For the love of Dave: Entertainerpreneur soliciting funds for lesbian bar

  

Time Out

Queens has exactly zero lesbian bars, and one local lesbian is trying to change that.

Kristin Dausch, a performer, nanny and aspiring entrepreneur who has lived in Astoria for over 12 years wanted to bring a lesbian bar to her neighborhood: Dave's Lesbian Bar. After running a local predominantly queer open mic for over year years, and seeing how the community came together for the event, Dausch thought to herself, "Oh wow, this would be great if I could do this every day." Prior to the pandemic, Dausch had Broadway aspirations, but once the idea for Dave's struck earlier this year, they wanted to see if they could get community support to make it happen. 

 "Since I've put it out in the world, I've received nothing but green lights, a hard and fast, 'Yes, we need this,'" Dausch said. They very much want Dave's to be in the neighborhood they lived in for over a decade, "built by the community, for the community." In June, Dausch launched a GoFundMe, seeking $70,000 to open Dave's. So far, the project has raised almost $6000, with several people offering support with social media, video editing and more skills to help open Dave's. 

"Whatever your strengths are, if you want to lend them to this space, they're welcome," Dausch said. "If everybody gives a little bit, and I give everything I've got, which is a whole lot, we're going to make this thing happen." They envision Dave's as a queer-centric mutual aid hub by day, and lesbian bar by night. The space can be used for a community fridge, a drop-off site for the Astoria Food Pantry, a free store, a queer rolling library, and more. "We're investing in community instead of this individualistic mindset," Dausch said, noting the pandemic's mutual aid efforts inspired the vision for Dave's. 

Astoria isn't completely without queer venues: Icon, a club, hosts parties, while Albatross, which was formerly a lesbian bar, offers a divey space perfect for group hangs and drag shows. But with only two lesbian bars remaining in New York City, both in Manhattan (Cubbyhole and Henrietta Hudson), Dave's will certainly fill a void. 

Dave's first pop-up will be on Saturday, July 24, starting at 2pm and raging as late as possible. The bar will be outdoors, thanks to an open street permit, adjacent to Heart of Gold, a casual beer bar at 31st Ave. and 37th St. in Astoria. The first event will feature queer haircuts by Hairrari, live music by seven "dyke-led" bands, a tattooing station and more. Dyke Beer will be served, along with more drinks for sale. A suggested donation will also be requested at the door. The business will be doing pop-ups monthly until a full-time space is secured.

Developer decides against Ridgewood beer beach

From the Queens Chronicle:

La Playa NYC has been shut down before it could even open.

According to the developer of 176 Woodward Ave. in Ridgewood, there will be no popup beach and beer garden operated by the Rockaway Brewing Co. at the site as planned.

"We pulled the plug on the plan," said David Schwartz, a principal at Slate Property Group, in a Tuesday phone interview. "It just became too much."

Schwartz said the hope was to have the venue open by early June, but securing a certificate of occupancy and a liquor license — all while a number of area residents voiced their opposition to the plan — meant La Playa NYC could not open until August at the latest.

"I don't think we had the time to address the people's concerns, there wasn't enough time to handle anything," he said. "It wasn't enough time to make it worthwhile. You can't just be open for August."

Have you all heard of Slate Property Group before? Let's just say that right now they have bigger things to worry about than running a hipster beach.

2-year beer beach suddenly becomes 4 months

From PIX11:

The lease for the pop-up beach is expected to run from June through September. In September, the owners of the lot will break ground, as planned, on a new residential building that will have affordable housing units.

Oh? That's interesting since they told the community board that they have a 2-year lease:

According to CB 5 District Manager Gary Giordano, Rockaway Brewing Company has secured a two-year lease with the owners of the Woodward Avenue corner property.

Maybe next year, instead of a sand beach they'll make a concrete foundation beach!

"The owners seem like they want to be respectful to the neighborhood, even though their idea seems quite out there and inventive," said Giordano.

(As evidenced by the fence behind you collapsing onto the sidewalk.)

Ridgewood can still take solace in the fact that a guy who rides his bike on the sidewalk and is threatening to wear a Speedo thinks this is a great idea.

Hipster "beach" replacing affordable housing project in Ridgewood

From QNS:

Several Ridgewood residents at Wednesday’s Community Board 5 meeting in Middle Village spoke out against the Rockaway Brewing Company’s pop-up urban beach beer garden, La Playa NYC, which is set to open on June 4 at 176 Woodward Ave. on the Ridgewood/Bushwick border.

