Food, real estate, readings and more in the QNYC Evening Edition for Monday January 7, 2013

Christmas is today, too

Merry Christmas to all our orthodox Christian (Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc) readers! Today is December 25 on the Julian calendar. We hope you have a beautiful holiday! Yesterday was Epiphany in the Western Church, otherwise known as Three Kings Day. We hope you, too, had a lovely celebration.

Drink, food, and food in Astoria

A number of food and drink related stories have crossed our desk. First there’s drink – there are now two new brews at SingleCut – the seasonal Jan Olympic White Lagrrr! (spiced lager); John Michael Dark Lyric Lagrrr! (dark and hoppy lager). Later this month, look for their Billy 18-Watt IPA, (hoppy ale), and Billy Full-Stack IPA, (intense Imperial IPA).

Onto sweets – a new cupcake cafe, Sweets First, is opening up next door to Sunswick in Astoria (and across from the high school there). They’ll be offering a variety of cupcakes with interesting names, like the delicious sounding The Breakfast Club – “French Toast Cupcake – French toast cupcake batter with maple-infused vanilla buttercream frosting and topped with candied maple bacon”. Um, yeah.

And finally, we’ve learned more about what’s happening at the shuttered OTB on 31st Street in Astoria – it will be a sports bar. When it opens is still a mystery, but judging from the mess that still in there, it will be a little while longer.

Eagle Electric building in LIC gets the redevelopment treatment

Curbed, tipped off by The Real Deal, reports that the developer Rockrose “will be redeveloping the former Eagle Electric building at 43-22 Queens Street (GMAP) – and no, that’s not a typo, there really is a Queens street (it’s tiny) in LIC. They’ll turn it into a three-building, 2,400-unit rental project. Some of the current building on the site will remain, but there will be a lot of new construction, too. Rents will probably run around the following:

• Studio: $1,800/month
• 1 bed: $2,600/month
• 2 bed: $3,400/month

Where to attend a literary reading in Queens

With the launch of the Newtown Literary Journal, literary readings have been on our mind. We’ve put together a guide to places in Queens where you can go and hear new works by local writers – First Tuesdays at Terraza 7 in Elmnhurst, Oh, Bernice! at Cafe Marlene in Sunnyside, Boundless Tales Reading Series at Waltz-Astoria in Astoria, and various locations of the Queens Library.

Real estate trend predictions for 2013

A dozen agents, lawyers, mortgage brokers, property managers, and appraisers in the NYC real estate industry were queried by Business Insider about their predictions for the real estate scene in 2013. In the (not) big surprise category, Astoria, LIC, and Sunnyside will be hot neighborhoods. Greenpoint, BK will be a housing haven for ex-hipsters who have now become parents, and rents will stay where they’ve been. Read on for more predictions!