NYC NOW - May 24, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Rockaway Beach will officially reopen this Memorial Day weekend with restricted access to certain areas as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shores up the peninsula’s coastline. Meanwhile, Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway is standing by an agreement to provide more support for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students to end pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. Finally, Astoria, Queens was once the destination for Greeks moving to the U.S., evident in the many Greek eateries across the neighborhood. But the area has changed significantly. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with chef and food writer Farideh Sadeghin, who visited Astoria to explore its food scene.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, May 24th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Rockaway Beach is officially reopening this Memorial Day weekend, but the summer fun will come with some restrictions. Up to 15 blocks to the beach will stay off limits on a rolling basis, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shores up the peninsula's coastline. City Park Commissioner Sue Donahue says the closure should not get in the way of beachgoers fun.

The busiest parts of our beaches will be very much open and available and not impacted by the Army Corps work. The closures will begin westward at Beach 116th Street and move eastward from Beach 143rd Street. The president of Rutgers University is standing by, agreement this school struck this month with student protesters to end pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. His Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway appearing before Congress yesterday addressing the protests and anti-Semitism. We made a choice. That choice was to engage our students through dialogue as a first option instead of police action. We had seen what transpired at other universities and sought a different way. To end the encampens, Rutgers agreed to provide more support for

Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, but not to divest from Israel. Lawmakers then criticized Holloway for not doing more to engage Jewish faculty and to address complaints of anti-Semitism on campus back in December. Leaders from both UCLA and Northwestern universities also addressed Congress. 82, now with some sunshine, much lower humidity than this morning, mostly sunny and 87 for a high day, and then tomorrow and Sunday, sunshine and low Stay close. There's more after the break. On WN.N.M.C. I'm Sean Carlson. Astoria Queens was the place for Greeks who moved from their homeland to the U.S. decades ago. And you can see that in the number of Greek eateries across the neighborhood. But the neighborhood has changed quite a bit.

So joining us now is chef and food writer Faraday Sadigan, who's been bringing us stories of this. the city through food and culture. Her most recent stop was Astoria. So Faraday, for someone who has not been to the neighborhood before, can you just describe what Astoria is like? Yeah, so Astoria is really, it's quite diverse. That's a huge population of Greeks there and there's tons of murals on the walls, Greek flags kind of waving everywhere, but there's also a lot of diversity. There's huge population of Egyptians and Colombians as well. Astoria like we've been talking about was home to a large population of Greek immigrants starting in about the 1960s. Can you tell us more about their history in the neighborhood? Yeah, they really began arriving to the United States in the late 1800s and early

1900s. The 1960s was when a really big wave kind of settled in Astoria. And then the New York metropolitan area has really become the largest population of Greeks outside of Greece. Yeah, is there still a large Greek community in Astoria? There is. There is definitely, I mean, listen, a lot of the people who live there that I spoke to have said that things have kind of changed and a lot of different communities have moved into the neighborhood, but they're still there and thriving, and it's worth going and checking it all out because it's delicious. It's delicious food. Yeah, let's talk more about that. You tried several places selling suvlocchi, which, for folks who may not be familiar with it, it's Greek fast food containing small pieces of

meat on a skewer. One of those places is the famous Suvlockly lady on the corner of 33rd Street and Dittmar's Boulevard. The owner, Elpida Vassiladas, moved from the U.S. from Greece about 43 years ago. This is what she said. time it used to be a creek neighborhood, just creek neighborhood. So people used to like it. And after this gentleman wanted to sell it because he had old, because we lived in this block, we decided to carry it with my husband. So Faraday, can you tell us more about the origin of the name and what you actually ate there? Yeah. So she actually decided to take over the stand And because it was on the same block as we know where she was living with her family,

she never quite named it. And everyone just referred to her as the suvlocki lady. And the name just, it stuck. So now, you know, people know when you're saying the suvlocchi lady, that's what you're talking about is El Pida. We ordered the pork suvlocchi there. And it comes on a stick with like a piece of bread on the end of it. And she calls her famous.

And it is really good, this mayo based suvlocky lady sauce where I try to ask her what was in it and she would not tell me at all. And it's worth going there just for that sauce. It was delicious. There's many suvlocky stands over there. But another one that I was really into that I heard about from rapper Action Bronson is called Christos Suvlocky stand. And there I got a chicken suvlocki sandwich, which was also amazing. So it comes wrapped in a pita with pieces of chicken, tomato, lettuce, onion, and then his sauce and some lemon over the top. And that was also really delicious. So on a stick or in pita, you have to get suvaki for over in Astoria. And folks who may not be familiar with Action Bronson, he knows his food. So if he gives a

recommendation, I would suggest that people take him up on that suggestion. Faraday, I'm from New Jersey, so I feel like this is like bringing me back here. New York and New Jersey are famous for their diner culture. Many of those diners were started by Greek families. So you went to a famous diner in Astoria. It's the Neptune diner. Can you tell us about your visit there? Yeah. So it's so funny because I love diners. And I never put two and two together, though, that they were predominantly Greek-owned, even though it's like right there in front of you, most of the names of these places are named after Greeks gods and goddesses, like Neptune diner. And then there's always Greek food on the menu. And like, one of my things I always get

is I like to get mozzarella sticks for the table. I'm always with one of my friends and we always split a club sandwich and a Greek salad. So that's what I got at Neptune. It was a Greek salad and a coffee and just sat at the bar or whatever. And the Greek salad was delicious. Now, fish is a big part of the Greek diet, right? Can you tell us more about the seafood places you visited? Yeah. I mean, there's kind of a lot of seafood options on many of the restaurants. Telly's taverna was really delicious. And it was opened in 1990 by Joanna, they call her Nana Loissel. And it's now run by her daughter, Diana. And it was one of the first restaurants to really bring fresh whole fish to Astoria, you walk into the restaurant and there's a display case, a fresh seafood, and whole fish

all on ice. And, you know, we sat outside and ordered a whole snapper and they kind of debone it at the table for you, which was really cool. And then there's also Astoria seafood. And it's a really interesting system. You walk in and in the back, there's all the seafood and you kind of get plastic bags and fill up bags with what you would like to order or what you like to have cooked. It's all raw. and then you get back in line with your bag of seafood, they weigh it for you and ask you how you'd like it cooked and then you pay. Faraday Sadigan reports on food and culture for WDYC and Gothamist. You can read more about her visit to Astoria right now over at our news website, Gothamist. Faraday, thanks so much, as always.

Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.