of those, so why was this one special? First of all, the bartender. He was welcoming and professional. Made good cocktails for the ladies without an eye-roll or a sigh, and cheerfully served up beer to fancy mucks me and Al with a smile. The prices were excellent, which is awfully refreshing, because all this research really does add up. In New York, where a cocktail can go for $13 easy, it’s nice to get a break and pay normal prices (normal in the rest of America) for a change. I think our two cocktails and two beers came to about $15. Mike’s has history, and a long bar that has seen some serious drinking, which stretches into the back room.
From Mike’s (which you can bet your sweet glosbe I’ll be going back to), we headed to Forest Hills and the Forest Hills Station House, which bills itself as a “beer hall and whiskey den.” (They didn’t even mention the food, and that was my favorite part!) Yes, they have beer, and I was glad to see my home-state heroes Bell’s of Michigan represented, along with several excellent New York beers like Other Half, Captain Lawrence and Greenport Harbor. I didn’t have any whiskey, but I did order a fully loaded burger as big as John Goodman’s head. Damn, it was good. That meal gave me the ballast I needed after a day of exploring all those Queens bars.
Al was kind enough to ferry us all the way back to Brooklyn, as I zoned out, watching the splendor that is Atlantic Avenue whiz beside us, growing sleepy, visions of klobasa, beer and John Goodman sandwiches dancing in my head….
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