Ale House next to Salvation Army on Steinway

[lizg1011]

Hey all! First time poster - moved to Astoria a few months ago with my boyfriend, and I'm really loving it. We live near 34th Ave and Steinway, and I recently noticed that the storefront next to the Salvation Army was being re-done, and now there's a sign up announcing some sort of ale house is going in there. I'm pumped because (aside from the beer garden of course), there aren't that many places down there to grab a quick beer. Anyone heard anything else about what is going in there?

[Chinaski]

Haven't heard anything about it, but as far as places to grab a quick beer, you might want to consider:

Sunswick (35 Ave and 35 St) and Cronin and Phelan's (Broadway & Steinway).  The Astor Room also has a pretty decent cocktail list if you're into that sort of thing.

[megc]

There's reason to believe it's going to be essentially a Hooters. More about this can be read here:

https://twitter.com/35thandkaufman

In short: "the email addy on the Bud's poster leads back to the parent company for Hooters Long Island."

[FoxyWiles]

Is Bud's a Hooters for small chested girls?

[KidMurdock]

There's reason to believe it's going to be essentially a Hooters. More about this can be read here:

https://twitter.com/35thandkaufman

In short: "the email addy on the Bud's poster leads back to the parent company for Hooters Long Island."

Strangely (actually not so strangely) LI's other Hooters knock off Canz seems to be doing well enough that I was turned away at the door on Friday, so it's not a stretch.
That said, if Strix wanted to knock off Hooters, why wouldn't they just open another actual Hooters franchise in that space? That logic just doesn't add up to me.

[alipasa]

i heard it's gonna be a Hooter's as well.  :( dumbing down of Atoria...look out Riviera... breeding ground right next door to you.

[FoxyWiles]

dumbing down of Atoria...

Was this intentional? Imma college graduate who is all LOL, son.

[KidMurdock]

i heard it's gonna be a Hooter's as well.  :( dumbing down of Atoria...look out Riviera... breeding ground right next door to you.

Again, if it was going to be a Hooters, why wouldn't they just put up a sign that said, "Looking for women with self esteem issues to work at Hooters." Why would they go to the trouble of even running "Bud's Ale House" signage, unless they wanted to be known as the master [of] bait and switch?

[megc]

Again, if it was going to be a Hooters, why wouldn't they just put up a sign that said, "Looking for women with self esteem issues to work at Hooters." Why would they go to the trouble of even running "Bud's Ale House" signage, unless they wanted to be known as the master [of] bait and switch?

I guess we'll just have to see!

[samisbewitched]

hey guys, we're opening tomorrow! come check us out, and then judge (nicely?)- it shouldn't be the other way around! (also, lols @ "is bud's a hooters for small-chested girls?")

[liddlemar]

anybody been? I want to know if they have food and if it's any good

[KidMurdock]

We stopped by yesterday, and they definitely have food, and what we had (mini corn dogs and fried pickles) was really good. Overall, it's a big sports bar, there's TV's everywhere, and the hostess told us that if there was any special game we wanted to watch they'd put it on for us. I think it would be a good place for NFL Sundays. The beer list is impressive and affordable - we were drinking strong craft beers and they were about $6 for a mug, and almost everything was available as pitchers. They have everyday specials - $5 margaritas and $6 pitchers of bud and bud light.
There's a lot to the place that definitely makes it feel like it's owned by the same company as Hooters, but it's much more laid back, and the waitstaff isn't just scantily clad women.
That said, both my wife and I were both impressed with the space, which is huge, and we both through it would be great for watching lots of sports over the course of a day - think NCAA tournament or any fall Sunday. I can definitely see myself going back.

[Minges14]

I went Friday night and was unimpressed by the food.  The wings were nothing special, pretty small for my standards.  I had the buffalo Chicken sandwich, which was a fried chicken cutlet covered in buffalo sauce that had no taste.  It was brought out with kettle chips that in my opinion were overdone.  My wife ordered a burger medim which came out well done.  They also brought the wrong order to our table twice before the correct meal finally came out.  The place seems nice and I'm sure on a Sunday for football it would be a good time.  May try it again in a few weeks to see if they were able to work out the kinks, although with the amount of time they were ready to open, waiting for permits from the city, they should have had a few more training classes for the employees. 

[hommeDC]

I too was unimpressed with the food and service. The place was nearly empty and we wanted to sit at a table in front of one of the big TVs for the game, but the hostess and waiter told us we couldn't sit there. They weren't really able to confidently tell me why either. So we sat at the bar and the bartenders were overly chatty with the patron next to us. I thought the wings were actually good, but the burgers were not great. Also, my beer was under carbonated and tasted overly funky.


On a positive note, the space is great and I'm sure once they pull it all together it will be a great game day destination. Give it some time.

[Philo-Junius]

I don't think service is an aspect of a place that gets better with time. Sometimes you're still learning food demand and such, but there's no excuse for a place to not offer incredible service from minute one.