A Delicate Balance

breadpudding
Originally uploaded by dangunderman.

I love Sunnyside, a diverse, down-to-earth neighborhood in Queens, located a convenient fifteen minutes from midtown on the greatest train in New York, the #7. I've lived here over five years, and it's felt like one of New York's best-kept secrets the whole time. It's got everything you need as a local and very few frills.

A new restaurant opened a few months ago, called Bliss, taking over the location of one of the 'hood's many Barf Bars. It's a welcome addition to our neighborhood, and the bread pudding is like magic. I'd venture to say that Bliss is the first upscale restaurant in Sunnyside that isn't also "Klassy" (please pronounce that with a Queens' accent).

But much of Sunnyside's charm lies in its lack of pretention. While I sometimes feel that I'd like a nice place to sit, linger, drink coffee, and hang, I know that having that type of establishment also brings gentrification on a large scale, resulting in the ultra-irritating uber-hip flocking to the neighborhood. And if Sunnyside became the laughably hip Williamsburg... well, dammit, I don't wanna move.

So in the meantime, I'm just gonna sit and enjoy my bread pudding, and hope that the gentrification process continues to move as slowly in Sunnyside as it has for the past twenty years.