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Residents Allege CODE Nightclub Brings Chaos to Steinway

BQE Admin on March 6, 2026

In the past year, NYPD’s 114th Precinct has issued summonses at CODE for parking violations, underage drinking, public urination, and disorderly conduct. Photo by Cole Sinanian

By COLE SINANIAN 

cole@queensledger.com 

STEINWAY — Astoria resident Jenny was hesitant to sign the lease for her apartment on Steinway Street. The Nashville native moved to the city in September to be close to her adult sons, and was drawn to Astoria for its lively dining scene, rich culture and quieter streetscape compared to Manhattan.

But when she asked her broker if CODE — a nearby nightclub located at 20-30 Steinway — was loud or disruptive, the broker accused her of being a “difficult tenant.” Despite her reservations she decided to sign the lease. She will not be renewing it.

“I will be leaving in September,” Jenny said. “I won’t live here any longer because of CODE.”

The nightclub, which opened in 2023, has made headlines recently for its loud weekend parties that reach into the early morning, often sending intoxicated patrons to spill into the surrounding residential streets when the club closes at 4am Thursdays-Sundays. Neighbors describe street fights, underaged drinking, drag racing, drunk driving, shouting and constant honking that makes it hard to sleep. Ineffective enforcement, meanwhile, has brought little relief despite hundreds of police summonses and 311 complaints, neighbors say.

The nightclub also operates a valet service, which residents allege blocks bus stops and parking spots, and has at times led to potentially dangerous situations.

“The valet, I’ve seen them push people that couldn’t stand up in a car to drive,” Jenny said. “They’re entitled to have a club, I get it,” she continued. “It’s just the congregating, the cars, it’s like everyone that comes out and gets in a car wants to lay on their horn, or they’re racing.  It’s almost like 20th is a drag strip.”

Police with the 114th Precinct have issued 170 summonses for parking violations and eight criminal court summonses since the start of 2025, according to information provided by a spokesperson for the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI). On January 1, 2026, officers responded to a 911 call for underage drinking at CODE, resulting in two criminal court summonses. On December 27, 2025, officers conducted a noise inspection using a decibel meter in several locations around the establishment, yielding negative results. More recently, on March 1, 2026, officers from the 114th conducted an inspection at CODE, resulting in 12 criminal court summonses, as well as two summonses for public urination.

Jenny declined to give her full name for fear of doxxing and harassment. On February 16, the local Fox5 news channel aired a segment on CODE, during which neighbors described piles of vomit on the street in the morning and accidents caused by club patrons drunk driving. The names, license plates, and addresses of the neighbors interviewed were revealed during the segment, causing alarm among some Astorians on the internet.

“They doxxed the neighbors, first and last names,” wrote one Reddit user. “Then showed their apartment buildings, license plates, and even zoomed in on a second story window.

CODE management did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment. Property record database ACRIS shows that the property is owned by the private equity firm Simon Equity Partners. The building that’s now CODE was previously a club called Central, which Queens Community Board 1 District Manager Florence Koulouris described as a “Mediterranean upscale lounge.” Koulouris said her office rarely received complaints about Central, which went out of business during COVID.

Koulouris urged concerned residents to call 311 with their complaints about CODE. This way, she said, authorities can use the threat of fines to compel CODE management to comply with local law. But Koulouris  also acknowledged the difficulty in enforcing noise complaints and disturbances that occur outside of CODE premises. The community board can only revoke the business’s liquor license, for example, for violations occurring on the property itself.

“The issues are from patrons who left the scene, but it didn’t happen on the premises,” she said. “When you’re talking about a liquor license, the effect of the liquor license has to be within the doors of the premises. If it’s happening in the street, it’s a different agency.”

Fantasy Interiors on Steinway to Close After 75 Years

BQE Admin on March 4, 2026

Photo via Google Maps.

By COLE SINANIAN 

cole@queensledger.com

STEINWAY  — On a recent Friday afternoon on Steinway Street, two women recognize each other at the checkout line of Fantasy Interiors, a home decor and custom drapery business founded in 1951.

“You look familiar,” the older one says to the other. “I was your monitor at PS 6 on Steinway Street!”

“That was years ago!” the other woman says.

Behind them, glass shelves once stacked with linens, towels, toilet seats, shower heads, and all manner of home decorations lay empty. As the older woman heads towards the door, she turns around to look one last time, as if to say goodbye.

“To the staff of Fantasy!” she says. “To health and happiness!”

After 75 years in business, Fantasy Interiors will be closing for good in the coming weeks. For owner Robert Last, the decision to close the beloved store was not an easy one. But with rising business costs, a local economy that never fully recovered from the pandemic, and a new generation of shoppers more inclined towards online shopping than brick-and-mortar stores, Last says the store no longer makes economic sense. While Last will continue to sell custom drapery to clients out of his workshop above the store, Fantasy Interiors’ iconic blue and white storefront will soon become a thing of Steinway Street’s past.

“We pretty much hit a wall when it started to get around COVID and everything kind of changed,” Last said. “The economy changed and peoples’ buying habits changed and unfortunately, we’re I guess a sign of the times.”

Fantasy Interiors has been a mainstay on Steinway since the 1950s. Last’s father Melvin and grandfather Harry opened the initial location in 1951 on 28th Street. Its arrival to Astoria was almost an accident, Last says. The men had always dreamed of opening a business together, hence the name— it was their “Fantasy. After taking a wrong exit they ended up on Steinway Street and were charmed. It was the perfect spot for their business, full of bustling retail activity and eagerly window-shopping pedestrians.

