One of the few job perks of being a location scout: the studio gives us $10 for lunch. Woo! The Scout Lunch is a look at some of my favorite restaurants in New York to spend that $10 at. Those in the know call it the In’N’Out of Queens. That alone should merit a trip…
I was driving down 27th Ave in Astoria the other day when a rather large tree in front of an auto body shop caught my eye. Nothing too special about a random tree…but something didn’t seem right… …And then I realized: was that tree growing through the auto body shop??
Last week, I went the New York Hall of Science in Queens to take some scout pictures, my first time visiting. The Hall of Science was originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair, and while it’s gone through many renovations over the years, this oddly-shaped cement portion speckled with black dots clearly dates back to…
Last week, I was scouting office space in a building in Queens. My guide brought me to this totally unassuming elevator: Really, I have to show you this as I encountered it:
Seeing the blue onion dome from a distance, you’d probably assume St. Nicholas to be your typical Russian church. But take a drive down Clintoneville Ave, and you’ll realize the truth… Someone has landed a spaceship in Queens and disguised it as a Russian Orthodox church.
I swear I’ve gone by the Yakuel cab stand on 12th Street and the Queensboro Bridge a million times without ever looking inside. Other than the bright new paint job and the nice potted plants, it really doesn’t seem any different from most cab stands in this area of Queens. Except, the plants outside… …are…
Note: this has since been removed. I was driving along Vernon Blvd in Queens when I spotted something you don’t usually see under the 59th Street Bridge… A bicycle garden! Or, to be specific, a row of flowers made out of old bike parts: Very inventive stuff – check out this sunflower… The group responsible…
I received a very unexpected email last week asking if I’d like to check out a hidden prohibition-era bowling alley in Queens. Uh, yes, definitely interested. I took a trip to see it today – Just incredible: According to the owner, the bowling lanes were hidden under boxes and boxes of junk. After researching the property,…
By the time I got there, it was gone. The World’s Fair, you ask? Nope. I am referring to something far more unbelievable… That’s right: Queens once had an honest-to-God Parks Department-approved fountain named “Fountain of the Planet of the Apes.” And if that’s not odd enough, an identical fountain on the opposite side of…
Staring down 54th Street from 31st Ave in Woodside, Queens, a street lined with boxy brick apartments and a scant bit of foliage, one would not expect to find one of the oldest cemeteries in New York nestled in amongst the buildings… But there it is, halfway down the block: the Moore-Jackson Cemetery, founded in…