Bier and Cheese and more in the QNYC Evening Edition for Thursday September 20, 2012

Bier and Cheese is opening in Astoria and we’ve got the details

For years we’ve heard Astorians wishing and asking for a cheese shop in the neighborhood, and now their wish has come true! “Bier and Cheese” is the name of the shop and as you can tell from the name both beer and cheese will be for sale there. Here are the details:

Beer. They hope to serve over 160 kinds of bottled beers (hopefully by Oktoberfest) and 10 beers on tap (so there will be a bar). Since they are opening up in early fall, expect to see seasonal beers (keyword: pumpkin). They also plan to sell beer from Astoria’s own Singlecut Brewsmiths, Brooklyn Brewery, and a variety of other craft beer from around the country as well as imports. Growlers will be available, too. Gao also wants to charge “Queens prices” – that means, on the average, $5/pint, $2.50/bottle, $10.99/six-pack.

Cheese. They expect to sell 40 different kinds of cheeses made from cow, goat, and sheep milks. Both domestic – a good portion should be locally made, too, as well as some from VT – and imported cheeses from countries like France, Spain, and Switzerland will be available. They hope to carry both pasteurized and raw cheeses.

Saturday, September 29 is their soft opening. See you then!

QB President Helen Marshall shares her experience as the daughter of immigrants 

The Queens Tribune has a nice article on the September 17th naturalization ceremony at King Manor Museum. September 17 is both Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. This year on this day happened to be the 225th anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution, too. During the ceremony, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall talked about her experience as the daughter of two immigrants. “I lost both of them early in life, but I made it because I was in America and America took care of me.”

We’ve got the deets on Queens – statistics FTW

Are you a statistics lover? Curious about the numbers behind life in Queens? Joanna Eng has written this great article on Queens demographics. There’s a map and everything! It’s really fascinating. Here are a few statistics for you:

Queens households are 68% families, 29% families with children, 26% people living alone, and 7% non-family groups (i.e., roommate situations). The average household size is 2.8 people and the average family size is 3.4. Rentals make up 57% of housing units, while 43% of units are owner-occupied.

People like to fantasize about what kind of restaurant they’d open

We asked this question – “If you could open any kind of restaurant, what would it be?” – this morning as part of our Question of the Day series. Our twitter followers answered, and did not disappoint. Here are some of their answers:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/sacsplace/status/248826214335270912″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/udosero/status/248806458634928129″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/tastoriaqueens/status/248784151925383168″]

Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale

There’s a cool Facebook group that features photos from the above neighborhoods. Here’s one of our favorites:

Inside the old Oasis theater in Ridgewood. Gorgeous.