#MonthlyPicks | What Does a Justice Advocate/Writer/Artist Love about Queens?

Jamie Maleszka-Tate is a proud daughter of Queens who lives with her husband and two cats in the same Astoria house where she grew up. A writer and poet, she’s also a passionate advocate for the arts, transformative justice, and dismantling the prison industrial complex. She currently serves as the Director of Creative Arts at The Fortune Society, a Long Island City-based nonprofit that supports successful reentry from incarceration and promote alternatives to incarceration.

Good Eats

The Astoria streets are teeming with tasty delights. From specialty shops like Mediterranean Foods to the artistic vision and home cooking of Kebab Café, you can cross continents from one block to the next. The no-frills Bund Dumpling House on Broadway boasts out-of-this-world soup dumplings that are guaranteed to change your life. King of Falafel & Shawarma Café packs a delicious punch with authentic Palestinian street food. Café Triskell appears unassuming on 36th Avenue, but singlehandedly has the borough’s best French toast and quiche. 

Just across the street is Chela & Garnacha, an ideal spot with friendly service, tall margaritas and killer tacos and snacks. It’s the spot where my husband and I ate on our first date. Don’t sleep on the flautas papa, crispy fried tacos stuffed with mashed potatoes, topped with guacamole, crema, queso and salsa, and the taco camarón adobado served with a disk of fried, bubbling cheese.

Hands down, Burger Club has the best smash burger and waffle fries around. It’s not pretentious in any way and portion sizes are solid. If your sweet tooth has a hankering, check out Cerasella for fine Italian pastries from owners who hail from Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Their pumpkin pie is a staple in our house each fall. If you are looking for scrumptious breakfast pastries, Bench Flour Bakers is the answer. Best advice: get there early! 

Wander Streets

My husband and I have a couple of favorite neighborhood walkabouts. Our top pick: Sauntering down 31st Avenue during Open Street with a chai latte from Balancero Coffee Shop, heading to Socrates Sculpture Park on the LIC waterfront. The outdoor park is one of the most unique places for community-engaged and accessible public art in the borough, and I’d argue in the city at large. It is also the home of The Fortune Society’s annual Arts Festival. The free, family-friendly event takes place in June every year to celebrate community, liberation, and healing through the arts. This year, we welcomed hundreds of visitors to experience hands-on art making, good food, and performances by more than 40 Fortune community members.  

Historic Feats

The people on Rikers Island are never far from my thoughts. As part of my work at The Fortune Society, my colleagues and I advocate for the closing of the jail complex located in the East River between the Bronx and Queens, in the shadow of LaGuardia Airport. 

The island’s name derives from Abraham Rycken, a Dutch immigrant who constructed a one-room, timber-and-fieldstone farmhouse on a roughly one-acre parcel in East Elmhurst that New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant had granted him in 1654. Over the years, his descendants anglicized their last name to Rikers and took ownership of the island just to the north of their mainland property. (Family members would use canoes to travel between the two properties.) Some advocates want to change the island’s name because 19th century Magistrate Richard Riker, a scion, abused the Fugitive Slave Act, sending and even selling free African Americans back to the south and jailing others without due process or a fair hearing.

Unique Treats

I grew up getting ice cream cones piled high with creamy soft serve vanilla ice cream polka dotted with rainbow sprinkles. My sister and I would join the gaggle of elated kids on our block as soon as we heard the Mister Softee truck jingle start to waft down the street. Thirty years and counting, the Mister Softee I grew up with — John — is still making kids cheer for ice cream three seasons out of the year. Most days, you can find him right outside the playground on 38th Street in Astoria between 31st Avenue and Broadway. It’s still the best ice cream cone in the neighborhood.