New York Magazine – July 08, 2019

42 new york | july 8–21, 2019

eating outside

Before there was

cake and cookies on

top of milkshakes,

there was pie on sticks.

Not just any old pie but

Steve’s Authentic Key-

lime pie—a carefully

calibrated mix of egg

yolks, condensed milk,

and freshly squeezed

lime juice on a graham-

cracker crust that plays

out on your palate like

a sweet-tart Ping-Pong

match. One day, the

brains behind Steve’s,

a visionary named

Steve Tarpin, got the

notion to skewer a

mini-pie with a

Popsicle stick, dip it in

chocolate, and put it in

the freezer, thereby

creating something so

delightfully weird and

absurdly delicious it

should be declared a

national treasure.

Tarpin called it a

Swingle after Walter

Tennyson Swingle, a

not-so-famous citrus-

obsessed American

botanist. You can find

Steve’s pies in a

number of stores and

restaurants, but you

can score a Swingle

only at Steve’s

headquarters in a

former warehouse on

the Red Hook

waterfront. Getting

there from the subway

is a serious stroll but

part of the fun. So is

eating your Swingle

outside the bakeshop

at the adjacent Louis

Valentino Jr. Park and

Pier with the breeze

blowing up off the

water, the waves

gently lapping the

shore, and, as you

squint your eyes

upward, the sun

looking not unlike a

giant Steve’s Key-lime

pie in the sky.

RANDAZZO’S SPEAKS ITALIAN with a Brooklyn accent, so calamari is “gala-

mah,” as the servers’ T-shirts proclaim. And though some may say the special

sauce at this venerable clam bar is, indeed, its special

sauce—a high-octane tomato gravy that comes in hot or

medium and vastly improves everything it comes in con-

tact with, galamah included—a meal here derives as

much flavor from the proximity of Sheepshead Bay

across Emmons Avenue. You can catch a glimpse of the waterway from the

picnic tables that flank the building, but for the full effect, take a stroll across

the Ocean Avenue footbridge to Manhattan Beach and observe the flocks of

South Brooklyn geese, swans, ducks, and pigeons stake their aquatic turf.

RANDAZZO'S CLAM BAR

2017 Emmons Ave.,

at E. 21st St., Sheepshead

Bay; 718-615-0010

FRIED CALAMARI

AT A COASTAL CLAM BAR

CEVAPI

With a View

of the Chrysler

Building

FRIED CLAMS and raw oysters.

Lobster rolls and fish burgers.

Maybe a nice zuppa di pesce. That’s

the stuff you’re supposed to eat

when dining alfresco along the

waterfront, as if the seafood you’re

swallowing had been only moments

ago splashing happily about in the

very water you’re gawping at. But

Anable Basin Sailing Bar and Grill,

a laid-back, picnic-tabled, under-

the-radar Shangri-la named for its

location at the mouth of the Long

Island City industrial inlet, is a red-

meat kind of place. The things you

eat here are grilled kielbasa, skirt

steak, chorizo, and especially cev-

api—rustic Bosnian beef-and-lamb

sausages the size of cocktail franks

shoved into a pita pocket with raw

onion and the red-pepper relish ajvar

on the side. Pair it with a dry white

Zilavka or a medium-bodied Blatina,

both from Bosnia and Herzegovina,

to keep the Balkan theme going.

ANABLE BASIN SAILING

BAR AND GRILL

4-40 44th Dr., Long Island City

646-327-1058

PIE ON

A STICK

on a Pier

STEVE’S AUTHENTIC KEY LIME PIES

185 Van Dyke St., nr. Van Brunt St.,

Red Hook; 718-858-5333

QUEENS

NIGHT

MARKET

A Little Bit

of Everything at

Five years in, this Saturday-

night food fair has established

itself as a bona fide rite of

summer in the city, like the

Coney Island Mermaid Parade

or Shakespeare in the Park.

Thanks to the vision of founder

John Wang, who wanted to

conjure the excitement and

abundance of Taiwanese night

markets in New York’s most

diverse borough, there is now

not only a Queens Night

Market but copycats in Jersey

City and the Bronx. Queens is

still the one to beat, though, on

account of the serene setting

(behind the Hall of Science in

Flushing Meadows–Corona

Park), the crowd (diverse in

age and ethnicity), and

especially the food—a belt-

loosening lineup that ranges

from favorites Burmese Bites

and Joon Persian rice cups to

hopeful newcomers like Berg’s

Pastrami, which smokes its

own meat and slings first-rate

half-sandwiches on Tom Cat

Bakery rye. While it’s true that

many vendors display a street-

fair-ish predilection for frying

(Puerto Rican rellenos de

papa, Czech langosh,

Taiwanese popcorn chicken,

Twisted Potato’s spiralized

spuds), everything tastes great.

And the market’s distinctive

atmosphere derives as much

from the magical transition

from day to night—enhanced

by live music, beer and wine,

and actual grassy hills

seemingly devised by nature

for lounging—as from the

juxtaposition of Moldovan

cheese doughnuts, Syrian

kibbeh, and Filipino halo-halo.

47-01 111th St., Corona

queensnightmarket.com

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