✨ Business Spotlight: 🥊 You Hear the Bags Before You See Them — Meet Hardknox Astoria

🏛️ LIC's Amazon building could become a community arts & culture hub

🍽️ $26 for 2026: World Cup dining deals at 150+ Queens spots

👨‍🍳 Father's Day is Sunday — where to take Dad in Astoria

🎭 MoMI just opened a free tech lab in Astoria — and it opens with an AI robot dog

TUESDAY, JUNE 16

⚽  World Cup Fan Zone — USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows | Free (reserve tickets). France vs. Senegal at 3pm today! nynjfwc26.com/queens

WEDNESDAY–FRIDAY, JUNE 17–19

⚽  World Cup Fan Zone continues — USTA Billie Jean King, Flushing Meadows | Live music, international eats, match screenings. nynjfwc26.com/queens

SATURDAY, JUNE 20

⚽  World Cup Fan Zone — USTA Billie Jean King, Flushing Meadows

🏛️  WQCLT Fundraiser Potluck — Vernon Blvd & 44th Dr, LIC | 6pm. Bring a dish, meet the organizers behind the Queensboro People's Space. wqclt.org

SUNDAY, JUNE 21 — FATHER'S DAY 🎉

☀️  Summer Solstice & Opening Celebration: The 2026 Socrates Annual — Socrates Sculpture Park | 5pm–8:30pm. Free! DJ Christian Martir, Caridad de La Luz (La Bruja), art workshops & sunset paddle. Eventbrite

🌿  Astoria Farmers Market — 31st Ave (at 34th St) | Sundays, 8am–4pm through October. astoriafarmersmarket.com

🍽️  Father's Day Brunch & Dinner — All around Astoria! Mayahuel, Oliver's, Butcher Bar, Bohemian Hall, and more are celebrating. See our guide below.

🗓 Coming Up / Mark Your Calendar

June 23 — Primary Election Day! Early voting runs through Sunday June 21. Find your poll site

June 23–24 — Astoria Flea Market, Season 5 Opens! RSVP on Eventbrite for a chance at $100 in Flea Bucks.

June 25 — America! Come Together in Harmony — 7:30pm, Astoria Park Great Lawn. Free. Central Astoria LDC.

June 27 — Astoria Pool Opens! Free outdoor swimming, 11am–7pm daily. The largest public pool in NYC.

IYou hear the bags before you see them. You walk through the door and the energy is immediate but not aggressive. People are working. Really working. And somehow it still feels like the kind of place where someone's going to look up, smile, and say, "Hey, you new? You're gonna love this." That's Hardknox Astoria. A fitness and martial arts studio in Astoria that started in a park and turned into something much bigger.

The story starts with Bonafide Warhawk, the owner and head instructor. Years ago, Bonafide was running martial arts and fitness sessions out of parks across Queens, training at Equinox and New York Sports Club by day and building a loyal group of 10 or 11 people who would follow him from park to park. He always talked about wanting his own space, his own institution. What makes that dream remarkable is what he overcame to get here. When Bonafide was 14, he stepped in to help a childhood friend who was about to be jumped by a neighborhood gang. He was stabbed in the head. He lost one eye and most of the sight in the other. People told him to give up. He didn't. Today, he navigates the streets by sound, smell, and touch, and if you saw him do martial arts, you wouldn't believe what he's working with. He's been running Hardknox Astoria for three and a half years now.

The classes split into two lanes: contact and non-contact. The non-contact side is where most people start. Think 45-minute HIIT-based boxercise classes, full-body bag work, and a fitness program built like a fight camp. There's a room called the Park, an homage to where it all started, and another called the Pit, a circuit room with spin bikes, assault bikes, and bag work. The slogan is "Train like a fighter," but nobody's going to make you do anything you're not ready for. On the contact side, there's traditional boxing, Muay Thai, and self-defense classes that teach real situational awareness. Even in those classes, sparring is never forced. You move at your own pace, always. They also have a full kids program with the same structure and the same pricing as adults.

The numbers are straightforward. Everything runs on a credit system where one class equals one credit, and every class is open to you. A four-pack is $149, eight is $195, twelve is $240, and unlimited is $295. Same for kids and adults. If you want to test the waters first, they offer a $25 trial class, and if you sign up right after, that $25 rolls into your first month. So the trial is basically free if you stick around.

Hardknox Astoria is still growing, and they'll tell you that directly. People still walk by and say, "I never knew you guys were here." That's part of why they're so active in the neighborhood. Even if you never sign up, they'll know your name. That's just how they operate.

If you want to learn more, check out their website at https://www.hardknoxastoria.com/ or find them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hardknoxastoria/?hl=en and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hardknoxastoria/. Come for a class. Come for the energy. Aman, one of the team members behind the scenes, put it best: if Bonafide can build something this grand, so can you.

Hardknox Astoria is a place that proves what's possible when someone refuses to quit. That's a story worth knowing about, and it's right here in the neighborhood.

