Last night was the Yelp Queens Summer Stunner event at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. It was a great time, full of friendly folks, delicious food and drink, and awesome music (by Notorious R.U.G.). We got there on the early side of things, which was a good call since it was already pretty crowded even by 7:10pm. We entered through the main entrance of the museum, checked in, then got a chance to view some of the art, which was fabulous. After that, it was time to visit the Panorama of the City of New York.

It’s a pretty amazing thing – the entire city of New York is depicted in miniature, including the buildings. It is the “jewel in the crown of the collection of the Queens Museum of Art.” And it’s extremely cool.

Walking along the perimeter of the Panorama, we encountered three snacky stations – one was full of Kind bars, one of pretzels, and Rizzo’s Pizza was there serving very tasty cannoli.

 

They had made quite a lot of them, and were passing them out right and left toward the end of the evening. The food and drink were split up and located in two different areas; we decided to hit the food area first. MitchMallows greeted us right off. Mitch himself was there, and highly recommended the blueberry marshmallow; we also couldn’t resist the chocolate mint. It was delicious and full of blueberry flavor. The chocolate mint was also very good.

 

After that we tasted a variety of things, including a tasty citrus beet salad from Aroma 31 in Astoria and Glendale’s Tazzina‘s vanilla bean panna cotta with berries. The beet salad was fresh and earthy, and the panna cotta was wonderfully creamy, with excellent vanilla flavor and a nice bright contrast from the berries.

 

 

Joju from Elmhurst, home of excellent Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, was in the back of the room. Their sandwiches did not disappoint, not one bit. They were fantastic – full of flavor and nicely balanced.

 

We were happy to see LIC’s Alobar there, serving up lamb sausages with pickled red cabbage, expertly cooked by Chef Ian Kapitan and his staff. The tres leches cake from Elmhurst’s Patacon Pisao was also outstanding.

 

In between the food and drink areas was a DJ, Notorious R.U.G. He played great selection of tunes that got everybody moving.

 

The drinks ranged from tomato-strawberry gazpacho, an energy drink, vodka, rum, and kombucha. Standouts were the Love Potion from Astoria’s Beyond Kombucha (it’s kombucha but is called a jun, as it is made with honey instead of sugar), which came highly recommended by owner Spiro Theofilatos, and the cocktail made with CayRum – a Dominican dark rum, aged for 3 years and flavored with ginger and honey – pineapple, and seltzer.

 

It was great to see so many people having such a good time, here in Queens.

 

We left near the 9pm mark, very happy and satisfied with the time spent at the Summer Stunner. We walked through the park to the subway, and dreamed about the upcoming US Open as we passed the US Tennis Center. On the way home on the 7 train, we heard the sounds from the mosque as the train doors opened at 74th Street, as Ramadan is ending. Queens, you continue to charm us. And congratulations to both Yelp and the Queens Museum of Art for putting on such a fun show.


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