Sunday, April 11, 2010

Studio Square

Recently I went out with some friends to Studio Square, the new beer garden on the Astoria/LIC border. Its name is derived from its location since it's situated in the heart of that Hollywood in Queens, the Kaufman Astoria/Museum of the Moving Image area.

When this place opened last year, it caused some kerfuffle. After all, it was rather ballsy to open up a new, similar sized beer garden not too far from the original Bohemian Hall in the heart of Astoria.

But the two are quite different. Bohemian Hall is funky and ethnic, Studio Square is sleek and pretty. Bohemian Hall doesn't have much of an indoor area while roughly half of Studio Square is indoors in a vast space. Bohemian Hall serves lots of ethnic food along with its burgers and chicken sandwiches while Studio Square serves sushi and nachos along with its burgers and nachos. Plus, at SS, you can get drinks like Sangria which I don't believe Bohemian Hall has.

Studio Square is more yuppie, Bohemian Hall is more blue-collar.

There are things about Studio Square that were clearly designed to make it more "user-friendly."


For example, Studio Square is located between a couple of buildings and is behind high walls so the wind is kept to a minimum. Also, they have wonderfully long tables so lots and lots of people can easily congregate and not have to split up. And Studio Square has very easy to find bathrooms.

While I'll admit that my heart belongs to its forerunner, Studio Square holds its down quite nicely. You don't quite get the richness and sense of community at Studio Square that you get at Bohemian Hall but Studio Square is a place that I'll happily go back to sometime if I get the chance.

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