At eight years old Last began helping his father out in the store. The neighborhood was different then, Last said. He recalled the communal energy among the shopkeepers, how he and his family slowly got to know the tight-knit community of businesspeople around Steinway Street.

“All the merchants knew each other, which was really nice,”  he said. “Everybody was in the same boat. You had somebody to lean on, if you saw somebody in the neighborhood you just chatted.”

Fantasy founders Melvin Last (left) and Harry Last (right). Photo via Robert Last.

Neighbors that stuck out included Sokol’s, a toy store; Eisenberg’s, another store that sold houseware and home decor; and Schatz Steinway, a longtime paint store that closed in 2024. As a kid working long summer days in the Fantasy workshop with his father, Last would save up his money and walk across the street to pick out a toy at Sokol’s at the end of each week.

The Last family took well to the neighborhood. Repeat customers returned to Fantasy again and again, drawn not just to the ample selection of home decor and custom drapery, but also to the genuine personal attention and sense of community the family provided their customers. It’s the sort of genuine connection seldom found at big-brand department stores, Last said, and part of what’s kept Fantasy alive for so long amidst an ever-shifting streetscape.

“We felt it was important to give that personal help,” he said. “People do need a connection. It makes a difference in how you feel about what you’re buying.”

The store grew and within five years the family moved Fantasy to its current location at 30-32 Steinway St. Since his father passed away, Last has inherited the family business and accrued a variety of loyal clients for his custom drapery business. Last’s work can be found throughout the city, at restaurants like Red Sorghum in Long Island City and Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse in Bayside and Midtown, as well as at art galleries like Chelsea’s Hauser and Wirth and concert venues like the Midnight Blue jazz club on 19th Street in Manhattan.

But during COVID-19, things at Fantasy took a turn. Without much of an online business, pandemic quarantines took their toll. Tariffs also contributed to the economic strife, Last said. Some of the wholesalers he buys materials from have doubled their prices as a result of tariffs on foreign goods. Suppliers are also prioritizing higher-volume sales, refusing to sell anything but bulk purchases, in quantities far larger than what smaller businesses like Fantasy needs. And with his longtime focus on face-to-face personal connection, Last said he’s been reluctant to shift to an online-focused business model, a position that’s made it hard to stay profitable in 2026.

There’s a cultural element too. With a tightening economy, climbing rents and a cyber-centric  world, people are more transient and money is always tight, meaning the demand for high-quality, custom-made home decor is on the decline.

“Younger people just do things differently,” Last said. “People spend more money on rent and they don’t have that much disposable income. They’re also moving around quite a bit more. They know that they’re renting more than owning— they don’t really want to spend a lot of money on curtains or comforters or anything.”

Customers can still visit Fantasy  until inventory runs out. Last said he will stay open for another few weeks, after which point he will shift his focus to his custom business and continue to work with existing clients. Last expressed gratitude towards his workers and customers for having stuck with his father and grandfather’s “Fantasy” all these years.

“I just want to thank everyone,” Last said, “all the people that have responded, all the people over the years. We appreciate it and I think my staff appreciates it. I know that I do and it’s made a difference in me.”

Fire on 30th Ave Injures Two Firefighters

BQE Admin on March 4, 2026

Photo via Lefteris Hasapis.

By COLE SINANIAN 

cole@queensledger.com

ASTORIA — A two-alarm fire broke out in the basement of 44-09 30th Ave in Astoria Tuesday night, leaving two firefighters injured.  

The fire department received a call at 5:52pm February 24 of a fire in the basement of the building, whose ground floor is currently occupied by Arber’s Barbershop. According to a New York City Fire Department (FDNY) spokesperson, the fire was under control by 7:05pm. Two firefighters were transported to Weill Cornell Medicine with minor injuries. 

In a video provided by Lefteris Hasapis — who serves as president of the “Hephaestus” Pan-Lemnian Philanthropic Association, a Greek social  club  located next door — several firefighters can be seen breaking down the door at 44-09 30th as smoke billows from a second story window. 

It is unclear how the fire reached the second floor, but Reddit users on r/astoria described the scene on Tuesday evening: 

“There are like 7 blocks of fire trucks, kind of insane,” one wrote.

“Everyone made it out ok, but several apartments are ruined and others need to be repaired from the damage made during the fire fight process,” wrote another, who said they lived in one of the neighboring apartments. 

NYC Department of buildings issued an order to vacate all four of the building’s dwelling units in a notice posted on the door dated February 24, citing fire, smoke and water damage sustained throughout the building’s structure. 

“A 2-story , mixed use, non-fireproof building sustained extensive fire, smoke and water damage throughout with charred structural members, broken windows at exposures 1 and 3 at second floor, residential level & roll down gate at ground floor level defective in addition to sections of the roof missing leaving the structure open to the elements,” the notice read. 

“These conditions have therefore rendered the ENTIRE building unsafe to enter and/or occupy,” it continued.  

During a Queens Community Board 1 meeting at Astoria World Manor on February 17th, Captain Joe Delligatti of the FDNY’s Fire Safety Administration urged the public to make sure their homes are stocked with working smoke detectors and to devise fire escape plans. 

“Like we have fire drills at school, we should have fire drills at home also,” Delligatti said. “In a fire, because it produces so much smoke, you can’t see your hand in front of your face. So having that plan is so important.” 

