28 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • JULY 23, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
Glendale brewery opens up outpost in Gowanus
BY BEN VERDE
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
A new brewery in Gowanus is serving
File photo
Kevin Staff ord and Basil Lee of
Finback Brewery.
Mayor extends Open Restaurants timeline, adds Open Streets in Queens
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e city announced it will extend the
Open Restaurants program until the end
of October, instead of the beginning of
September as originally planned.Th e
extension will give nearly 9,000 participating
restaurants two extra months to
serve patrons in a safe and socially distant
outdoor space.
Mayor Bill de Blasio also unveiled 26
more locations for the weekend expansion
of outdoor dining options under the
recent initiative to combine Open Streets
and Open Restaurants.Th ree of the 26
locations are in Forest Hills and Elmhurst.
In Forest Hills, the Forest Hills Chamber
of Commerce will be managing two Open
Streets and Open Restaurants — one on
70th Road, between Austin Street and
Queens Boulevard; the other on Austin
Street, between 72nd Avenue and 72nd
Road.
In Elmhurst, Th ai Community USA
will manage another Open Streets and
Open Restaurants corridor on Woodside
Avenue, between 76th Street and 78th
Street.
“Th e restaurants on 70th Road and
on Austin Street near 72nd Ave. are so
excited to expand their seating with the
open street closures,” said Leslie Brown,
president of the Forest Hills Chamber
of Commerce. “Th e street closure can
really benefi t the restaurants and at the
same time bring the community together
on these summer evenings! I encourage
everyone to come out, invite friends
and don’t forget the other small businesses
that you know and love by supporting
them!”
Open Streets and Open Restaurants
was created to expand restaurant seating
options onto car-free streets for select
business corridors throughout the city.
Restaurants on these corridors will go
further away from curb than other Open
Restaurants participants, while the rest of
the street is open to pedestrian traffi c and
emergency vehicles.
Selected corridors will be operational
on Friday from 5 to 11 p.m., and Saturday
and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. Th e
26 new locations bring the citywide total
to 47 participating streets as of Friday,
July 17.
Th e city will continue to work with
the restaurant industry and community
partners to ensure there is clarity on the
guidelines for roadway seating setups.
“Our Open Restaurants initiative has
been a tremendous team eff ort and we
are excited to give more restaurants —
in places like Forest Hills, Queens and
University Heights in the Bronx — additional
room to serve their customers
and put people back to work,” said DOT
Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “We
thank Mayor de Blasio, the teams from
DOT and our sister agencies, and all the
BIDs and other neighborhood organizations
which have been working with us to
make outdoor dining part of an expanded
Open Streets program.”
up craft brews with patio seating
aft er their opening was delayed due to
the coronavirus pandemic — and the
alehouse founder says much more is in
store.
Finback Brewery, which has operated a
20-barrel brewhouse in Glendale, Queens,
since 2013, has contributed to Gowanus’s
ever-growing brewing scene with the
opening of its President Street outpost.
“Gowanus for sure was and is becoming
even more of a beer hub,” said Basil Lee,
a founder of Finback. “Th ere’s already a
lot of people who seek out good beer and
make that neighborhood a place to go for
good beer.”
Located at 545 President St., Finback
sits directly across the street from Strong
Rope Brewery, and just blocks from nearby
Th rees Brewing and Wild East Brewing
— all of which have taken advantage
of the neighborhood’s industrial infrastructure
to accommodate their brewing
equipment.
While currently limited to outdoor seating,
Finback’s repurposed President Street
warehouse is outfi tted with multiple sections,
including an open area with lounge
chairs, a beer-hall-type space with high
stools and shared tables, and a screened
off cocktail lounge that will act as the
main bar area.
Once they get up and running,
founders say they will
off er much more than just
ales and stouts. Lee says
the brewers plan on distilling
gin and other
botanical spirits,
roasting coff ee and
enlisting her mother
to help craft a dumpling
menu.
Th e idea to roast coffee
came from the large
amount of java
Finback uses
in its
stouts, according to Lee.
When brewing starts in the Gowanus
space, Lee says they will take advantage
of the smaller scale brewing
space to work on more experimental
brews.
“Th e idea is really to do more
experimental and in some
ways pilot test batching,” Lee
said. “As well as doing some
things that we really want to
brew that are more diffi cult
from a volume standpoint to
brew 60 barrels at a time.”
While this is the brand’s fi rst
Brooklyn outpost, Lee said founders
looked for space in the borough
when fi rst setting up shop
years ago, and that fi nally
planting roots in Kings
County brings everything
full circle — all
while giving them a
more centrally located
space outside of
Queens.
“It’s kind of going
full circle in a way,”
he said. “It’s just worked
out really well in that it’s
just more convenient.”
Photo by Dean Moses
Outdoor dining, seen at the Taverna Kyclades restaurant on Bell Boulevard, is expanding in Queens.
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