Category: Astoria Characters

It started in Cyprus with a little girl and a big dream. “I used to climb out on the balcony of our house and close my eyes and open my arms and say, ‘I’m going to fly away.'” Panayiota Pelengaris is used to putting her time to good use, so as she talks, she threads a needle. The beautiful buttercream cashmere sweater, soft as chick fluff, has a half dozen moth holes she needs to repair before the morrow. By the way, before we go any further, Panayiota says it’s best…

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It happens every June: St. Antonio Abate makes a four-night appearance on Ditmars Boulevard at his namesake feast. He’s easy to spot. He wears a chocolate-brown robe covered with red, white and green ribbons that stream to his sandals. And he stands statue silent in a bower of fresh flowers topped by an illuminated cross that has as much firepower as the Star of Bethlehem. (More photos.) St. Antonio Abate, in case you don’t know, is the patron of Sicily’s Castrofilippo, which is…

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The secret’s in the squeegee. That’s what gets windows streak-free, squeaky clean. So says Barry Feirstein, the guy who does windows for a living. “Years ago, when I first started and people asked how I got the windows so clean, I used to say, ‘It’s a secret.'” Barry, a mountainous man with legs of steel and an impish twinkle in his eye, chuckles. He’ll never in a million years figure out how he got away with that subterfuge. There’s nothing magic…

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This is a love story. You know, boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Girl gets boy. To follow her to New York. Fumihisa Matsueda pulls a white plastic milk carton up to the coffee table and flops two pancake-thin black and white cushions on it to make a makeshift chair. He pours himself a glass of orange juice, rolls what will be the first of several cigarettes and begins his tale. Fumi — that’s his nickname so we might as well go with it — was 3. The talking of his parents woke him,…

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“You must have lunch,” declares Joanna Nana Loiselle. The owner of Telly’s Taverna, a ferociously vivacious blonde whose eyes change color from green to blue to hazel with her outfits and her moods, is drill-sergeant decisive on this matter. “Let me make you a nice fish, I got a red snapper fresh last night, and you MUST try it.” In Greek, she tells the waitress what she wants: Nana’s green salad. Kefalograviera. Oh, you can’t have lunch without the dip platter…

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