A&E Tenants Brave Cold to Demand Housing Justice

BQE Admin on February 24, 2026

La Mesa Verde Tenants Union helped neighbors stay safe amid plunging temperatures and faulty heat in their building, tenants say. Photo by Cole Sinanian.

Tenants rallied in a blizzard against the notorious landlord as heating outages and crumbling infrastructure push them to the brink. 

By COLE SINANIAN | news@queensledger.com

JACKSON HEIGHTS — “What do we want? Housing justice! When do we want it? Now!” 

Clad in an enormous fur hood that nearly obscures her face, Mirela Bulagea leads the few dozen of her neighbors before her in the chant as she squints against the blowing wind and snow in the courtyard of her Jackson Heights apartment building. 

If you’d told Bulagea a year ago that she’d soon be speaking at a press conference as one of the lead organizers for the newly inaugurated La Mesa Verde Tenants Union, the Romanian-born mother of two might not have believed it.  But for Bulagea and her neighbors at La Mesa Verde, a six-building apartment complex along 90th and 91st St in Jackson Heights, the union is a necessity. Landlord A&E Real Estate Holdings is among the city’s most negligent, having topped public advocate Jumaane Williams’ annual “Worst Landlords” list in 2025 with 4,872 open HPD violations across its 181-property portfolio.  

At La Mesa Verde, this means chronic heating failure broken elevators, rat and roach infestations, and damp, black mold-covered walls that have brought health problems and despair to the property’s tenants,  leaving them with no choice but organize a union in the hope that together, they can force A&E into compliance. 

“We all have to work hard to make payments for rent,” Bulagea said. “All we demand is for them to provide decent living conditions for everyone.” 

‘We Won’t Back Down’

At the press conference, held February 22 amidst a once-in-a-decade blizzard, tenants described unlivable conditions and demanded that A&E address the hundreds of HPD violations across La Mesa Verde’s six buildings. 

“We’re here today because our  landlord has left us in freezing and unsafe conditions and we’re tired of them ignoring us,” said Ivonne Calderon, a mother of two originally from Mexico.

The Queens Ledger toured Calderon’s two-bedroom apartment in December as part of an investigation into conditions in the building. The walls in her living room were covered with peeling and bubbling paint, while rat and cockroach infestations had forced her to pack all of her food and kitchen  supplies into airtight plastic bins. 

Calderon, who pays around $1,300 a month, described calling A&E’s emergency maintenance hotline, only to be sent to voicemail or told to wait for a callback that never came. 

“We’ve paid our rent, but we haven’t received the basic living conditions that we’re owed,” Calderon said in Spanish at Sunday’s conference. “We’re united, and we won’t back down until our homes are safe.” 

As her neighbors aired their grievances outside in the snow, Emily Benko, who had planned to speak at the conference as one of the union’s lead organizers, sat coughing at a friend’s house, sick with bronchitis. The 34-year-old carpenter has been without heat since the last week of January in her one-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment, for which she pays $1,999 monthly. 

In an interview, she explained that when her heat first went out during late January’s cold snap, she left small cups of water around her apartment to gauge the temperature. After just a few hours they had all frozen, she said. When she came down with bronchitis last week, Benko decided to take her dog and cat to a friend’s house until her condition improved. 

“Basically I’ve just been living in my bedroom for a month because it’s smaller and I just keep the heater on and keep the door cracked,” Benko said. “I was afraid if I went outside for too long, I wouldn’t be able to get warm again.” 

Inconsistent heating, broken elevators and moldy walls are problems in A&E buildings throughout Queens. Earlier this month, the Ledger spoke to tenants at 32-52 33rd St in Astoria, where the heat would turn off nightly in some apartments, causing the temperature to drop into the 50s during some of New York’s coldest days in years. 

Several tenants at the press conference complained of an old and faulty heating system, leaving corner apartments like Benko’s cold while others swelter. La Mesa Verde was built in 1927, while its two boilers were most recently renovated in 2008 before A&E acquired the building, according to an A&E spokesperson in an email statement via PR firm Rubenstein Communications. The spokesperson explained that only one of the two boilers is reliably functioning, and that management has already invested $400,000 in a replacement boiler to address heating issues. The new boiler was supposed to arrive on February 23, the spokesperson wrote, but the blizzard had delayed delivery.

“Our boiler service company has attempted several different repairs since January to restore service to the down boiler and has determined that the boiler is approaching the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced,” they wrote. “Upon this determination, an emergency permit was filed to begin the boiler replacement work immediately.” 

The spokesperson continued: “With only one of the two boilers servicing the property fully functioning, some apartments are being over-heated and others under-heated. We were losing pressure and steam was escaping through the damaged boiler. Welding crews were dispatched to seal off the steam headers that were connected between both boiler plants. Until the work is completed for the ultimate solution of replacing the out of service boiler, we continue to work on steam balancing for the properties to provide more even heating levels to all units.”

La Mesa Verde Property Manager Jenna McKeegan did not respond to requests for comment. 

Ivonne Calderon in her kitchen, where constant infestations have forced her to store everything in airtight containers. Photo by Cole Sinanian.

Strength in Numbers 

Emily Mervosh lives at 35-65 86th St, a different A&E building just a few blocks away from La Mesa Verde. She attended the Sunday press conference in solidarity with La Mesa Verde tenants, and described similar conditions at her building. Like at La Mesa Verde, lack of adequate heating, mold, peeling lead paint, collapsing ceilings, chronic infestations and unresponsive management has led tenants at Mervosh’s building to organize a union, which she said she hoped would one day coalesce into a city-wide A&E tenants union. 