“We are opposing the pop-up beach and a liquor license,” said one resident who wished to remain anonymous. “We don’t want the noise that’s going to come with this, the traffic, the littering, the smoking and we have a lot of working people who work days and evenings in the neighborhood, the elderly, the physically sick.”

La Playa NYC is being billed as the city’s first pop-up urban beach beer garden and will ship in 140 cubic yards of Long Island sand and be fully decorated in a beach theme with beach chairs, sun umbrellas, a thatched palapa, beach volleyball courts and kiddie pools.

The pop-up beer garden will run from June 4 through September. It will operate Mondays through Thursdays from 5 p.m. to midnight, and from noon to midnight on Fridays through Sundays and will feature local talent including DJs, guest chefs, beer talks and special performances.

As a brewery, Rockaway Brewing Company is allowed to have five remote sites where they can conduct business, CB 5 Chairperson Vincent Arcuri said. However, Rockaway Brewing Company has not named 176 Woodward Ave. as one of those sites as of yet, he added.

According to CB 5 District Manager Gary Giordano, Rockaway Brewing Company has secured a two-year lease with the owners of the Woodward Avenue corner property.

I had to read this several times to fully absorb the abject stupidity of it.

1) We live in a city and on an island surrounded by beaches, yet a bunch of dopes are going to go to a filthy truck lot in Ridgewood, which has no water at all, to grill food and drink beer on a fake beach? And they're going to bring their toddlers?

2) To create this fake beach, they will truck sand in from Long Island, where we're spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars on beach replenishment in an effort to avoid more storm damage. How environmentally and fiscally friendly!

3) Why are the local papers going ga ga over this idea while failing to report the actual news here, which is that the owner of the lot obtained a zoning change in order to construct a mixed use project, and only won the approval of the local council member when affordable housing was included, but now is opening a douchebag paradise for the brahs for at least 2 years? What's going on with the housing? No comment from the council member about the switcheroo?

We're now expected to fawn over the thought of a bunch of lame millenials getting skin cancer and dancing around a polluted former garbage dump? What the hell happened to journalism in this town?

Seriously slobbish in Flushing

"Broadway LIRR station eastbound, Station Road. Drug/beer/party location...and trash." - The Flushing Phantom

All it takes is one jerk...

Hi Craps,

This last Monday on Memorial Day at Francis Lewis Park dozens of families with their children were enjoying of a beautiful day.

While this was going on this fifty something year old guy was drinking Coronas (Beer) right in the playground where his children, my grandson and those of other people were playing around, not content with the boozing display he was also smoking right outside the very gate to the playground next to where he was seating like all the attendants couldn’t smell the disgusting second hand smog.

What a shameful example to give to his children (because if he wasn’t accompanying any children which by the way I didn’t see while I was there that would be another violation of park usage), teaching them to drink in a public place while having a smoke where it’s also considered inappropriate.




He was not only disrupting the enjoyment of that part of the day for many attendants to the playground but he also was breaking several laws. As usual there wasn’t any police or park employee presence in the park (or any other park in North Queens) to have him rightly fined for his imbecilic behavior.

Way to go boozer, what’s next? Drugs and public sex in the park where children play?

- Anonymous

Lascivious activities at Astoria playground

From the Queens Chronicle:

NYPD officer Sean McDonald moved to Astoria as a child from his native Ireland. While still a rookie, McDonald, who was assigned to the 44th Precinct in Queens, was killed in 1994 in the line of duty. By the following year, Astoria residents along with city officials dedicated a park in his honor, named affectionately, Sean’s Place.

Now 17 years later, the Astoria park that bears McDonald’s name, located on 38th Street between 31st Avenue and Broadway, is facing a major trash and after-hours problem. The park’s gates used to be locked at night by a resident volunteer but aren’t any longer.

Now late-night drinking and other activities inside the park yield glass bottles, discarded drug items, piles of vomit, spots of urine and used condoms.

“This problem is related to the fact that the park gates remain open 24/7 and the cleaning crews don’t get there until mid- or late morning,” said Gabe Gross, a concerned community activist who started a Facebook group named “Friends of Sean’s Place,” to help garner communityinterest in its plight. Gross also posted a video to YouTube last June of the garbage he found while at the park on a typical morning.

Ridgewood trashed

Dear neighbor,

Please clean up your property at 1814 Bleecker Street, Ridgewood.

Thank you.

