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Celebrate Thanksgiving in Rudolph Valentino's Mansion

Filed under: Dining

Celebrate Thanksgiving at Valentino's on the Green.

Valentino's on the Green, the Bayside, New York (Queens) home of Rudolph Valentino, the legendary silent film star, will celebrate Thanksgiving with a special prix fixe menu on November 25th.

The three-course prix fix menu will include a choice of appetizer (such as pumpkin and butternut squash soup) and a choice of entree (ranging from traditional turkey and sausage stuffing to stuffed loin of pork, sliced fliet mignon and homemade ravioli). Dessert choices include a pumpkin-ricotta cheesecake and New York state apple and cranberry crisp. The cost is $44.50 per person. The Italian restaurant will also offer a children's menu that includes dessert and a choice of entrees ranging from penne pasta to turkey with mashed potatoes and chicken fingers. The children's menu is priced at $19.50.

Gallery: Valentino's on the Green

The mansion, which is located in Bayside, Queens, has undergone a multi-million dollar, interior and exterior restoration. With a golf course view, flanked by an elegant patio, garden, and pond, the 170-seat ground floor a la carte restaurant features the Fiorello Room a dining room tribute to another former resident, the late New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. The restaurant's Valentino Room is a red velvet and mahogany-rich hideaway, which includes a bar and grand fireplace. A wine wall with the restaurant's world-class selection gracefully separates the two larger ground level spaces. The second floor of the mansion features a 230-seat banquet space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Throgs Neck Bridge and Little Neck Bay and offers a behind-the-scenes bridal suite that was once the bedroom of Valentino himself.

Tags: awards-main, Bayside, luxist-awards, New York, Queens, restaurant, Rudolph Valentino, thanksgiving, thanksgiving dinner, Valentinos

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New York City's Urban Vineyard

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

New York City has its own urban winery with a vineyard. The Queens County Farm Museum Winery opened in May in the Floral Park neighborhood of Queens, New York. Wines and Vines reports that the Queens County Farm Museum is a working historical farm located on 47 acres. Its history dates back to 1697 and it is New York City's largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland and the only working historical farm in the City. It's also the longest continuously farmed site in New York State. The site includes farm buildings, a greenhouse complex, livestock, farm vehicles. planting fields, an orchard and an herb garden. It is open for tours and also hold events including the Dinner on the Farm series.

The vineyard project has been years in the making. Back in 2004 the first phase of the project began with the planting of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc grapes. Gary Mitchell, the farm museum's vineyard manager, did some training in the University of California, Davis's famous oenological program to learn how to grow the grapes and later pulled out the Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon leaving about 1.5 acres of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Grapes at the farm museum are sent to the Premium Wine Group in Mattituck for processing. This spring saw the release of a 2006 and 2007 Merlot, a 2007 and 2008 Chardonnay, and a 2006 Adriance, a premium red wine blend named for the Dutch family that first farmed the museum's land. Prices range from $21 to $29 a bottle. You can only get this wine at the winery shop at the museum. Eventually Mitchell would like to plant more acres to grow this unique enterprise.

Tags: cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, merlot, new york city, queens, queens county farm, urban winery

Sky View Parc, Flashy Comes To Flushing

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

The Flushing, Queens area of New York is getting a bunch of high-end condominiums. The Sky View Parc will include three towers so far and the plans of developer Jason Muss call for six towers total with 1,100 homes. The bottom floors will be given over to a mall's worth of retail space which may end up including large chains such as Traget, Home Depot, Staples and Bed, Bath and Beyond. The complex is across from Citi Field, the new home to the Mets as of 2009. The first condos went on sale last month and sell are priced between $395,000 and more than $2 million. The developer reports that of the first 160 apartments, more than 50 have been sold. Move-in is scheduled for July 2009.

[via AMNY]

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Tags: condominiums, flushing, queens, sky view parc, SkyViewParc

Maison Tropicale Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

I'm late to the party on this one, various bloggers have called attention to the upcoming auction of Maison Tropicale, a unique structure currently sitting on stilts under the Queens side of the Queensboro Bridge. The Maison Tropicale was built in 1951 by French designer Jean Prouvè and was built in Brazzaville, the capital of Belgian Congo. The house was originally shipped overseas in giant containers. Now the piece is up for sale along with with other pieces of 20th century art on June 5 at Christie's New York.

Viewing of the house is going on May 17 through June 4 at Silvercup West. The Maison has no plumbing and is wired for electricity. It ships in six containers and measures 59-foot-by-32-foot–by-16-foot-tall. It has a double aluminum roof and two internal steel axial porticos with four walls comprised of aluminum facade panels, some pieced with blue glass portholes. The estimate for the house is between $4 million and $6 million.

[via Queens Tribune]

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Tags: christies, jean prouve, maison tropicale, MaisonTropicale, new york, NewYork, queens