“We are slowly building, and we want to collaborate with other buildings like Mesa Verde,” Mervosh said in an interview. “Because there really is strength in organizing, strength in numbers. So we’re trying to organize as many A&E buildings as we can.”

In January, the Mamdani Administration ordered A&E to immediately correct outstanding violations at 14 properties across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, and announced a $2.1 million settlement with the company that would go towards restitution to tenants for the alleged harassment brought by A&E’s neglect. Neither La Mesa Verde, 35-65 86th St, nor 32-52 33rd St were included in the settlement.

Founded in 2011 and led by Douglas Eisenberg and Margaret Brunn, A&E has been hit by recent financial troubles. In February 2025, PinusCo. reported that A&E faced foreclosure proceedings on a $506.3 million J.P. Morgan Chase loan backing a 31-property portfolio. Meanwhile, in order to purchase the 32-52 33rd Street property in Astoria, the company took out a $22 million loan from the now-defunct Signature Bank, which folded in 2023. A&E now owes the $22 million to Spanish bank Santander, which acquired Signature’s debt, according to online databases ACRIS and Signature Portfolio Dashboard.

In an email statement sent to La Mesa Verde tenant organizers, Jackson Heights City councilmember Shekar Krishnan condemned A&E’s neglect and pledged solidarity with La Mesa Verde tenants.

“As neighbors, you all have stood up for each other and looked after one another day after day,” Krishnan wrote. “And we will hold A&E — one of the worst landlords in our city, who has been especially neglectful in Jackson Heights — accountable.” 

He continued: “A&E’s greed has gone unchecked for too long and while the recent settlement is a step in the right direction, as Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Committee and the representative of the most A&E buildings in the city, I will keep fighting for tenants’ rights and an end to A&E’s neglect.” 

A&E had more than 4,000 open HPD violations as of the end of 2025. Photo by Cole Sinanian.

‘We’re All Working Class People’

According to Benko, tenants at La Mesa Verde began organizing last summer. Both of the building’s elevators had broken in March, forcing many tenants to climb multiple flights of stairs daily— a potentially dangerous physical burden for the building’s elderly and disabled tenants. 

Benko credits one of her neighbors, a woman named Celina della Croce, with igniting organization efforts at La Mesa Verde. She said della Croce, who did not attend Sunday’s press conference, had previously worked as a professional labor organizer and is now a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) — a socialist political organization with chapters nationwide. 

Della Croce gathered a group of tenants and fellow PSL organizers to canvas La Mesa Verde, going door-to-door with flyers for the nascent tenants union and urging neighbors to unite against their negligent landlord. Meetings were held in building lobbies and group chats were formed, which Benko said have been instrumental in both forcing A&E to make necessary repairs and keeping each other safe as temperatures dropped and conditions in the building worsened. 

“If it wasn’t for the tenants association, people would have died,” Benko said. 

On cold days, neighbors with heat used the group chat to offer up their space heaters to those without. It was through one of these tenants’ group chats that Benko met Bulagea, whom she now considers a friend. Bulagea had responded to Benko’s post in the chat about some Swiffer pads she was giving away. The two women met in the lobby to exchange the pads, and ended up bonding over their shared struggles. 

“You don’t have to be best friends with your neighbors,” Benko said, “but you might as well take advantage of the proximity. We’re all working class people.”

More than 100 tenants at La Mesa Verde have signed onto a lawsuit against A&E seeking both immediate corrections to outstanding violations and restitution for alleged tenant harassment brought by A&E’s negligence. Lawyers with Communities Resist — the legal nonprofit representing La Mesa Verde tenants in the case  — gathered retainers from tenants, while the union’s organizers coordinated mass 311 calls in an attempt to address the building’s most severe violations as quickly as possible. 

Benko said it was these coordinated efforts through the union that pushed A&E to fix one of the elevators, which has now been working since early January. The other elevator, however, remains broken. 

“It feels like we have some power,” she said. “It feels like when they break the law now, they’re not gonna get away with it as easily.”

At  Sunday’s press conference, Communities Resist attorney Christos Bell urged tenants to continue organizing, both with regards to the legal case and in their day-to-day lives.  

“We are trying to do our best to compel them to make the necessary repairs in this building, but it’s not just about legal cases,” Bell said. 

“By ourselves, we’re not gonna be able to win,” he continued. “But together, that’s when we have the power to win.”

“We’re working on it:” CM Cabán addresses 31st Bike Lane at CB1 Meeting

BQE Admin on February 23, 2026

By COLE SINANIAN | news@queensledger.com

It looks like Astoria’s proposed 31st St bike lane still has a future after all. 

Construction of the controversial protected bike lane along the notoriously dangerous and congested stretch of 31st St. between Newtown and 36th avenues stopped in December after local business owners sued. But at Community Board 1’s full board hearing last Tuesday, Astoria City councilmember and bike lane-supporter Tiffany Cabán confirmed that the killed project could still materialize. 

“This would have been one of the quickest, easiest bike lane constructions, because it really was just a paint job,” Cabán said. “So, we’re working on it. The mayor is with us that he wants this to come to a quick resolution.” 

The project would have placed a protected bike lane on both sides of 31st Street, between the sidewalk and the elevated train columns. Supported by Cabán, as well as State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and State Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, the proposed bike lane was back in headlines January 7 after Mayor Mamdani announced that his administration would direct the Department of Transportation (DOT) to restart the redesign process.  

