Dine At Bayside Eateries For $1 Apiece At Weekend Food Fest

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — A food-focused street fair promising samples from dozens of restaurants for $1 apiece is returning to Bayside this weekend for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The "Bell Boulevard Food and Music Fest" will bring over 35 restaurant to Bell Boulevard for a food crawl between 38th and 43rd avenues on Sunday, June 5 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. rain or shine.

For the price of $35 per-adult (alcohol included), or $15 per-child, festival-goers can sample food and drinks from all of the restaurants, amounting to $1 per-eatery.

Cuisine options will run the gamut from Chinese, Columbian, French, Spanish and Italian to Irish, Greek, Korean, Cajun, Vietnamese and more, organizers said. Participating restaurants include Bourbon Street, Mr Seoul, Kyklades Taverna and Uncle Jack's Steakhouse — among many others.

In addition to the ticketed stroll, the festival will include free music and activities, organizers said.

Every block of the corridor will be decked out with a free dance performance and live band, with activities like mini golf, shuffleboard and beach volleyball set up along the way, too.

Now in its third year, the festival — hosted by the Bayside Village BID — launched in the summer of 2018 in order to promote neighborhood businesses.

"There are a lot of restaurants on Bell Boulevard, but this gives people a chance to try something that maybe they wouldn't normally try," Bayside Village BID Executive Director Christine Silletti told Patch at the time.

The festival was a fast success, selling out in both 2018 and 2019. Then, the pandemic hit, putting the festival on pause for a couple of years.

This year, which marks the restaurant stroll's return from the pandemic, is a welcome chance for neighbors to reconnect with local small businesses, Silletti told QNS.

"We’ve been isolated for so long and haven’t been able to build many connections over these last two years," she told the outlet.

"[Food and Music Fest] will help create connections for small businesses, which help to bring a real sense of connection and community."

Get a ticket for The Bell Boulevard Food and Music Fest here (before they sell out), and find out more information about the food crawl here.