Forest Hills Street Fair

(This is one of those rare collaborative Edge of the City posts that both David and Drake worked on. Interested in becoming a contributor to Edge of the City? Email us at edgeofthecity@gmail.com ) 

David: Some scenes from today's Forest Hills Festival along Austin Street.  The weather couldn't be more perfect for it!  It ran from 10am to 6pm.

Drake: I am actually more impressed by these local street fairs each time I go. They used to be pretty indistinguishable from any of the other fairs around the city, with the food mostly dominated by your Italian sausage vendors. But each time I go, there seems to be more of a local spin, with more and more Forest Hills restaurants setting up stalls. Today, for example, I stumbled upon Cabana's stall and decided to give one of their chicken empanadas a try. I started walking away, took a few bites, stopped in my tracks as the pleasures that come from experiencing a delicious piece of food for the first time washed over me -- and immediately headed right back to their stall. I ordered a couple more empanadas and some delicious rice and beans. 
Just from this experience alone, I'm adding Cabana to my list of local recommended restaurants! 

Cabana dishes out their empanadas and other delicacies. This was my pick for the best food at today's Fair. 

More Cabana, which is located on Restaurant Row (70th Road) in Forest Hills. 

Food Trucks at MacDonald Park

So here I was thinking I came up with such a great idea - to park all the new food trucks that have been coming to Forest Hills around MacDonald Park and put that space to some better use. And then Sunday I stumble upon a Street Fair right there at the Park. Since when did they start having these around MacDonald Park instead of Austin Street anyway, and where was this even publicized? I didn't hear a word about it.

Anyway, this is exactly how I imagined the food trucks would look parked on those side streets near the Park and then people can eat in the park, putting it to some more varied use aside from only chess games and a meeting place for senior citizens!

Imagine this park, that is infrequently used by most residents because of its location, and its poorly-planned design, suddenly becoming a haven for all the delicious different food trucks that have been scattered elsewhere around the neighborhood? They could be located there all the time so people would know where to find them.

Since so many of the landlords on Austin Street—many of whom don't even live here, according to the 516 area codes I always see—continue to hold out with audacious rents that local businesses just aren't willing to pay, why continue to punish the residents of our neighborhood? There have been some storefronts that have been empty on Austin Street for several years!  Let's open this park to more food vendor options. It will give these landlords some real competition and maybe make them more likely to work with a young entrepreneur who wants to open a business in our neighborhood.

God knows, the lines at the new Empanadas truck that just started doing business in Forest Hills shows there is an enormous under-served demand for inexpensive yet delicious food in our neighborhood! When you couple that with the obscenity of all those empty small storefronts on Austin, especially down near Ascan, it makes one so frustrated about all the missed opportunity for this neighborhood when it comes to exciting new businesses that could be flourishing here.

This Sunday's Street Fair Pics

Just a few pics from this Sunday's street fair. I especially liked the coasters with the local Forest Hills Stadium themes. Click on the pic to make it bigger for more detail...

Austin Street Fair, er Festival, This Sunday

Actually, these street fairs—or festivals as the organizers like to call them—are becoming more interesting, and, yes, as the flyer below says, thanks to the little pop-up beer gardens and the stronger presence of some of the better local pubs and restaurants. These things used to be very generic, like every other street fair in the City. Ours increasingly has a more local flavor. It's worth checking out, especially considering that the dire forecasts of weather Armageddon are—surprise!—not going to pan out. Yes, no hurricanes, and no ten inches of rain. There might be a cloud, however.

Forest Hills Street Fair Pics

If you have any others you want me to post, email them to edgeofthecity@gmail.com

Noticeable at today's "Forest Hills Festival of the Arts," as they call it, was the participation of a large—and ever-growing—number of local bars and restaurants, and a much more interesting mix of vendors than what we used to see at these NYC street fairs. I had a couple of amazing empanadas, for instance, and have this very delicious looking high-end chocolate with sea salt doughnut awaiting me in my fridge. And the freshly-made strawberry lemonade wasn't so bad either...

Dare I say it? The Forest Hills Austin Street Fair is emerging as an event that I might actually just look forward to in the future. Does anyone know when the next one will be held?

Station House had a pop-up "beer garden"