Judge Cheree Buggs had ordered the city to halt the bike lane’s construction on December 5th after 19 local business owners filed a lawsuit against the DOT. In the lawsuit, they argued that the bike lanes would not keep bikers safer and would impede emergency vehicles’ access to buildings along 31st St. Judge Buggs sided with the businesses owners on the grounds that the DOT had not followed proper outreach procedure, and ordered the DOT to halt construction. 

During her address at Tuesday’s meeting, councilmember Cabán reiterated her support for the bike lane and argued that although at times inconvenient, it would be worth it if  lives were saved. 

“The 31st St. corridor is one of the top ten most dangerous corridors in Queens,” Cabán said. ”There are going to be changes in behavior that in the moment seem inconvenient, but if we save one baby, if we save one person’s life, I think it’s worthwhile, and we can make some adjustments,” Cabán said. 

According to a recent DOT study, 2 people have been killed and 190 have been injured along the 31st St corridor since 2020. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, multiple members of the public drew attention to the general congestion in the area brought by cyclists, trucks, motorists, first responders and parked cars all vying for limited space on a narrow street. 

In her testimony, resident and treasurer of the Dutch Kills Civic Association Gloria Moloney condemned elected officials for continuing to discuss the bike lane after the judge stopped construction, and questioned how much safer a bike lane could make an already dangerously congested street. 

‘I wish we could put the bike lanes to bed,” she said. “31st Ave, I can’t say enough, it’s a complete disaster. It adds so much more traffic to every street in that neighborhood. The people that are living there are going through hell.”

“Sculpt Your Sweetie” at Astoria’s Mostly Good Studios

BQE Admin on February 19, 2026

Mostly Good Studios, a community hub and maker-space in Astoria hosted “Sculpt Your Sweetie” on Valentine’s Day. (Photos: Tashroom Ahsan)

By Adeline Daab & Tashroom Ahsan | news@queensledger.com

This Valentine’s Day, choosing to step beyond the rut of dinner reservations and drugstore chocolates could’ve landed you at a workbench with three long-term couples and a pair with a 20-year history and an intentionally mysterious relationship (“whatever we are, it’s worse than married”). All were engrossed in an uncommon expression of enduring admiration: sculpting and painting a bust of their partner.  

The “Sculpt your Sweetie” workshop was hosted by Mostly Good Studios, a multi-medium studio nestled at the corner of Astoria’s 9th St. and 35th Ave. The studio’s bright and eclectic charm was accentuated by the white and red lace draped over the side tables, the abundance of “aww”-eliciting ceramic slug-like creatures, and gossamer butterfly curtains. Candles dripped into their waxy fate, shelves of clay creations dried in the wake of past workshops, and sunset-tinted seashells dangled from the ceiling. Yet the wellspring of the studio’s inviting energy was the woman singlehandedly running the operation.

Eight locals came out for the event, which saw multiple spontaneous exclamations of “I’m having so much fun!”

Kaitlyn Sather’s warm and vibrant energy is the first thing you experience when you walk through the door to Mostly Good Studios, and it lingers with you long after you leave. It infuses Sather’s encouraging and trusting teaching style. People came into the studio with no sense of their artistic abilities, and left as confident creators, proud of the pieces they’d produced. Introductions included statements like “I’ve been taking a ceramics class recently, but I don’t think I could make a person” and “Hi, I’m Joe, and I can barely spell ceramic.” These same participants wrapped up the class having lovingly reproduced their partners’ rosy cheeks, the details of their clothing, or their upper-arm tattoos.

Emerging regularly from the gleeful inter-couple chatter were unprompted exclamations of “I’m having so much fun.” The playful energy palpable throughout the afternoon is exactly what Sather inspires people to tap into during her workshops. “Space for play, I think, is essential for feeling connected to your humanity and other people,” Sather told the Astoria Journal, “so I try my darndest to create an energy that reminds you that this is fun, this is play… if it’s become hard as an adult to get contact with that space, I try to create an energy in the room that makes that point of contact a little bit easier.” Sather breaks down the fear-strengthened barriers to accessing that creative energy by emphasizing that “what’s important to me here is not what you make at the end of it. It’s that you enjoy the making process.”

“Sculpt your Sweetie” debuted this Valentine’s Day, but it is not the first of Sather’s emotionally-resonant workshops. Mostly Good Studios hosts “Very Angry Women,” a workshop that cultivates a safe space to tap into the anger that accompanies womanhood and heal through ceramic practice, and a workshop called “Pasta Body,” where you eat a carb-heavy homemade meal and then sculpt your body afterwards, becoming attuned to the beauty of your body as it exists when it is nourished.

Sather encourages everyone, whether at Mostly Good Studios or any of the other wonderful arts spaces in Astoria, to step out of their comfort zone and find an outlet to flex their creative muscles. “Try it,
if you’re curious about it, because I think it can be really life-changing to connect with that part of yourself and be in a room full of people who are also doing the same thing, who are maybe showing up alone. It can be very healing to be in a space like that.”

The finished products!

“Sculpt your Sweetie” proved that this practice can bring you not only closer to yourself but also to the partner you’re doing it with. A chorus of playful roasts and genuine awe at a partner’s developing skills rippled through the room. New sides were revealed. Most importantly, though, were the memories (and souvenirs) they’ll giggle about for years to come. 

For more information about Mostly Good Studios’ upcoming events, visit this link.

