The Astoria Drinking Committee, Part 1
Drinking Through One Neighborhood in Queens.
Let’s be honest about the relationship between most Cocktail Writers and Queens. As a longtime drinks writer, I can tell you that the borough has been almost completely ignored by the media during the entirety of the cocktail revival of the past quarter century. When a publication or writer decides to include Queens in some cocktail trend feature, in most cases they just mention Dutch Kills in Long Island City—which is just barely in Queens—and leave it at that. I’ve been guilty of this myself, declining to explore the borough further out of laziness or snobbery.
It’s time for that to end. A few months ago, we started exploring the borough, visiting cocktail bars we never had before. The idea was that we would cram all our findings into one article.
But Queens is a large borough. We quickly realized we could not fit all of Queens drinking culture into one post. So, after a while, we decided to first focus on a single neighborhood. We chose Astoria, an area that has more than enough quality cocktail joints to justify its own stand-alone article.
Then, halfway through doing research, we realized that we maybe couldn’t even do a good job covering Astoria with only one article. There were just too many good bars. Hence the title of this piece (which is a winking reference to The Beastie Boys final album).
I can’t say when Part 2 will come, but I’d like to keep the door open for further coverage. So, if you know of any great Astoria bars that you don’t see in this survey, know that there will be more copy to come—someday, hopefully soon—and leave a comment letting me know what I left out. We already have a long list of additional bars we want to check out, but I’m sure there’s something we’ve missed.
Until recently, the list of Astoria bars that I’ve actually visited was limited to the below:
sek'ənd sun: The second bar from Jay Zimmerman, the owner of Basik in Williamsburg. It’s fair to say I knew about it only because it was a sister bar to Basik, a popular industry bar. (Sadly, Zimmerman closed both Basik and Sekend Son in recent months.)
The Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden: A Czech landmark drinking destination that anyone with a sense of New York history knows about. There is no place like it in the city.
O’Hanlon’s Bar: A snug old tavern tucked underneath the elevated tracks of the last stop on the N line that advertises itself as the oldest family-run bar in Astoria. I wrote it up in one of my “A Beer At…” columns at Eater.
The Last Word: One of the earliest craft cocktail bars in Queens (it opened in 2016), named after a lost, pre-Prohibition cocktail that was resurrected by the cocktail revival.
There was another short-lived cocktail bar that we liked called Front Toward Enemy (great name), founded by barman Scott Teague, but that has since closed. And, that’s it. A pretty poor record. I partly blame the long train ride; from where I live in Brooklyn, it takes an hour to get to Astoria.
But Astoria wouldn’t leave us alone. We have a couple good friends who live in the area and they regularly tell us that Astoria has a lot to offer in terms of cocktails and bars. We believed them. But only recently did we act on those recommendations and we’re very glad we did. Here is what we found.
Our journey of discovery began with a wedding. It was a casual, intimate affair held at a bar called Mar’s, a favorite haunt of the couple in question. Until I walked inside, the only bar called Mars that I knew of in New York City was the late, lamented East Village dive that closed in 2011. This Mar’s is nothing like that Mars.
Mar’s, on a corner of 34th Avenue and 35th Street, is the kind of bar that, when you walk in, you think, “How have I never been to this bar before?” It’s a beautiful space, with a classic-cum-quirky aesthetic all its own. The gracefully curving bar, with its white marble top and brass rail and various bits of old dark wood, looks like something built out of salvaged furniture found as a Paris flea market. It is a charming construction, festooned with flowers, and makes you feel more sophisticated just standing near it.
There’s an impressive raw bar and a full French-leaning dinner menu, including duck confit, escargot and mussels. The cocktail menu is as long as the food menu. I had a French Accent (Tequila, Yellow Chartreuse, green tea, gentian, yuzu melon and cucumber) and the Mar’s Manhattan, a mixture of Bourbon, 7 1/2-year-old apple brandy, PX Sherry, Cynar and black lemon, and garnishes with bits of black mission figs. The easy-to-take house shot is a mixture of Old Overholt Rye and Cynar.
From there, we walked to the aforementioned sek'ənd sun. We did not know at the time that the bar only had weeks left to live. Its closure is a shame. It was a cocktail touchstone in Astoria, a lively and welcoming place that did almost everything well. The large neon “Queens” sign at the back exhibited the correct amount of local pride. The drinks were unfussy and good. The spacious brick-and-wood space stretched back to a backyard garden. And the prices were Queens-level reasonable.
Which leads me to an important point, and a good reason why you should visit Astoria: $20 cocktails have not yet reached this part of New York. Drink prices range $14-$16. Remember 2019? It’s still like that here.
