Seasonal American Fare with a Queens Twist Comes to Jackson Heights
For years, a humble triumvirate of Jackson Heights residents dreamed of opening a bistro. In 2015, they embarked on a long and winding road that eventually lead to the Queensboro, a new restaurant on Northern Boulevard that puts a local twist on the popular New American format.
“Everybody talks about the nightmarish process of opening a restaurant in New York, but we had no idea it would be this intense,” recalls cofounder Dudley Stewart. “Conflicts over permitting, issues with contractors, losing money every day. We put our house on the line, used pretty much everything we owned as collateral.”
“Our goal was to open the kind of place that the three of us have always wanted in the neighborhood,” says fellow co-founder Michael Fuquay. “There are so many fantastic food options in Jackson Heights, so we wanted to add something new and needed. To emphasize fresh and local ingredients, a convivial atmosphere, and an elevated beverage program – that was always our aim.”
When searching for an executive chef, Stewart and Fuquay brought on their neighbor Tony Liu as a third partner. Instilled with a love of seafood and pan-Pacific flavors from his childhood in Hawaii, Liu has directed kitchens in some of Manhattan’s most acclaimed destination restaurants. After cutting his teeth at famed French restaurants Lespinasse (now shuttered) and Daniel, Liu has since worked at Mario Batali’s Babbo and the late, storied pizzeria Pulino’s.
The Queensboro opened the first week of June. The restaurant is spacious yet comfortable, with an all-wood interior and a long, inviting bar. One’s eyes are naturally drawn to the open kitchen and its centerpiece: a massive brick pizza oven.
“We bought this used from a guy in Pennsylvania,” says Stewart. “We’ve gotten it to an internal temperature of close to 900 degrees. It’s the real deal.”
While the restaurant’s general ethos is New American – reclaimed wood bistro tables, an extensive beer and cocktail program, and a roster of seasonally rotating dishes showcasing local ingredients – many menu items are direct nods to Jackson Heights’ culinary diversity. The list of starters includes chaat-style spiced popcorn and a platter of chips made from a variety of tropical ground provisions including plantain, yam, and yuca. A popular entrée features a roasted half-chicken atop a wood-fired flatbread brushed with za’atar and tahini. Even the brunch menu includes a take on milk toast, a popular Southeast Asian breakfast.
Like all great triumvirates, each individual in the Queensboro’s leadership team holds a distinct and necessary role. Liu manages the kitchen, and Stewart, who has long been active and visible in the community, serves as the restaurant’s primary spokesperson, building relationships with suppliers, community groups, and customers. Fuquay, who has a long history of managing front of house and tending bar at Peter Hoffman’s Savoy and Back Forty, as well as at haute French mainstay Balthazar, is the mastermind behind the Queensboro’s restrained yet distinct cocktail program.
“We make all of our syrups and bitters in-house,” boasts Fuquay. “I do not think you can make a cocktail that trumps the classics, but I do think you can put a twist on them and make them your own. For example, we use quinine bitters instead of tonic water in our G&T. Or take our pisco sours: we keep our eggs stored in a bed of green coriander so that the whites do not get contaminated with off flavors from the fridge.”
In addition to the classics, Fuquay concocts a rotating roster of cocktails based on seasonal ingredients. The summer’s The Red and the Black, a tequila-based drink made with crushed greenmarket strawberries and black pepper syrup, has since been replaced by a cucumber-infused gin cocktail to ring in the early autumn.
“Even though our bar is fully staffed now, it still gets intense during the weekends,” Fuquay mentioned. “Fridays and Saturdays are a blast, but for a more intimate dining experience, I would recommend coming on a weekday. We try to make a personal connection with all of our customers, to be available for conversation, and that is easier to do for us when things are a bit less hectic.”
Fuquay and Liu expressed excitement about their newfound creative freedom after years of working in high-profile destination restaurants.
“When you’re in a high-pressure setting in a large restaurant, you have no freedom, and sometimes you become a robot,” Fuquay opines. “Here, I can make the kinds of cocktails I want to drink.”
“We buy directly with a fishmonger who vends at the Greenmarket in Travers Park. Because we are a small restaurant, we have the liberty to change menus based on what’s available and affordable. It lets me get creative, because the base ingredients always change, sometimes daily. So if you come in here looking for striped bass, I can’t guarantee that we’ll have it, but I can guarantee that there will be seafood on the menu, and that it will be the freshest and highest quality sold in the neighborhood.”
One night, as Stewart and I spoke and sampled the restaurant’s new roster of beers, we noticed Maria Cano, the sainted Arepa Lady, dining with her family at a table near the window. After closing their first brick-and-mortar restaurant due to a change in building ownership, the Canos had experienced similar challenges in opening their new location. I watched Stewart and Liu converse with the Canos, sharing similar-sounding horror stories and complementing each other’s food and fortitude.
“I have no interest in advertising, in trying to become a destination restaurant,” says Stewart. “Our goal is to become a cornerstone of the community. I think a lot of people worried about the kind of impact that a restaurant like this would have on the neighborhood. That’s why we think it’s so important to focus on serving our neighbors; it’s why hiring locally, having a bilingual staff, hosting events for local political and community groups, was always part of the plan. This is our neighborhood, after all.”
Queensboro | @thequeensboro
Babbo | @babboristorante
Balthazar | @balthazarrestaurant
Arepa Lady | @arepalady