Valentine’s Day At Château le Woof

BQE Admin on February 18, 2026

By Maryam Rahaman 

ASTORIA — A classic sit-down Valentine’s Day dinner: candlelit tables in a dim bistro, live music, and a six-course meal. At your feet, your furry friend devours a feast of bone broth, freeze dried vegetables, steak tartare, and cookies and cream, taking the occasional break to go for a walk outside.

Such was the scene at “L’Amour le Woof,” the seventh annual Valentine’s Day dinner hosted at Chateau Le Woof, a dog cafe in Astoria founded in 2015. The cafe offers coffee, drinks, or even meals as their dogs play or dine with them.

On Valentine’s Day, dogs lined up in the cafe’s play area as owner Natassa Contini took roll call for dinner. Many of the pets showed up dressed to the nines, wearing red sequined tuxedos, pink sweaters, and bowties. Some matched with their owners. As for the human diners,  they came in pairs and solo, as couples, friends, and family celebrated the occasion with man’s best friend.

Unlike a typical romantic dinner, pet owners sitting next to each other struck up conversations and shared laughs as their dogs sniffed each other or reached for the same treats. Some  attendees visit as often as twice a week. King, a red-nosed pitbull, was Contini’s first dog as an adult. She described him as her “best friend and son wrapped up in one.” One day, someone tried to walk away with King when she tied him outside while she grabbed a cortado. She says Chateau Le Woof was born out of a dream she had shortly after that incident, where she sat next to King inside a cafe.

“The most important thing for me is building a community,” Contini said. “It’s a great place for people to meet,” she continued. “How cool is it to be able to go to a dinner with your dog, by yourself, not feel weird in a room full of a people that all get it?”

Chateau le Woof on Valentine’s Day. Photos by Maryam Rahaman.

Couple Bethany Lester and Lance Dominé attended with their happy go-lucky pooch Jake, who tried eating table neighbor David’s treats as he posed for a picture. Lester was “not even a little bit” of a dog person when the couple started dating. She says her old self would’ve never stepped foot in a dog cafe. Now, the pair visit most Saturdays. Jake gets excited every time he sees Contini.

“It’s very difficult to find places that are pet-friendly and have space for us to also enjoy food or enjoy coffee,” said Chari Minaya, who attended  alongside her son David and dog Marshmallow. Others said the cafe is particularly appreciated during the winter months, where it’s hard to find dog-friendly indoor activities. The only round of barking came as Contini hand-delivered each dog a course of freeze-dried vegetables. Singer-songwriter and comedian Seann Cantatore performed original songs as well as classics. As one dog returned from a walk, Cantatore adapted the lyrics of Nat King Cole’s L-O-V-E—singing, “O is for the only little doggy I see.”

Cantatore began performing at the venue five years ago after being drawn to a jazz band performing outside the cafe. “It’s worth the extra steps from the subway,” she says. In the future, Contini hopes to continue expanding Chateau Le Woof’s services and to give back to the community.

“The way that dog spaces are moving now, it’s incredible to see,” she said. “It’s really great to see that things are moving in that kind of direction because it’s really kind of harmless and brings a lot of joy.”

Chela & Garnacha Says Goodbye

BQE Admin on February 17, 2026

The beloved Mexican restaurant closed its doors after 12 years due to high rents and declining sales. 

By COLE SINANIAN | news@queensledger.com 

ASTORIA  — Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest of the year for restaurant workers, is no match for Marlene Guinchard. 

The owner of Chela & Garnacha on 36th Ave does not miss a beat as she runs food from the kitchen, bartends, and greets the seemingly endless stream of eager young couples in the doorway vying for a table in the restaurant’s small, wood-paneled dining room. 

“Seems like everybody came in at the same time,” she says to a man in a baseball cap named Alex Papaioannou, who’s seated over a plate of masa and potato-filled fried tortillas piled high with guacamole, crema and shredded chicken, a family recipe that Guinchard calls Intricadas (“intricate things”). Papaioannou’s wife, meanwhile, whispers to their young daughter in Spanish as the girl uses the table as a runway for her pink plastic airplane. 

“The food is great, but also the ambiance, the charm,” said Papaioannou, a realtor from Flushing who’s been a loyal customer of Guinchard’s since the beginning. “I took my wife here before we were married. She’s probably stayed married to me an extra few years because of this place.”

But on this chilly February evening it’s not just love bringing Astorians out to Chela & Garnacha in droves. After 12 years, the beloved restaurant is saying goodbye. Valentine’s Day was the penultimate night of service. By the time this article runs, Guinchard will have shut the restaurant’s doors for good, with its last dinner service scheduled for Sunday, February 15. Her food will live on, however, at her taco truck, Casa Birria NYC, on the Upper East Side, and her upstate restaurant, Taco Turnpike, in Sloatsburg. 

Chela & Garnacha’s closure comes amid an increasingly competitive property market and soaring commercial rents that have led to high business turnover in Astoria. Other recent closures include the iconic Neptune Diner, which closed in 2024 after 40 years, and pizzeria Porto Bello, which shut its doors after 26 years in 2025. Guinchard, who said she can no longer afford to pay rent after recent hikes, also attributes the closures to a market that never recovered from the pandemic, declining drinking rates, and young peoples’ unwillingness to dish out for beers and gourmet finger food. 

“Right now, everything is dead,” Guinchard said. “New York City is dead. Before Covid this place was already dying, in the sense that there’s been so much gentrification in this area. It’s been so crazy.” 

