Arts + Entertainment
26 JANUARY 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
111 PLACES
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM
Joe DiStefano has spent 20 years writing
about the food scene in Queens, and now he’s
translating his vast knowledge of the borough
into a guidebook that outlines more than a
hundred interesting places to visit in the “World’s
Borough.”
The book, titled “111 Places in Queens That
You Must Not Miss” was released on Jan. 18,
and is one of more than 250 iterations of the
“111 places” guidebook series. DiStefano, who
lives in Rego Park, began working on the book
in January.
“I wrote this book because I was destined
to and that’s only partly a joke,” he said. “I was
born in Queens but I grew up on Long Island
and I always had a fascination for Queens based
on looking at the Unisphere on the way to my
grandma’s house. Queens always held some
sort of mysterious appeal for me.”
Though many of the places in the book are
“near and dear” to DiStefano, the author said he
“learned a hell of a lot” in the process of writing
and researching the book.
In addition to its “staggering diversity,” the
borough “is also steeped in history everything
from the Quaker Meeting House to the birthplace
to the american punk scene where The Ramones
used to hang out in Forest Hills.”
While Queens natives will recognize some of
the places mentioned in the book like Gantry
Plaza State Park in Long Island City and the
Beach 97th Street Concessions at Rockaway
Beach, the book also includes unique and sur-prising
sites.
DiStefano highlights the Cypress Hills Taxi-dermy
Studio at 71-01 Metropolitan Ave. in
Middle Village. According to DiStefano, it’s the
only taxidermy shop left in New York City and
customers will see lions, bears and the owner’s
late pet snake.
“We wanted to have a good balance of things
in the book — everything from sort of classic
pop culture icons like the Archie Bunker house
in Glendale to really sort of quirky one of a
kind things like in Long Island City, the zombie
gnome bench.”
A Long Island City man who embarked on a
surprise project for his wife — building a bench
and installing it in a local park — turned the
handmade design into a public endeavor. The
bench now sits outside of their house flanked
by unique garden gnomes and inscribed with the
Charles Bukowski quote, “You are marvelous.
The gods wait to delight you.”
The owner told DiStefano that he witnessed
a nanny doing handstands on the bench one
day.
“There’s a lot of character and a lot of char-acters
in Queens,” he said.
He also highlights Broadway Silk Store at
35-11 Broadway. First opened in the 1930s
by Esther Laxer, it was passed down to Lax-er’s
niece, Pearl Gould. Sarah Beth White,
Photos by Clay Williams
We wanted to have a good balance of
things in the book — everything from sort
of classic pop culture icons like the Archie Bunker
house in Glendale to really sort of quirky one of
a kind things like in Long Island City, the
zombie gnome bench.
JOE DISTEFANO
Author
