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12 The Courier sun • WELCOME TO • june 4, 2015 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com welcome to howard beach A taste of Howard Beach history by ROBERT POZARYCKI When Lenny’s Clam Bar ran television s commercials years ago, owner Joe DiCandia Sr. became something of a local celebrity, famously offering viewers a free glass of wine to any diner who came to the Howard Beach hotspot and mentioned his name. They still honor that promotion to this day even though the senior Joe DiCandia has long since handed the restaurant reins over to his son, Joe Jr. It’s part of a 42-year history of charm, tradition and good food that Lenny’s has offered to generations of customers who’ve come through its doors. There have been changes to Lenny’s through the years, most notably after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which flooded it and many other Howard Beach businesses. DiCandia Jr. “turned a negative into a positive,” rebuilding the clam bar larger than before, as it expanded into a neighboring business. Even with change, much of the staff-- from line chefs to attendants-- has been there for 20 years or longer. And the restaurant’s menu mainstays-- sumptuous seafood and classic Italian cuisine-- continue to attract customers from far and wide. Naturally, the clam features prominently on the menu. The baked clams ($7.95 a half-dozen, $12.95 a dozen) are a great way to start your meal whether you’re a seafood lover or looking to try seafood for the first time. The cheesy breading complements the perfectly-cooked clams, which offers diners that briny note of flavor that only fresh seafood can provide. Lenny’s also offers raw clams ($7.75 a half-dozen, $12.50 a dozen) and oysters ($12.95 for eight) on the half-shell, served with fresh lemon and cocktail sauce. The seafood possibilities are almost Baked clams at Lenny’s Clam Bar in Howard Beach. endless when it comes to the main course. On our date to Lenny’s, my wife enjoyed the stuffed shrimp ($19.95) featuring mounds of scrumptious crab meat in a lemon wine butter sauce and served with potatoes and broccoli. You can also get broiled scallops or Norwegian salmon ($19.95 each) or breaded and baked lobster tails ($17.95 single tail, $24.95 for a double). As an Italian food lover, I certainly enjoyed the chicken cutlet parmigiana ($18.95), a generous portion of perfectly cooked chicken breast covered in a zesty tomato sauce and served with linguine on the side. Other Italian specialities to try include the chicken sorrentino ($21.95) topped with tomato, prosciutto, eggplant and mozzarella in Madeira wine sauce and the linguine with red or white clam sauce ($14.95). Lenny’s offers seemingly anything to suit anyone’s appetite, from tender barbecue baby back ribs basted in the house barbecue sauce to a boneless shell steak off the grill cooked to order. The kids menu features cheeseburgers, pasta or mozzarella sticks. THE COURIER/photo by Robert Pozaryki Whatever you order, save room for dessert, as Lenny’s offers an incredible variety of sweet treats straight out of the DiCandia family cookbook. Their homemade cannoli is light and sweet without being too heavy, while the pistachio bomb-- a tartufo ball of pistachio ice cream with a chocolate shell and a raspberry sauce-- is an explosively tasty and delightful way to end a meal. Times may always change, but Lenny’s Clam Bar still reigns as the champion of classic seafood and Italian fare in Howard Beach. HAMILTON BEACH WELCOMES NEW SIGN BY ANGELA MATUA editorial@queenscourier.com/@AngelaMatua Hamilton Beach will soon greet those who enter the neighborhood in style. After a hit-and-run destroyed the old sign, which was made by a Hamilton Beach resident, the community started brainstorming designs for a new one. Hamilton Beach Civic Association President Roger Gendron helped spearhead the project and used Facebook and local civic association meetings to request that residents bring in designs to local meetings. Gendron said they received 11 or 12 entries and instead of choosing one, decided to pick and choose aspects of several designs to create the final product. “I’m very happy with the design that we came up with,” Gendron said. “Actually the shape of the design was from one entry, and the color of the design was from another entry, and so it was actually a collaboration of a bunch of the different entries that we had.” The civic also paid homage to the old sign by adding a ship’s steering wheel and keeping the phrase “A Great Place to Live,” flourishes that were featured on the old sign. A piece of the old Hamilton Beach park will also be featured on the sign. Gendron saved two bird figurines that were located on top of certain poles in the park. When the park was renovated last October, Gendron saved the figurines and realized they would be a good addition to the new sign. The figurines will be repainted and refurbished and placed on top of the columns that will hold up the sign. Gendron posted a rendering to the civic association’s Facebook page and it quickly garnered 100 likes and excited comments from residents praising the design. ADP USA, a sign business in Rockaway Park, agreed to create the sign and Howard Beach Memorial Services has donated some funds to build it. The civic applied for a $3,000 community grant to be used for beautification projects but Gendron said they were denied. He said the civic association may host fundraisers to replenish the money they will use to pay for the construction of the sign. The civic is also trying to work with local businesses to save on costs toward installing the welcome sign. Gendron hopes the sign can be installed by the end of the month and said the civic is working out whether they will tie it in to a Fourth of July celebration or if they will decide on a separate date. “It’s one of the first things you see when you come into Hamilton Beach,” Gendron said. “It’s very welcoming and we may make some future addons to the sign as we move forward but right now we need to get the sign up.” Photo courtesy of Roger Gendron A new welcome sign in Hamilton Beach will replace the old sign, which was destroyed in a hit-and-run last December.


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