The cocktail that I did not realize would be my last at the bar was the Flash Bastard. It was a Tequila-mezcal drink flavored with rosemary, jalapeño, sugar, lemon, grapefruit and Campari. It was just as refreshing as that list of ingredients sounds. At a nearby table, a group of adults was celebrating a birthday by dressing as their favorite ‘80s characters. Mary Kate delighted the birthday girl by correctly identifying her outfit as Jem, of the animated series Jem and The Holograms. I had never heard of Jem. So I learned something.
I am no longer as sad as I was recently when I learned of the shuttering of sek'ənd sun. That’s because I now know how many other good cocktail bars there are in Astoria. Sun’s exit left a hole, but not a void.
One of the great things about Astoria is that one can easily do an honest-to-goodness bar crawl and never skimp on the quality of one’s drinking. Many of the best bars are within walking distance of one another. Only the East Village matches Astoria in this respect.
“To me, Astoria has always felt like a small town attached to the big city, and I think its bars reflect that mentality,” said Ian Lauer, a longtime resident who is also a friend an a Mix subscriber. “There's a very strong sense of community and mutual support, and a kind of down-to-earth neighborhood-ness. A lot of the homes and businesses here are still multigenerational or passed around within the community, Industry places included.”
Just two blocks from Mar’s is Diamond Dogs, a hardcore hole-in-the wall with serious cocktail chops that opened in 2015. I’d heard of this bar often, from owner Nick Elezovic, but mostly from fellow Substacker, cocktail maven and Mix subscriber Amanda Schuster, who is a big fan. (She likes the Holy Mountain, made of rye, Becherovka, sweet vermouth and walnut bitters.) We actually ran into Schuster at Diamond Dogs by accident. So Brooklyn isn’t the only place where such cocktailian coincidences can occur.
It’s easy to walk right by Diamond Dogs; from the street, there is no indication its exists. Inside, it's all darkness, wood, brick and Victorian wallpaper. And yet, it’s friendly; it’s the kind of place that will give you a free hot apple cider during Dry January. I had a Wind Parade, an original creation made of Ten to One dark and light rum, velvet falernum, lime, soursop syrup and angostura bitters, with an absinthe rinse. But I had the feeling that the bartenders could have made any drink I named. We walked away with a couple of their bottled cocktails.
Diamond Dogs is a block from Sweet Afton, which calls itself “The Astoria Local” (it’s been around since 2009). It is, indeed, very sweet-looking, with long, leather banquettes, a wood-beamed ceiling, soft lighting and a mural in back. It has a very Sunday-brunch vibe, and sports the sort of anonymously-attractive design style that is quite common among Astoria bars and restaurants. Drinkwise, they’ve got a little bit of everything: Martinis, draft cocktails, mocktails, beer.
For whatever reason, I kept ordering pink drinks while touring Astoria. I didn’t plan it that way; they just kept turning out pink. This time it was the Audrey #4, composed of bourbon, allspice dram, blood orange, and yuzu.
Sweet Afton is part of a restaurant group that also includes The Bonnie, on 23rd Avenue near 31st Street. The Bonnie has a similarly likable decor and pro-Astoria vibe—a neon sign reads, a la Dorothy, “There’s nowhere like Astoria”—but is perhaps stronger on the cocktail front. They have an Oaxacan Negroni on tap (that’s an Tequila-mezcal Negroni). The draft Old-Fashioned Banana Split, with walnut liqueur and chocolate bitters, tastes just like the dessert in question, and makes for a nice nightcap. Best is the Bonnie Punch, a tasty blend of spiced rum, dark rum, grapefruit, cinnamon, Batavia Arrack and Velvet Falernum. (Again, this was a pink drink. I am attracted to grapefruit juice, I guess.)
I should mention that we walked into all of these bars—and all of the other bars I’m going to talk about below—without having a reservation or having to deal with someone armed with a iPad. Not a single foot soldier for Resy asked me for my phone number.
That is how it should be, but it is something that is increasingly difficult to do at the cocktail bars in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Astoria bars are keeping it honest, anti-corporate and friendly.
There’s a serious Irish contingent in the Astoria bar world, including old standard-bearer dives; pubs with a couple decades under their belt; and brighter, newer places. Among the first group are the aforementioned O’Hanlon’s, Doyle’s Corner (which opens at 8 a.m., thank you very much), and Kelly’s Bar.
Kelly’s is a trip. It’s tucked inside a corner, two-story building thats is half red brick, half green-and-white-painted wood. There’s a turret on top. It looks rather grand, like a mini Irish castle.
But inside is one of the smallest bars you’ll ever find in New York, with seats for maybe ten people, and shutters on the front windows that reminded me of the old McHale’s saloon in Times Square. Through a small door at the end of the bar is a second room where you’ll find more seating, a pool table and old wooden phone booth. The back bar is a mish-mosh of decent booze and some of the more vile bottom-shelf stuff you’ll ever see (Llord’s, Mr. Boston and Arrow products).
