Karaoke Queens
The unemployed new yorker and his cousin, the freelance professional, have nothing but time. As such, karaoke is a perfect pastime for them. unfortunately, there arent many places for the down or out to drink and sing during daylight hours. Koreatown is full of expensive joints that exploit tourists. Chinatowns best places are in the backs of restaurants and are busy.
Cue Flushing, a fertile crescent of Chinese/Korean exotica in northern Queens. Flushing was born as a wouldbe hollywood and hosted the 1939-1940 Worlds Fair back when the Worlds Fair ruled. nowadays, downtown Flushing is maybe best known for Joes Shanghai and the library on Kissena Street. however, Flushing has one other thing its residents love as much as reading and steamed vegetables: karaoke.
I decided to brave the karaoke scene and uncover which arenas offer Flushings finest delights. To help me in my marco polo-inspired expedition, I enlisted photographer, designer and Chinese woman Wendy Xu as my guide.
Diyuan
133-35 Roosevelt Ave. (betw. College Point Blvd. & Prince St.), Queens, 718-539-6666.
The first thing I noticed at diyuan was the baby-faced bouncer in a stylish suit. The second was the epic chandelier hovering above the spiral staircase that leads to the karaoke rooms. According to my companion, diyuan is the new york yankees of Chinese karaoke, but for a man with no understanding of mandarin, it was just mediocre. The six free beers that came with the early-bird $12 per hour room (available before 5 p.m., when regular $40 rates begin) were nice and the sound was fantastic, but neither Wendy nor myself could boot the system in english. I had to search for songs by letter and ended up singing puff the magic dragon. The servers also cut us off early but I noticed some kids smoking in their room and the staff didnt mind, so that was cool.
Zebra Lounge
35-06 Farrington St. (at 35th Ave.), Queens, 718-886-3026.
The Zebra lounge is Koreatown in Flushing, minus the Koreans. The attentive, attractive employees spoke english, the system could be switched between languages and the song selection was the best I encountered, boasting a healthy dose of contemporary pop (Taio Cruz and Trey Songz) and 90s Britpop (Blurs Song 2). Zebra lounge also has a complete bar with cocktails like the Sparkling elder Flower Blossom (Citron vodka, St. Germain and Champagne). The strength of my $12 saketini was impressive. Sadly, its not as inexpensive as its competitors. The cheapest rooms at the Zebra lounge are $40 per hour monday through Wednesday, and $60 Thursday through Sunday (with equivalent drink credit), and it doesnt open until 6 p.m. With a group, that becomes easy to handle, but if you are unemployed, youve lost all your friends by now and if youre a freelancer you never had any. For anyone else, this place is awesome.
Monster KTV
4052 Main St. (betw. 40th Rd. & 41st Ave.), Queens, 718-445-7300.
Without Wendy, I would not have survived here: english was almost non-existent. monster KTV is celebrating its anniversary this month so the rooms were 40 percent off, which made the smallest room reasonable at $10 per hour. usually, the price is $15 per hour and up, but I was told they may extend the promotion. The room looked more like a tea lounge than a karaoke spot and the sound fed back. The best thing about the venue was the window display at the entrance, which featured some ridiculous wooden models holding microphones surrounded by a variety of alcohol. As for the drink selection, beers were $6, standard for Flushing karaoke spots, and the least expensive sake was $8. When Wendy figured out how to half-translate the song selection system, I was excited to see Bob dylans mr. Tambourine man, but unfortunately it was The Byrds version. In the room next to me, a bunch of old Chinese dudes were playing a game of poker.
SKY blue Karaoke
13655 37th Ave. (betw. 138th & Union Sts.), Queens, 718-939-2222.
Sky Blue is a possible front. Twelve dollars got me the same deal as diyuan (six beers or sodas), but augmented by a fruit plate and a bowl of maybe eel soup. After 7 p.m., the rate kicks up to $30 per hour. There also seemed to be 15 people working at noon on a Wednesday. unless the club is paying employees less than a dollar an hour, my attendance cost Sky Blue money. As for song selection, if Richard marx is your favorite musician then its awesome. If you like anything else, its not very good. But really youre here for the fruit plate, because youre tired of sandwiches from Greenpoint Finest deli.