FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 2, 2020 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 41
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Lovitch does some frosting maintenance to the village. Photos by Alex Mitchell
See the world’s largest gingerbread village in Queens
BY ALEX MITCHELL
It smells as good as it looks.
Th e world’s borough is once again host
to the world’s largest Christmas cookie
made village, which features 1,310
pieces of prime gingerbread real estate
at the New York Hall of Science in
Flushing.
Called GingerBread lane, it all comes
from the holly jolly handy work of professional
gingerbread chef, Jon Lovitch, who
originally hails from Kansas City, MO but
more recently from Queens.
It features just about everything that an
ideal holiday village would have in real
life, from a poinsettia pizzeria, to candy
cane factories, a skating rink, ornament
repair shops, civic centers for the elevated
village. Th ey even a pumpkin spice latte
shop, in addition to so many entities that
America’s cutest towns wish that they had.
Filled with many clever shop names
such as the “11 Pipers Piping Hot Soup,”
the GBPD and FDGB stations are marked
as the 45th precinct and fi rehouse as nod
to the 45th rendition of this Guinness
World Record holding, entirely edible village.
Since this year’s village is on a 360,
oblong rotunda for the very time, Lovitch
showed some city planning skills in the
nature of his design.
“I guess the front side upper rows in the
middle are like Park Avenue because that’s
where all the hot real estate is,” Lovitch
said, going to note that the lower, right
side is in turn like the lower east side since
there’s so many factories operating in that
section of the GingerBread Village.
Meanwhile, the back end of the setup is
entirely residential.
“Th at side is like the outer boroughs,”
Lovitch said.
In order for the master chef to bring
back such a fl ourishing village for next
year’s holiday season, he’s going to have to
start baking and gathering his candy supplies
within the next few days.
“It takes about a year in total,” Lovitch
said.
More than just baking and icing the gingerbread
(which he testifi es could work as
a real building material if not for rain),
a major part of construction is obtaining
the plethora of candy supplies needed
to give GingerBread Village its adorable
glow.
Th at procedure has taught Lovitch the
art of candy deal hunting in ways that
would have Willy Wonka taking notes.
From scouring Punxsutawney, PA on
Groundhog Day to middle of the night
trips to Duane Reade for deals, along with
obtaining bags and bags from Walmarts
aft er each holiday, Lovitch has done just
about all of it.
Th ough, now as a father to a very young
daughter, he has dialed back his candy
hunting recently but remains confi dent
that he’ll be “winning career day” at her
school in upcoming years.
Th is next week will be the busiest for
Lovitch and the science hall as they begin
holding gingerbread workshops to teach
the next generation of developers how it
should be done.
Aft er that, Lovitch will be giving away
his entire gingerbread metropolis free of
cost on Sunday, Jan. 12.
The “downtown” portion of the village. The “lower east side” portion of the village.
/WWW.QNS.COM