Marlene Guinchard with her long-time customer, Alex Papaioannou.

Guinchard admits the menu at Chela & Garnacha might confuse some gringos. On Valentine’s day, one young man could be heard attempting to order an IPA— no such thing can be found on her menu. Here it’s chelas only, Mexico City slang for an easy-drinking Mexican beer like Modelo, Tecate, Pacifico or Corona. The phrase “Chela & Garnacha” comes from the song “Chilanga Banda” by Mexican alt rock band Cafe Tacvba, and refers to the popular Mexican practice of drinking beers, snacking on decadent finger foods, and drinking some more. 

Guinchard, who was born in Germany to a Mexican mother and Swiss father but spent much of her youth in Mexico City, says this tradition is best enjoyed with dishes like flautas, a fried, tightly rolled and stuffed tortilla;  volcanes, a kind of crispy corn tortilla topped with gooey cheese, meat and avocado; and of course birria, a dish of marinated beef tacos dipped in a flavorful consommé broth that needs no further explanation in New York, where the once niche Jaliscan specialty (it’s traditionally made with goat) went viral in the early 2020s and has since conquered the city’s taco trucks. For a taste of Guinchard’s birria, head to Casa Birria NYC, currently parked at 86th St and 2nd Ave. 

Her cebollitas,  or fire-roasted green onions, are somewhat of a rarity stateside though ubiquitous in some parts of Mexico, where Guinchard explained that barbecues are incomplete without a pile of the sweet alliums charred and caramelized atop the grill. The intricadas, meanwhile, are the menu’s rarest item, as they are the literal invention of Guinchard’s mother-in-law. Much of the menu was developed by her ex-husband, Jorge, who grew up eating his mother’s delectable creations. One day, she fried masa tortillas stuffed with mashed potato for added heft, piled them with guacamole and cheese and fed them to her children, who were enamored, Guinchard explained. 

“I love the people here, obviously,” Papaioannou said. “But the food— the intricadas…I’ve never found them anywhere else.”

Guinchard’s famous “intricadas.”

It was Guinchard’s son, Jordi Loaeza, who first moved to Astoria. He cut his teeth working as a cook under NYC celebrity chef  Tom Colicchio (Gramercy Tavern, Craft) at his Kips Bay restaurant, Riverpark. It was Loaeza and his father who took the lead on Chela & Garnacha’s menu, Guinchard said, adapting the flavors from their family kitchen to New York tastes, while Guinchard led the business’s financial side. 

They started in 2012 as a food truck called Mexico Blvd, though the goal was always to open a restaurant. A food truck was the best the family could do in the early years, as rents were steep and the commercial property market was highly competitive. Another issue was “key money,” or an added fee paid to the property’s prior tenants to expedite their departure. In Astoria, Guinchard said, these fees could top $70,000. 

“With restaurants, anything that would pop up, that day it would disappear,” she said. 

One day in 2014, the family got lucky; a hookah lounge on 36th Street was closing. They quickly signed the lease, handed over a comparatively modest $48,000 in key money, and began building by hand what was soon to become Chela & Garnacha. 

But now, Loaeza has since moved to Vermont, leaving Guinchard in charge of the business. The property’s lease is ending and the new landlord who’s taking over wants to raise the rent.  Not to mention, sales were already on the decline, Guinchard said, as the business never fully recovered from the pandemic. She also partially attributes the decline in sales to social factors. The neighborhood’s population turns over rapidly, she said, while commuters from New Jersey and Long Island aren’t coming into the city anymore now that they can work from home. 

“New people come, they like our food, then they leave,” she said. 

Guinchard is exploring options to reopen in a space nearby. In the meantime, loyal patrons can visit her at Casa Birria NYC, or take the train up to Sloatsburg to visit her restaurant, Taco Turnpike. Here, they’ll find many of the craveable “garnachas” Chela & Garnacha once offered. The intricadas, however, may be lost to history. 

 

ICE Detains 1 in Astoria Raid

BQE Admin on February 13, 2026

Photo via @kingoffalafel on Instagram. 

By COLE SINANIAN  | news@queensledger.com 

Five federal agents were spotted arresting a man outside a home on 47th Street between Broadway and 31st Ave at 5pm on Thursday. 

Eyewitness and local business owner Fares “Freddy” Zeideia was driving up 47th Street, on his way from his restaurant —  King of Falafel & Shawarma — to his home in East Elmhurst, when he saw the agents. 

“I knew they were ICE because it’s not NYPD, there was no police cars or anything, it was a regular private car,” Zeideia told the Queens Ledger. “And they wear masks. That’s the ICE trademark.” 

In a video posted to Zeideia’s Instagram, masked agents wearing hoodies, ski masks, jeans and vests marked “POLICE FEDERAL AGENT” can be seen guiding a handcuffed man. A different agent is wearing a vest marked “POLICE HSI.” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) responsible for investigative work. 

According to Zeideia, the agents drove a black Ford Explorer, seen in the video with the license plate LTE 6313. Zeideia said one of the agents went behind Zeideia’s vehicle, took a picture, then appeared to write down his license plate number. 

“I’m not going to be able to stop them, but I’ll try, you know?” Zeideia said. “I mean, I’ll try to let everybody know. The only thing that I knew that I could do, especially in Astoria, is to post it right away, to tell everybody.” 

Unlike local police, federal agents wear acorn-shaped badges instead of the traditional, shield-shaped police badge of the NYPD. New Yorkers can report confirmed ICE sightings to the city’s official ICE hotline at 229-304-8720. 

