Kicking, Stretching and Swiping
Western Queens couples share how they fell in love
26 FEBRUARY 2 0 2 2
Photo courtesy of George Street Photos
Photo courtesy of @jason_sweeten
LOCAL LOVE
BY ALLISON KRIDLE
Behind every western Queens couple is a love story, whether they met playing
sports, doing yoga, through friends, through a local business or on an app. To
celebrate Valentine’s Day, we spoke with western Queens couples who either met,
got engaged or got married in the neighborhood. Here are their stories:
Leandra and Dustin
Bricker
Leandra and Dustin Bricker each
found their forever teammate through
a kickball group that played in Astoria
Park.
The Brickers, who had each moved
to Astoria in 2006, met in April 2009
when someone organized a pick-up
kickball game “schoolyard style,” and
it “grew into a whole tradition,” Leandra
said.
“We’d start by playing several games
over four hours in Astoria Park, then
all trek over to Hell Gate Social, still
completely disgusting and sweaty,
and spend the evening in the bar’s
backyard playing card games, eating
barbecue, having drinks and then
watching a movie on their projector,”
she said.
Six months later, in September,
Leandra overheard
Dustin “whispering” to one
of their kickball friends at Hell
Gate Social that he thought
Leandra was cute, not knowing
she was in earshot. That
following week, the two were
back at the bar on their first
date.
In 2012, after a long day at
work, Dustin proposed to Leandra
in his sleep. The couple
got married in Nyack, New
York, in 2014. Now, they have two children,
ages 2 and 5.
“We love going to Astoria Park to play
and go for walks as a family and every
time we walk across the North Field, we
always tell our kids, ‘This is where Mommy
and Daddy met,’” Leandra said.
FAVORITE HINOMARU YAYA’S TAVERNA Some of the original kickball group
FAVORITE DATE SPOTS:
MOJAVE
BAREBURGER
BROOKLYN BAGEL
Photo courtesy of Leandra Bricker
The Astoria kickball crew at the Brickers’ wedding