Lovely

'Quaint' is a subjective adjective, one signifying different properties based on personal experience. Doilies, picket fences, the Amish, an AOL account--each might be considered 'quaint' by different people. My jaded, stone-cold Brooklyn spirit predisposed to scoffing at attempted preciousness found in Quaint a disarmingly warm restaurant, living up to its name in ways I suspect it didn't intend. The food was fantastic: green gazpacho--complements of the chef!--is a refreshing kiss of seasonal sunshine on a rainy evening; the 'crispy, spicy' calamari is just that, with huge fully-connected tentacles that I oh-so-covet; and the chicken is, literally, the BEST chicken I've had in the city. Though the food and atmosphere are typical of any BoCoCa bistro, it's the unaffected simplicity that makes Quaint a Sunnyside stand-out. No artfully-distressed paint, no gimmicky mismatched chairs, no purposely-aloof-bordering-on-godawful service (in fact, it was almost too quick and attentive, but how dare I judge?). In short, a welcome reprieve from the Brooklyn restaurant scene that deposited my dining partner and I back on the Skillman Avenue satisfied and speculating on Queens rent prices. Thanks, Quaint, for a nice meal without 20% attitude included.

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Restaurants • Sunnyside/Woodside

Woodside Irish Deli

Diminutive but mighty, the Woodside Irish Deli crams a warehouse’s selection of Gaelic goods: frozen, fresh, canned, and concocted, into its snug corner glass-and-placard valance. Even those never setting foot in Kerry are long for Ireland and its culinary comfort food (really!) after gazing upon the variety of marrowfat peas and canned beans and tomato (Heinz, Batchelor’s, AND Branston!). The sausage-stuffed deli case overflows with stacks upon stacks of Donnelly’s white, black, and blood pudding, and Kerrygold butter and dairy products. Raw goods like brown bread flour and Flahavan’s Oats share shelving with Jammie Dodgers, Boland’s Biscuits, and McVities (English, but oh well) cookies. The hot counter serves full meal favorites (all under $8) like bangers and mash, Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, shepherd’s pie, curry or garlic and cheese chips, as well as full Irish breakfasts and home sausage rolls served all day every day for the late riser. Irish lasses commandeer the Cadbury and county shield-clad register and three pubs are within eyeshot of the sandwich board. One-stop shopping?

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Restaurants • Sunnyside/Woodside

Stray Vintage

Since the thrift-as-couture movement has long-since matured from the penny stock depths of the ‘90s zeitgeist into a ‘00s blue-chip cultural juggernaut, the term ‘vintage’ (however mutually exclusive) is often successfully co-opted to hock overpriced sentiments not befitting of the term (been to Cheap Jack’s in this decade?). While it’s doubtful that there’s an expensive crap-for-crap’s-sake movement coming (possible, though I wouldn’t buy stock in it), it’s great to see a shop with a well-groomed collection of well-priced, truly vintage items: excellent milk glass for under $20, decent rock and soul vinyl, handsome period (and in some cases, collector) picture frames, not to mention a small but smart selection of jackets/shirts. Great for a quick birthday gift or an empty shelf-filler. Moreover, Stray Vintage doubles as a consignment shop for photographer postcards, aroma-therapy oils, or whatever the owners (Dan & Tara) find interesting, be it from designers, or other collectors, at a very reasonable mark-up. Really, you’d usually have to go to the East Village to lose your shirt on a mint-condition 8mm projector. Here, you’re saved the trip and the bare-chested embarrassment.

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Shopping • Sunnyside/Woodside