SUNNYSIDE — More than a dozen restaurants in Sunnyside will be offering dining specials next month for the neighborhood's first ever restaurant week, which will also bring temporary art installations to four of the participating eateries.
The Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District is teaming up with art nonprofit No Longer Empty for the promotion, which is aiming to showcase the neighborhood as a destination for food, dining and culture.
"There are so many creative people who live in Sunnyside, but there are so few arts institutions — there aren’t galleries and museums like there are in Long Island City and other neighborhoods in Queens," said Sunnyside Shines director Rachel Thieme.
She said they decided to work with what the neighborhood does have — great restaurants.
From Nov. 4 to 8, more than a dozen restaurants in the neighborhood will have special three-course dinner menus available for $25, while a half dozen will also have two-course lunch menus for $10.
The offerings will include kebabs at Turkish Grill, classic Italian fare at Mario's and shepherd's pie from Molly Blooms, among others.
"It really showcases the culinary diversity in the neighborhood," Thieme said.
Meanwhile, No Longer Empty — the same group that turned a vacant Long Island City bank into an art gallery last year — will be present "Conveying the Invisible," with site-specific art installations at four Sunnyside restaurants.
The works will include a video animation by Erika Harrsch at Thai restaurant Nodus, and a neon light installation staged on top of a funeral car, which will be parked outside of PJ Horgan’s Pub, and a live-painting performance by artist Simonetta Moro in the window of Molingo restaurant on Nov. 4.
Also that day, Italian artist Carlo Steiner will bake wafer butterflies at Venturo and will then display the butterflies around the restaurant.
The art installations will be on display for two weeks, from Nov. 4 to 16. More information can be found here.
