Ridgewood, just across the Queens border, keeps becoming an extension of Bushwick, and we’ll leave it to you to figure out if that’s a good or bad thing. But it’s certainly going to be a lit place to party under the summer sun this year. First, the neighborhood is getting what’s being billed as NYC’s first pop-up beach bar: a 5,000-square foot lot that will be covered in 140 cubic yards of sand and outfitted with beach chairs, umbrellas, these things, volleyball courts, BYO food grilling stations and kiddie pools for cooling off, according to our colleagues at QNS.
On top of that, Mister Sunday, one of summer’s most popular (and longest reigning) outdoor dance parties, is moving to the neighborhood. QNS also reports the organizers of the weekly party are relocating from Industry City in Sunset Park to Nowadays, the new bar they opened last summer. That space is itself like a big swath of public park you can drink in, with picnic tables, games and grassy knolls for lounging. Is Ridgewood the new Rockaways?
That seems to be a little but of what the people behind the pop-up beach bar, called La Playa NYC, are going for.
“The idea is to bring a community together around the things we love about Rockaway, an accessible urban beach,” one of the owners told QNS. “The beer garden aspect creates an opportunity to share the camaraderie of the local farm brewers with a larger audience.”
The beer garden is a project by Long Island City’s Rockaway Brewing Company and will feature NYC breweries that support New York state-grown products. It’ll also feature a 100-yard-long wall for neighborhood artists to display their work, and all the sand will be trucked in from Long Island. It opens June 4 at 176 Woodward Ave., right on the border of Ridgewood and Bushwick.
Mister Sunday will come to Nowadays (56-06 Cooper Ave. in Ridgewood) weekly (on Sundays, obvs) on May 22 starting May 15, according to its website. It’s also adding a 10-week film series in conjunction with the Maysles Center, as well as a summer-long series where college professors from Olio teach classes on history, philosophy, anthropology and more, according to QNS.
All this is reminiscent of the halcyon aughts days of Williamsburg, the the time of McCarren pool parties and other pop-up fun among the industrial remnants of the neighborhood. Which means, of course: enjoy it while you can, Ridgewood.