By Bill Parry
Long Island City’s newest waterfront park is about to get a new upscale outdoor cafe next week.
LIC Landing by Coffeed is set to open in a kiosk next to the East River Ferry Terminal, and it has plans that go way beyond basic food service.
“What we have here is incredible, the jewel of the waterfront,” Coffeed Chief Executive Frank Raffaele said. “It’s the neighborhood’s front lawn and we have to do everything we can to take care of it.”
LIC Landing will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.
“We’ll start with coffee, bagels and breakfast sandwiches for the ferry commuters and for lunch and dinner we’ll offer salads, great burgers and hot entrees,” Raffaele said, adding that beer and wine will also be served.
Around 3 percent of the gross revenue will go to Friends of Hunters Point South Park, a conservancy group that will look after the park’s upkeep and greenery.
“Look, we want to make money, but we also want to be stewards of the park,” Raffaele said.
Part of the concession agreement has Raffaele and his Coffeed partners administering a 2,000-square-foot concrete event space built right on the waterfront with stunning views of the Manhattan skyline. That space is available for public and private events like weddings, parties, fund-raisers, corporate events and photo and film shoots.
“When it’s not being rented, we’ll have music festivals and yoga classes and we’ll also make it available to community-based groups free of charge,” Raffaele said.
The Coffeed partners are civic-minded and place an emphasis lifting other area businesses.
“You could say we’re a Queens-centric venture,” Raffaele said.
Much of the produce will come from the Brooklyn Grange, the rooftop farm that sits atop the Standard Motor Parts Building, at 37-18 Northern Blvd., which is also home to the flagship Coffeed cafe.
LIC Landing will also offer items prepared at the Entrepreneur Space, the business incubator run by the Queens Economic Development Corp.
In addition, they will give a portion of the event space to the QEDC so it can run a Queens Tourism Council kiosk at the site.
“Two years ago we helped them apply for the concession, so I guess this is their payback,” said Rob McKay, the QEDC director of marketing and tourism, “Hunters Point South Park is one of the gateways to the borough now with all of the tourists who come off the ferry. We’ll push all of the cultural institutions, hotels and restaurants with fliers and coupons. We couldn’t be happier about the arrangement.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