Everyone in Western Queens knows the massive six-story building at 44-36 Vernon Boulevard in LIC — the one where the Department of Education stores school buses and lunch supplies. Back in 2019, Amazon wanted to make it their headquarters. The community pushed back hard, and Amazon walked. Now, six years later, a grassroots group has a very different vision for the building — and it just might actually happen.

The Western Queens Community Land Trust (WQCLT) is proposing to transform the 561,000-square-foot Vernon Blvd building into the Queensboro People's Space: a permanently affordable, community-run hub of artist studios, manufacturing workshops, public kitchens, classrooms, gardens, food services, and low-cost medical care. The concept is built around keeping local artists, small manufacturers, and community organizations in the neighborhood — even as luxury towers keep rising all around them. The NYC Economic Development Corporation issued a Request for Information last year, and the WQCLT has responded. The next step is a city Request for Proposals.

The space would potentially host the Street Vendor Project, Hot Bread Kitchen, Hellgate Farm, ART House Astoria, 5Pointz, and Sunnyside Community Services — with a public kitchen on the ground floor, classrooms and a library on the fifth, and a rooftop farm up top. WQCLT member Hannah Berson put it plainly: "A city that is only housing units is not a city." Want to get involved? The WQCLT hosts a fundraiser potluck this Saturday, June 20 at 6pm at Vernon Blvd & 44th Dr in LIC.

👉 Read more: Queens Ledger

If you haven't figured out where you're watching the World Cup yet, here's a nudge: nearly 150 Queens restaurants and bars are now offering $26-for-2026 meal deals through the World Cup final on July 19. That's a prix-fixe meal, a drink special, a beverage-and-bite combo, or whatever the place decides — all for $26 as a nod to the tournament year.

The initiative is part of Mayor Mamdani's push to keep World Cup spending local, channeling some of the energy from the USTA Billie Jean King Fan Zone (just down the 7 train in Flushing) into Astoria kitchens, Jackson Heights bodegas, and LIC breweries. Nearly 600 businesses across all five boroughs have signed up citywide, with about 150 Queens locations participating.

Restaurant or bar owner who hasn't signed up yet? It's free and simple. Register at nyctourism.com/wc26toolkit and get your deal on the map before the group stage ends. The World Cup is here for five more weeks. Make sure your neighbors come to you.

👉 Read more: QNS

Father's Day is this Sunday, June 21, which means you've got until then to make a reservation somewhere that won't embarrass you. Good news: Astoria is stacked with great options for every kind of dad, from the craft beer devotee to the brunch skeptic to the guy who just wants a good steak and a quiet booth.

For the classic Dad experience, Butcher Bar is doing Father's Day brunch with $21.99 steak specials and breakfast platters with a mimosa, bloody mary, or draft beer. For something newer and more exciting, Mayahuel (just opened in Astoria) is serving elevated Mexican with a Tlaloc Old Fashioned made with mezcal and a Skirt Steak with Mole Amarillito that'll make Dad feel like he got taken somewhere genuinely special. Oliver's Astoria is running all-weekend Father's Day festivities with brunch staples and drink specials. Or — and we won't argue with this call — grab a table at Bohemian Hall's legendary outdoor beer garden for a summer afternoon.

Wherever you go: make a reservation. Father's Day Sunday fills up fast. Don't find out the hard way.

👉 Read more: QNS — Five Father's Day Restaurants in Astoria

The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria quietly opened something big this past weekend: MoMI LAB, a free, permanent space in the museum's lower level where anyone can walk in and mess around with the technology shaping our world. We're talking 3D printing, AI image generation, a lenticular printing station where you make your own 3D postcard, procedurally generated virtual reality environments, and yes — a robot dog that lets you see through its eyes. It's open to the public, it's free, and it's right here in the neighborhood.

The lab is built around the idea that people shouldn't just consume technology — they should understand it, question it, and have some say in how it develops. MoMI, already one of the most underrated cultural spots in Western Queens, is now also an interactive tech education space. The museum is launching an artist residency program alongside the lab, with inaugural Artist-in-Residence Rachel Rossin, whose work explores virtual reality, spatial computing, and the space between digital and physical experience.

The lab was made possible by over $5 million in New York State funding, secured by Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and Mayor Mamdani back when he was still in the State Assembly. MoMI is located at 36-01 35th Ave in Astoria. Admission to the main museum is $15 for adults, $9 for seniors and students. The LAB is free. This is the kind of thing you bring out-of-town visitors to and then feel smug about living here.

👉 Read more: Queens Gazette

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From restaurants and shops to services and community groups, all are encouraged to participate and share their story with readers across the Astoria and surrounding areas. Don’t own a business? That’s ok… Know of one that should be featured?

Those interested in being featured can reach out to learn more about available opportunities and upcoming editions. Click the button below to feature your business or send an email to [email protected] with your business details and we’ll reach out!