Queens New York -
Destination Guide
Book
Queens: A Tasty Slice of the Big Apple,
Says Author of New Guide
Manhattan's the core of the Big Apple, but the
"outer boroughs" are ripe with attractions, too,
according to Ellen Freudenheim, whose comprehensive
new guidebook to this underrated destination,
Queens: What to Do, Where to Go (and How Not to Get
Lost) in New York's Undiscovered Borough (St.
Martin's Press, $17.95), is now available.
The 320-page guide covers 15 neighborhoods, with
maps, itineraries, and places to go when stuck at
JFK or LaGuardia. A full chapter details places
travelers who are stuck at JFK or LaGuardia Airports
might visit, including estimated travel time,
including restaurants and bars, movies and malls,
even beaches and golf courses.
Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the
U.S., would rank as America's fourth largest city if
it weren't part of New York. Of course it has the
Mets and US Open. It also has five-star cultural
institutions such as the Noguchi Museum, PS1
Contemporary Art Center, an affiliate of the Museum
of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian-affiliate
Flushing Town Hall. The book lists a hundred
inexpensive, ethnically authentic restaurants, plus
cool day-trip destinations from the Museum of the
Moving Image for film buffs and Louis Armstrong
House for jazz fans, to Atlantic Ocean beaches that
"are just like the Hamptons but only a subway ride
away."
Is Queens the new Brooklyn? "Queens might even be
better than Brooklyn," admits Freudenheim, a Park
Slope resident who wrote the award-winning Brooklyn:
The Ultimate Guide to New York's Most Happening
Borough. For one thing, singles and young families
priced out of Carroll Gardens and Williamsburg can
find affordable apartments in Manhattan-accessible
areas such as Astoria and Sunnyside. And, Queens
still has old-fashioned ethnic neighborhoods, long
gone in Manhattan and fast disappearing in Brooklyn.
"The mom-and-pop stores and restaurants in Queens
remind me of Brooklyn before gentrification
homogenized the old Italian, Irish and Polish
neighborhoods," she says.
In any Queens neighborhood, you're likely to find a
melting pot of people from Central America,
Pakistan, India, Eastern Europe, Ireland and the
Philippines. "Queens defies Archie Bunker's
stereotypes," adds Freudenheim, who lauds locals for
adjusting peaceably to their global village.
"Queens? Expect to get lost at least once," warns
Freudenheim. "Everyone does."
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