Sekend Sun Cocktail Bar Coming to Astoria

Everyone loves a cocktail.

Through an accidental intersection of curious information, we’ve learned that a new cocktail bar is coming to Broadway. Jay Zimmerman and Derrek Vernon of Brooklyn’s ba’sik fame, are opening another bar together, and we believe it will be in the old Veslo space, which closed in July. Last month over dinner, a WHA friend told us that a cocktail bar was coming to that space, and it makes sense that this is the Zimmerman-Vernon project. John Zimmerman posted this publicly on his Facebook page:

This is as good a time as any to announce that Derrek and I will be opening our second bar together. As of last week Sekend Sun (for those of you who have trouble with phonetics or horizontal marketing..its pronounced Second Son) is officially under construction and I am incredibly excited. It will be in Astoria. It will be heroic. Cannot wait to get it open for all of you (barring any unforeseen awfulness).

Derek Vernon is known for his work at GalleryBar (now closed), and John Zimmerman is well-known for his work as beverage director at The Standard New York and The Breslin, so a lot of solid cocktail knowledge is coming to Astoria. We are unsure what the food plans are (or even if there are any food plans), but we’d love to see some small plates at least.

Zimmerman has an attitude about drinking establishments that could fit right in here in Astoria. In a NY Times article from April 2013 entitled, A Good Drink, Hold the Pretense, he says about ba’sik:

“I wanted to build a bar that I would go to,” said Jay Zimmerman, an owner of Basik, where the layout is, well, pretty basic, and the cocktail list a tidy five drinks long. “I love to visit my friends at these very buttoned-up cocktail bars. But that’s just not me. And I love going to dive bars. But I didn’t want to do that, either. I needed to do something in between.”

As for the space, Veslo always seemed kind of dark, and that same moodiness would do well for a cocktail bar. The space also has a backyard patio, so we hope they will use that, too. We imagine they are doing renovations in there to put their own personal stamp on it, perhaps even with reclaimed materials, as is all the rage these days. We’ll see what other information we can find out and will pass it on to you.

Sekend Sun, 32-11 Broadway, Astoria, New York 11106

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Friday Links | Brownstoner Queens August 15th, 2014

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