QUEENS — Forest Hills suds lovers will no longer have to travel to Astoria and LIC's beer gardens because a similar open-air venue will soon open in their own neighborhood.
The owners of Cobblestones Pub, at 117-18 Queens Blvd., near 78th Avenue, decided to go ahead with their plan to turn the pub's 4,000-square-foot backyard into an outdoor space for beer enthusiasts, featuring picnic tables with benches, several TV screens and a selection of German beers, Pete Massaro, one of the owners, said Thursday.
“We are taking it as an opportunity to take Forest Hills back,” Massaro said. “Now everybody is traveling to Astoria, but we want to keep our Forest Hills people here and we want people from other neighborhoods to come to Forest Hills again.”
Massaro said the German-style beer garden, which will replace a basketball court in the back of the pub, will open sometime in late August or early September.
The menu in the garden, in addition to items offered inside the pub, will also include several German dishes, such as Bavarian pretzels, potato pancakes and bratwurst.
The owners, who are hoping to occasionally host live music on weekend afternoons, already installed a special sound absorbing fence around the venue, Massaro said.
The plan was backed by Community Board 6 which on Wednesday night approved the pub's “change in method of operation” application allowing the owners to operate both indoors and outdoors, according to Norman Leibowitz, chair of the CB6 consumer affairs committee.
“It will be very upscale” Massaro said about the beer garden. “There is nothing like this anywhere in this neighborhood.”