On February 6, Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed Executive Order 13, which took effect immediately and prohibits, among other things, “non-city” law enforcement from using City-owned garages and parking lots, and from entering city-owned properties without a warrant. 

Governor Kathy Hochul announced her Local Cops, Local Crimes Act on January 30, which would prohibit collaboration between federal immigration enforcement and local police statewide. Currently, 14 local law enforcement agencies across nine New York counties have signed 287g agreements — a contract that allows federal immigration enforcement to use local and state police to help with immigration reconnaissance and raids. NYPD has not signed a 287g and is therefore cannot legally collaborate with federal agents. Police in neighboring Nassau County, however, do have 287g agreements with ICE.  

Should Hochul’s legislation pass, all collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents would be prohibited throughout New York, which would join Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut on the list of states to have outright banned 287g agreements. 

 

Love, Brunch, and Slasher Horror

BQE Admin on February 12, 2026

A Valentine’s Day brunch with the Astoria Horror Club. 

By MARYAM RAHAMAN 

ASTORIA — Love — and jumpscares — are in the air. Visitors in search of both made their way past the bar at Shillelagh Tavern through a set of dark curtains. On the other side, a back room filled with horror fans greeted them. Audience members voted to watch “The Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge,” a low-budget ’80s slasher loosely inspired by “The Phantom of the Opera”. The ambience was akin more to a very large friend group on a couch making quips and offering commentary than that of a movie theater.

The event was the Valentine’s Day themed “Horror Brunch on Sunday,” a movie marathon hosted by the Astoria Horror Club. Founded in 2021 by married couple Mary Snow and Tom Herrmann, the club regularly meets for movie screenings and book club meetings. Though the event was “BYOB,” or “bring your own brunch,” a table brimming with several kinds of cereal, coffee, and pastries was also available to all audience members.

The club was founded after Herrmann posted on the Astoria subreddit asking if anyone would like to watch horror movies at a bar. He was itching to expand his social circle as lockdown restrictions eased up. Though other meet-ups existed, they felt less personal.  His post gained over 100 comments, with people offering to volunteer time and venues right away. Even in record-low temperatures, the event brought out about two dozen people.

“It’s a niche right? Not everybody likes horror, but the people who like it typically love it,” Herrmann said. “We have a pretty strong queer community at the horror club community, and I think that has something to do with feeling misunderstood, out of place, different. I think that horror speaks to that.”

Outdoor screenings at Astoria’s Heart of Gold bar have produced such enticing laughter that non-horror buffs have converted. “We’ve also had people who’ve come, who said that they came even though they don’t like horror because they could hear us,” Snow added. “They’re like, ‘They’re having fun. I want to go have fun.’ And now they’re regulars.”

The first movie followed teenager Melody after the supposed death of her boyfriend Eric in a mysterious fire. The Valentine’s Day tie-in? While Eric is revealed to be alive and taking revenge against those responsible for his death, Melody is falling in love with Peter, the reporter investigating it. Chatter among attendees and commentary from a Liverpool match being played in the main bar spilled into the movie room. But the sound of the speakers soon drowned it out as the undead Eric took the life of his first victim. The sweet smell of nutella crepes, one viewer’s choice for brunch, accompanied the death scene .

Overall, the movie provoked more laughs than scares. The first time Eric took off his mask, an audience member jeered, “Leave it on!” The crowd responded with a collective “Ew” at Melody and Peter’s celebratory kiss at the end, after Eric and all other villains had been eliminated.

“Horror isn’t the first genre people associate with Valentine’s Day, but there are a lot of great horror movies that deal with romance, love, affection, loss of a loved one,” Herrmann said.

Married couple Mary Snow and Tom Herrmann bonded over their shared love of horror films. Photos by Maryam Rahaman.

Snow and Hermann themselves bonded over a Halloween theater reboot early in their relationship. The pair got married on Friday the 13th, in a wedding that included  references to slasher films.

On Sunday, Blaxploitation film “Sugar Hill,” followed the previous slasher. The main character Diana took vengeance against her fiancé’s killers with the help of a voodoo priestess. Unlike the bursting laughter the first film generated, the vibe during the second was more subdued. Nightmare Sisters,” a B-movie Herrmann described as “barely a movie” was the third and final edition of the screening.

Snow emphasized that Horror Club is a community space “open to everybody,” but that one of three main rules is to “let people watch the film.” Viewers are free to joke around during more fun films, but should be more respectful during serious ones. Viewers must also be good guests to the venues hosting, and are expected to hang out and talk to someone new every time. Though the last isn’t a hard-and-fast rule.

To learn more,  check out @astoriahorrorclub on Instagram. All Horror Clubs events are totally free, but the couple also hosts low-cost screenings under the banner Zero Vision Cinema to access venues with better facilities and to promote local artists and films.

In the upcoming weeks, Snow hopes that the group can contribute to community organizing. Currently, the pair is working on pairing with groups organizing against ICE. After Trump was inaugurated, they said they felt a sense of “hopelessness” in the community. As many movie theaters are struggling, the Astoria Horror Club hopes the bonds created laughing, screaming and crying together at screenings can offer some respite.

“We believe in the community of cinema,” Herrmann said. “To be able to create spaces where people can come together with a common interest in horror and be able to just interact with strangers or people they might not super well is a really great thing we can give to the community. And we feel very lucky to have such an excellent community around us.”

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