By Mark Hallum
The Bayside Village BID will hold its first “Bell Blvd. Food & Music Fest” in an effort to bring all the best tastes along the corridor out into the street to mix with a variety of other fun activities.
Christine Silletti, the executive director of the Business Improvement District, is finishing her first year at the helm of the organization by helping to create the festival, which brings in Bell Boulevard’s restaurants as well as the bars and pubs for the over-21 crowd.
“We have amazing restaurants on Bell. They’re all quality places to eat and it’s a really diverse offer of cuisines,” Silletti said. “We had some really great events over the past year, but we hadn’t really had anything our bars and pubs could participate in, so we worked with [Community Board 11] and a couple of city agencies so we could get permitting so that our bars as well as our restaurants could participate.”
The Sunday, June 3, event will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The portion of the day of most interest to the foodies in the crowd will kick off at 2 p.m.
Every block will feature live music, according to Sillitti, but perhaps the most interesting draw is what she refers to as the “pop-up park,” a large square of fresh sod which will be placed in the street where people can relax and play a few games of beach volleyball.
Altogether 30 businesses within the confines of the BID will be participating alongside New Golden Wine & Liquor, located at 41-08 Bell Blvd.
Free salsa dance classes will be held on the street with instructors and dancers from Queens Dance Project, located on Bell and 41st Avenue.
“There are events for the community, in addition to the restaurant stroll. If people don’t want to do the restaurant stroll, there are still plenty of fun things to do here on that day,” Silletti said.
Some of the newer eating establishments will flaunt their culinary skills during the event such as, Taverna Kyclades, which most recently opened up at 39-28 Bell Blvd.; Fishscale at 38-17 Bell Blvd.; Bayside Dumpling at 42-18 Bell Blvd.; and the Crown Room at 39-17 Bell Blvd.
Bell Boulevard will be closed off to cars from 38th to 42rd avenues. Attendees can check in to the event at 42nd and 43rd avenues.
Advanced tickets purchased through www.baysi
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
