One Night in Sunnyside, Queens
Published 05/13/2025
Sunnyside has never been one of the City’s go-to tourist neighborhoods, which is probably why it still feels like it’s meant to be lived in. I should know; I grew up here! Midtown is only a few stops away on the 7 train, and you can be in Manhattan in under 20 minutes. While Sunnyside has changed over the years, the neighborhood is not trying to perform the “New York City” act; it just authentically is.
Sunnyside was first developed in the early 1900s, with the historic Sunnyside Gardens district designed as one of the country’s first planned communities, with modest brick homes and shared courtyards. Today, it’s one of the most diverse zip codes in the US. You’ll hear Spanish, Korean, Romanian, Turkish, Tagalog, Urdu and Nepali spoken on the streets on any given day. The diversity also shows up in the food, of course—Mexican restaurants next to Colombian bakeries next to Irish pubs—and in the storefronts, where the signs shift languages every few feet.
While writing about Sunnyside does feel a little like giving away my best-kept secrets, neighborhoods only stay alive when the people in them care enough to keep the good parts going. So I won’t be gatekeeping!
There’s a lot you can do on a Saturday night in Sunnyside—catch a soccer game at Bar 43, see comedy at Sanger Hall or try whatever’s brewing (literally or otherwise) at Alewife. But if you’re in the mood for a slower evening, the kind where you actually talk to the people you came with, here’s what I recommend.
1
Enjoy wine and small plates at Claret Wine Bar
Take a walk through the historic Sunnyside Gardens district and then make your way over to Claret on Skillman Avenue. This cozy wine bar features a daily happy hour where you can get a $30 bottle of house wine paired with a margherita pizza or a three-item charcuterie selection. Pop in on a Friday for live music: jazz, classic rock or even a live flamenco performance. Their menu items work well with an ever-changing wine list, especially the cheese and charcuterie and their signature pizzas (the goat cheese and white truffle champignon pizza is a neighborhood favorite).
2
Catch a performance at the Thalia Spanish Theatre
The Thalia has been around since 1977, making it the borough’s longest-running bilingual Spanish-language theater—and, if you ask a Sunnysider, one of its most underappreciated cultural spaces. The intimate black-box theater is just a few blocks away from the famous Sunnyside Arch on Bliss Street, offering plays by Latin American artists, folkloric dance and other dance and musical performances, sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in both. I don’t speak Spanish, so I tend to stick to the dance performances. (It’s even easier if you go around the holidays and you know the story of Christmas.) I caught Navidad: A Mexican American Christmas by the Calpulli Dance Company a few years ago, where the protagonist’s colorful dream sequences about her family’s Mexican holiday traditions meet new customs she’s learned in school (like The Nutcracker)—think Aztec dance numbers and toy soldiers in mariachi-inspired garb. It’s not a huge venue, so it was exciting to be in the mix. The past few years have also featured Navidad en Colombia, a collection of folkloric dance performances by the Mestizo Art Center.
3
Cocktails (and maybe karaoke) at Rogue
Rogue Bar is right next door to Thalia, and it’s a perfect contrast to the more polished start of the evening. This cocktail spot has just the right amount of energy—dim lighting, a solid playlist and a crowd that ranges from post-shift restaurant workers to locals on first dates. Head there on Thursdays for karaoke, but other events include trivia, tabletop game nights and paint and sips. But even when nothing’s officially happening, Rogue is a great cross section of Sunnysiders looking to have a good evening. Get into the local spirit and try one of Rogue’s signature cocktails, the Sunnyside Boulevardier, bourbon whiskey with Campari, vermouth, cinnamon brown sugar and simple syrup.
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