JANUARY 2 0 1 8 I BOROMAG.COM 51
BY SEAN CURRY
@THESANDWICHENTHUSIAST
Astoria and LIC have had an explosion
of experimental new food
over the past few years. New takes
on old cuisines, foreign ingredients,
even entirely new ways of
navigating the restaurant space. It
can be thrilling for a food writer like
me, but lord, it can be exhausting.
Whatever happened to good food you
know and love prepared well and served
with care? What happened to the reliable
weeknight go-to or the neighborhood
spot?
Antonia Joannides has been asking
herself the same thing, and with Queen’s
Room, she thinks she’s delivered it.
Set in the former 60 Beans storefront,
Joannides is trying to bring that comfortable,
reliable, familiar feel to Ditmars
amidst an explosion of the flamboyant
and outlandish. She’s paying homage to
the “tame beast” she says Astoria is — raw,
subtle power. After a decade in the restaurant
game, she wanted to come back
to her family’s roots and create something
approachable, yet refined. And with an old
colleague of hers, Chef Mike DeVito, she’s
really pulling it off.
The first dish out, halloumi fries, was
meant to whet my appetite but came dangerously
close to sating it entirely. While
the name might evoke visions of fried potatoes
covered in melted halloumi cheese,
the reality was far tastier: halloumi cheese
cut into strips, deep fried and slathered
with tzatziki and mint. The tzatziki was delicious,
and the hardy, filling, greasy fries will
cure many a hangover. Just be sure to get
them for the table, lest you max out your
calories for the day with the appetizer.
Next up was a bowl of mussels served
in a white wine, onion, garlic and lemon
juice broth with homemade bread on the
side (for dipping, of course). While the
mussels were a pretty traditional take on
the shellfish, don’t let that diminish your
expectations. While classic, these were
excellent. And the bread dipped in broth,