It’s a magical space and a perfect bar in its way
We were there close to Halloween and the place was decorated within an inch of its life in orange and black. I assume it went all out the same way at Christmas and will be as decked out on St. Patrick’s Day. Our outlandish bartender was dressed head to toe as a court jester, and acted accordingly. He said he was at work on an Oberon costume.
It’s a cash-only joint. It’s also a Yankees bar (in Queens!) and you are not advised to root for any other team while there. I ordered a Miller High Life and a shot of Maker’s, which set me back maybe $5.
Among the newer Irish bars is Honey Fitz, which opened earlier this month, only recently got its full liquor license and is expected to start serving food this week. It’s the latest addition to a bar group that includes Jack Jones Gastropub and Doyle’s. The atmosphere is Dead Rabbit lite. There are lots of little framed pictures of New York’s and Ireland’s pasts on the wall, and a “snug” room you can sneak off into.
Guinness is a thing taken seriously here, as it is in many Astoria watering holes. There’s also a house light and dark beer on tap, made special for Honey Fitz by an upstate brewery, thereby giving off some echoes of McSorley’s. The Irish whiskey selection is nicely curated; they have all the various “Spot” and Redbreast whiskeys. But the short cocktail menu is solid, too. I ordered a bang-up Tipperary (Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, Chartreuse) that was maybe the best example of that cocktail I’ve had.
Next door to Honey Fitz is Sanford’s, a restaurant with a chill bar hidden in the back room. There you can get happy hour oysters for $1.50 each and a trio of aged cocktails that are displayed in glass urns on the bar top. I felt compelled to try the aged Morning Manhattan, made of bourbon, Galliano Ristretto, creme de cacao, sweet vermouth and chocolate bitters. It was dark as night and drank like a sledgehammer. By “morning,” they don’t mean a gentle libation suitable for breakfast; they mean something that will wake you up with a smack to the skull.
If you don’t like cocktails, Sanford’s has one of the best Bourbon collections in the city.
“It’s welcoming, it’s got good value, it’s not intimidating,” said Kathleen Mclaughlin, a longtime friend and a Sanford’s regular who lives nearby. “At some New York bars, I feel like I’m almost not cool enough to go. I can pretty much walk in anywhere here. It’s one of the more ethnically diverse places in the city and that reflected in who works here, who goes here, who socializes. You’ll have a whole range of people.”
The best single cocktail I have had in Astoria was at Hei Tiki & Sushi Bar, which opened in April 2024. It was the Belafonte Old-Fashioned and it was simplicity itself: Smith & Cross overproof Jamaican rum, rye, banana liqueur, demerara syrup and tiki bitters. Also good was their Clear Sailing, a clarified version of a Piña Colada. Those were two originals, but all the tiki classics are on the menu as well, all served in snappy glassware. I was happy to discover that Astoria had a solid tiki outlet. Behind the bar were the cocktail tomes you’d want to see in a place like this, including volumes by tiki experts Jeff “Beachbum” Berry and Garret Richard.
While seated at the corner of the bar, we ran into Don Spiro (a Mix subscriber) and his wife Rachel, who are regular friendly faces at many of the tiki gatherings I’ve attended over the years. Seeing them there, offering their tacit stamp of approval, made me feel even better about Hei Tiki.
“Astoria is like a microcosm of all of NYC,” Spiro told me late in an email. “We have trendy bars, dive bars, drag bars, bridge-and-tunnel clubs, and craft cocktail lounges. With so much variety, most of us have found our favorite spots within walking distance of our homes or our friends.”
From there it was a short walk to the warm and very friendly Bar Dalia, a narrow space with an attractive back bar and a menu of Mexican and Spanish bar snacks, including tasty housemade empanadas. During happy hour you can get that snack for about four bucks. The classical house Margarita can be ordered eight different ways.
And after that it was another brief stroll to Heart of Gold, a kind of quasi-German punk beer bar that had four hot toddies on the menu (we had two; it was snowing), lots of beer and a food menu of Schaller & Weber hot dogs and a big, soft pretzel. Rebel Without a Cause was projected on the wall. The place had an approachably edgy vibe that set it apart nicely from most of the other bars we had visited that night. And there’s a Happy Hour Hot Dog!—always a good sign.
As we left, we looked at our bar list and realized there were still many more we needed to visit. But we were full-up for that night. The rest will have to wait until Part 2. But don’t let that stop you. Astoria awaits and has lots to offer, so check it all out. Maybe we’ll see you there on our next go-round.
