Legend of Taste

[MitchW]

On Utopia Parkway, in Whitestone, Queens.  Survivor of pandemic. Still quite good.  And across the street from one of the better bagels in NYC - at Utopia Bagels.

I never had heard of this little neighborhood called Malba, which sits basically adjacent/under the Whitestone Bridge.  It's kinda insane. With houses that look like this...

Yes, that's a running fountain in the "courtyard."  And there are like 6 garages.

Edited September 16, 2023 by MitchW

[splinky]

20 minutes ago, MitchW said:

On Utopia Parkway, in Whitestone, Queens.  Survivor of pandemic. Still quite good.  And across the street from one of the better bagels in NYC - at Utopia Bagels.

I never had heard of this little neighborhood called Malba, which sits basically adjacent/under the Whitestone Bridge.  It's kinda insane. With houses that look like this...

Yes, that's a running fountain in the "courtyard."  And there are like 6 garages.

Um, the first rule of Malba is you do not talk about Malba

[MitchW]

1 hour ago, splinky said:

Um, the first rule of Malba is you do not talk about Malba

Funny that you say that. As we were driving around, I got the distinct feeling that we weren't wholeheartedly welcome.

[Sneakeater]

A college friend lived in Malba.

His parents' house didn't look like that.

[splinky]

1 hour ago, MitchW said:

Funny that you say that. As we were driving around, I got the distinct feeling that we weren't wholeheartedly welcome.

when i was a kid, my father used to drive me around places like that to show where i should never expect to be allowed to live. interestingly, most of these places were located quite near to military bases where he had official business. douglas manor where andy cuomo lived is another special place but so was every neighborhood the cuomos lived even though their family business was in south jamaica after many of the restrictive covenants were removed from that neighborhood. william shea famously of shea & gould and the stadium lived in malba.

Edited September 16, 2023 by splinky

[SethG]

1 hour ago, MitchW said:

Funny that you say that. As we were driving around, I got the distinct feeling that we weren't wholeheartedly welcome.

Malba, not historically the most welcoming community. Though I imagine today’s residents don’t say the quiet parts out loud so much. 

[small h]

Wow. That is...something.

[splinky]

4 hours ago, MitchW said:

On Utopia Parkway, in Whitestone, Queens.  Survivor of pandemic. Still quite good.  And across the street from one of the better bagels in NYC - at Utopia Bagels.

I never had heard of this little neighborhood called Malba, which sits basically adjacent/under the Whitestone Bridge.  It's kinda insane. With houses that look like this...

Yes, that's a running fountain in the "courtyard."  And there are like 6 garages.

what's the style of food? is it like the old places that used to be on union turnpike and horace harding?

[MitchW]

1 hour ago, Sneakeater said:

A college friend lived in Malba.

His parents' house didn't look like that.

His parent's house was most likely torn down and rebuilt in the McMansion style.  We only saw a few of what appeared to look like "original" homes.

15 minutes ago, splinky said:

what's the style of food? is it like the old places that used to be on union turnpike and horace harding?

It's quite Szechuan. I am not familiar with the Union Tpke/Horace Harding area's old restos, growing up in lesser Forest Hills as I did.

[Orik]

2 hours ago, SethG said:

Malba, not historically the most welcoming community. Though I imagine today’s residents don’t say the quiet parts out loud so much. 

A less kosher Seagate. 

I recently learned of the magical micro-neighborhood of The Hole. Apparently being quite rapidly purchased for redevelopment. 

[Sneakeater]

I spent a few hours walking around The Hole ten or 15 years ago.

It was . . . interesting.

I didn't know (I mean, I guess I knew, but I didn't know, if you know what I mean) that there was such brute governmental neglect in New York City.

 

[splinky]

1 hour ago, MitchW said:

His parent's house was most likely torn down and rebuilt in the McMansion style.  We only saw a few of what appeared to look like "original" homes.