- anonymous

Looks like this house has other problems.

Brewery to open in Astoria

From the Queens Courier:

Queens will soon be home to its first brewery in decades with the opening of SingleCut Beersmiths in Astoria later this year.

The company’s president and owner Rich Buceta said that the new brewery, which will be located at 19-33 37th St., is a natural fit for the borough.

“Queens has not had a brewery to call its own in a very long time,” said Buceta, 48, who was born in Jamaica.

SingleCut will feature a Tap Room with beer tastings and a stage for live musical performances, Buceta said. Visitors will also be able to take home half-gallon growlers. Though there will be no bar on the premises, Buceta said he may consider that option in the future and will hold several events a year utilizing the 5,000-square-foot-space and its stage.

If construction stays on schedule, Buceta plans to begin distributing beer throughout New York City in September.

More city-sponsored corporate welfare

From the Daily News:

Manhattan Beer Distributors will receive tax breaks worth nearly $24 million from the Industrial Development Agency to buy and renovate four parcels of land in Hunts Point. The company expects to add at least 25 jobs at the site within three years of opening its new headquarters, in 2013.

Overshadowed by a food fight over $83.5 million in tax breaks and grants for Fresh Direct at the Harlem River Rail Yards, the smaller package calls for Manhattan Beer to spend $60 million on land, renovations and equipment.

CEO Simon Bergson said the project will allow the firm to grow without leaving the Bronx, where it set up shop in 1979. Manhattan Beer is currently based on Walnut Ave. in Port Morris.

Manhattan Beer currently operates distribution sites in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Wyandanch on Long Island and Suffern in Rockland County. It plans to shift routes from Brooklyn to Queens and the Bronx.

Its new headquarters will boast 620 jobs after three years, with 528 relocated from Walnut Ave., 67 relocated from Brooklyn and 25 new, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp. EDC President Seth Pinsky heads the IDA.

Manhattan Beer will pay its new full-time workers $29,400 a year on average, plus benefits, according to IDA documents. The firm threatened to look for property outside the city when it requested public benefits.

Midnight craziness on Roosevelt Ave

From the NY Post:

A wild brawl at a Woodside bodega saw combatants pelt each other with beer bottles, produce and floral bouquets, cops said.

Marcos Juela and Segundo Lopez, both 29, along with friends Cesar Juela, 21, and Oscar Montalbo, 29, allegedly threw the wares at a man after getting into a midnight argument Sunday outside Brothers Grocery on Roosevelt Avenue.

The elder Juela and Lopez lobbed beer bottles that shattered and cut a victim's face and body, police said.

Then the quartet allegedly fired off various fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers at the man.

Basement-dwelling sex offender kills girlfriend

From the Daily News:

A sex offender bludgeoned his live-in girlfriend to death with a baseball bat because he suspected she was seeing another man, police said Wednesday.

Isaiah Smith, 48, pummeled Tiffany Pettiford, 28, in their Queens home as his two children - and his other girlfriend - watched in horror, police and witnesses said.

Smith - who was convicted in 1990 of raping a 10-year-old girl - was livid after Pettiford disappeared for a few days and allegedly took up with another man, one police source said.

Smith confronted Pettiford, and may have snapped after the woman went to the store and forgot to get him beer, a second police source said.

Smith has a 1-year-old boy with Pettiford and a 10-year-old developmentally disabled son with another woman - and they all lived in the same basement apartment on 214th St. in Queens Village, neighbors said.

Wow, a sex offender living in a basement apartment? Who would have thunk it...

When beer gardens ruled Queens

From the Queens Courier:

The earliest beer gardens were in lower Manhattan...but as German immigrants moved to Queens, there was no way they were leaving their beloved gardens behind.

Proprietors of beer gardens welcomed the newfound space in Queens by including old-world elements like picnic grounds and dance floors that had not fit in their cramped Manhattan quarters. Some, on the water, featured swimming and clam bakes.

Beer gardens sprouted across Queens in neighborhoods like Glendale, Ridgewood, Maspeth, College Point and Jamaica. They had names like Richter’s Cypress Hills Park – now home to a stretch of the Jackie Robinson Parkway – Joseph Witzel’s Point View Island – today a sewage treatment plant – and North Beach, the site of LaGuardia Airport.

Bloomberg a secret beer lover

From Slashfood:

Earlier today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially proclaimed July to be "Good Beer Month." The declaration came at the request of a local collective known as "the Good Beer Seal."

Photo from Daily News.