Astoria reminds me of the old New York of only five or ten years ago, a place where you could walk into a bar without a reservation, a couple twenties in your pocket, and you would come out satisfied and unbothered. Or, if you chose, you could make some friends; everyone behind the bar is very welcoming (we experienced not a single incident of ageism, something that has become more and more common in bars in Manhattan and Brooklyn) and the crowds are very diverse. There are two or three destination bars in Astoria, but mainly it’s a choose-your-own adventure situation; and if you don’t like your first adventure, you can walk a hundred yards and try another. In short time, you’re bound to find one or two places that will quickly become favorites. I know we did.
(Many thanks to Ian Lauer and Kathleen Mclaughlin, two friends and Mix subscribers and Astoria natives, for their generous intel about the area. You guided us well!)
Astoria Bar Guide
Mar’s: 34-21 34th Ave., (718) 685-2480
Diamond Dogs: 34-04 31st Ave., 929.522.0061
Sweet Afton: 30-09 34th St., (718) 777-2570.
The Bonnie: 29-12 23rd ave, (718) 274-2105.
Kelly’s Bar: 31-04 Crescent St, (718) 278-9734.
Honey Fitz: 30-09 Broadway, (718) 777-2570.
Sanford’s: 30-13 Broadway, (718) 932-9569.
Hei Tiki and Sushi Bar: 34-20 Broadway, (917) 745-0407.
Bar Dalia: 33-17 31st Avenue, (347) 507-1218.
Heart of Gold: 37-14 31st Avenue, (718) 255-1844.
Bohemian Beer and Beer Garden: 29-19 24th Ave., (718) 274-4925.
O’Hanlon’s: 22-57 31st St., (516) 655-8500.
Last Word: 31-30 Ditmars Blvd., (718) 440-3378.
Odds and Ends…
After many years of talk, the city of Binghamton has finally erected a statue of its most famous son, Rod Serling. The tribute to the creator of “The Twilight Zone” stands in Recreation Park, a setting that inspired one of the series’ most famous episodes, “Walking Distance.”… Andre Soltner, the Alsatian chef who changed the direction of French cooking in the United States when he opened Lutèce in 1961, died last week at the age of 92. Soltner ran the kitchen for more than three decades. It was frequently named the best restaurant in the country during his tenure there… Tommaso, the longstanding Italian restuarant in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, closed its doors on Dec. 31 after 55 years. Its owner and founder, Thomas Verdillo, died of complications from Covid-19 in 2020. Tommaso was once known for its deep and affordable wine cellar, and for its owner’s habit of serenading the clientele with opera arias…… Bamonte’s, the great old-school Italian restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, turns 125 this year… Mamoun’s Falafel, the popular Greenwich Village eatery, has opened a location on the Upper East Side at 1105 Lexington Avenue, near East 78th Street… Gage & Tollner will hold its third annual Burns Nights on Jan. 25 and 26. The cost is $175. (They may be sold out at this point.)… The new East Village drinkers, Bar Snack, will also hold a Burns Night snack party on Jan. 26, from 4-7 p.m… West Bank Cafe, a popular theater haunt that closed last year, has reopened under the guidance of Broadway producers Tom D’Angora and Michael D’Angora. The historic performance space, the Laurie Beechman Theatre, will reopen in late February following renovations… Krave It announced the return of their Super Bowl Pizzas. What in a Super Bowl Pizza? Well, just about everything. It features pigs-in-a-blanket crust, homemade chili, fritos, sriracha mustard, sliced up hot dogs & diced white onions. For $55, it is available from now through Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 9) the chains locations in Bayside, Huntington and Astoria, NY. With limited availability, 24 hour pre-order is recommended… Dante, the East Village cocktail bar, is launching its Legends Series at its new educationally-oriented Accademia Dante space new week with a one-week residency of Harry’s Bar, the historical cocktail bar in Paris. Tickets, at $175 per, include a "tasting menu" of four legendary cocktails associated with Harry’s Bar; a new cocktail of the guest's choice, plus delicious snacks, and goody bags with special gifts… Romeo’s, the East Village cocktail bar, has launched its winter menu. Highlights include Kiki’s Cheesecake Milk Punch (inspired by NYC’s very own Kiki’s), Oskar’s Mexican Hot Chocolate and a Peppermint Espresso Martini… Marco Dionysos, the noted San Francisco cocktail bartender, has moved on from Comstock Saloon, his perch for the last three years… Sugar Monk, the Harlem cocktail bar, and Atheras Spirits will join forces on Jan. 21, 6-8 p.m., to spotlight the new spirit Axis Mastiha. Axia is distilled from aromatic Mastiha resin. Axia cocktails will be sold for $10.
Jem! Jem is excitement! Ooh Jem! Jem is truly outrageous, truly, truly, truly outrageous! Whoa Jem! The music’s contagious! Jem is my name, no one else is the same. Jem is my name!
That was such fun to run into you at my beloved Diamond Dogs! I owe it another schlep soon.