It's quite Szechuan. I am not familiar with the Union Tpke/Horace Harding area's old restos, growing up in lesser Forest Hills as I did.

Then, no. The Union Tpke/Horace Harding places were Cantonese style with the odd tiki bar thrown in. The kinds of places that Jason Perlow was always talking about. 

[MitchW]

1 hour ago, Sneakeater said:

I spent a few hours walking around The Hole ten or 15 years ago.

It was . . . interesting.

I didn't know (I mean, I guess I knew, but I didn't know, if you know what I mean) that there was such brute governmental neglect in New York City.

 

Were you looking for bodies?

[Anthony Bonner]

4 hours ago, SethG said:

Malba, not historically the most welcoming community. Though I imagine today’s residents don’t say the quiet parts out loud so much. 

They do. Just maybe not to the times.

[Sneakeater]

1 hour ago, MitchW said:

Were you looking for bodies?

I read something somewhere about how totally derelict it was, and I had to see for myself.

[Diancecht]

3 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I spent a few hours walking around The Hole ten or 15 years ago.

It was . . . interesting.

I didn't know (I mean, I guess I knew, but I didn't know, if you know what I mean) that there was such brute governmental neglect in New York City.

 

in another life - well, it seems like it was - i was a land use/real estate paralegal for a prominent nyc firm and some of the research projects i had were enlightening, like the trolley services that were still in use in brooklyn until the mid-1950s.

[Sneakeater]

When I first moved to Prospect Heights, you could still see the trolley tracks around Grand Army Plaza!

Edited September 16, 2023 by Sneakeater

[MitchW]

5 hours ago, Orik said:

I recently learned of the magical micro-neighborhood of The Hole. Apparently being quite rapidly purchased for redevelopment. 

They're gonna need a lot of fill!!  And sink those supports really deep.

[MitchW]

Actually, there is a shopping center there...

They were nice enough to keep the remaining bodies out across the street from the back of the stores.

[SethG]

7 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I spent a few hours walking around The Hole ten or 15 years ago.

It was . . . interesting.

I didn't know (I mean, I guess I knew, but I didn't know, if you know what I mean) that there was such brute governmental neglect in New York City.

 

Though it’s technically just outside The Hole (so, The Rim I guess?) I’ve been wanting to visit the Lindenwood Diner, just because I have an obsession with stand-alone diners and give major bonus points for populuxe space-age 60’s design. I just haven’t convinced anyone to join me at the ends of the earth for Hpnotiq Hurricanes and Cajun Shrimp Mac n’ Cheese yet. 

 

[MitchW]

8 hours ago, SethG said:

Though it’s technically just outside The Hole (so, The Rim I guess?) I’ve been wanting to visit the Lindenwood Diner, just because I have an obsession with stand-alone diners and give major bonus points for populuxe space-age 60’s design. I just haven’t convinced anyone to join me at the ends of the earth for Hpnotiq Hurricanes and Cajun Shrimp Mac n’ Cheese yet. 

I like this idea!

Lindenwood Diner

Quote

 

Plate after plate of Cajun crab legs (the diner’s biggest seller, at upward of 1,000 pounds a week) emerged from the kitchen, along with mofongo, shrimp enchilado and jambalaya — dishes that have found their way to the menu as African-Americans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans have moved in, replacing working-class Italians and Jews.

Historically, the diner was a hangout for both the police of the 75th Precinct and the mobsters with whom they tangled.

More recently, it has featured prominently in other violent story lines. When a 24-year-old graduate student, Imette Carmella St. Guillen, was brutally murdered in 2006, her dumped body was reported from a pay phone outside the diner.

 

 

[small h]

I would go there. I love diners. And crab legs.

[MitchW]

2 minutes ago, small h said:

I would go there. I love diners. And crab legs.

What about murders?

[small h]

Everybody loves murders.

[AaronS]

there’s a short thing about the hole on vimeo that has some really surreal footage of urban cowboys riding around the hole. I can’t get my friends to go see it either.