Duane Reade manifesting on 47th Rd @ 5th St, Long Island City

Queens West continues with its late summer bloom, as Duane Reade catches up with its neighbor, foodcellar, which has been open since Wednesday and already starting to pick up a decent bustle. The store is still being stocked, and there is a lot of grumble »

C-town grocery store on 21st St, Hunters Point, LIC

We at liQcity have enjoyed lamenting about the lack of grocery store in Hunters Point. As it turns out, we were wrong – as has been frequently pointed out by a regular commenter. (You know who you are.) We were in denial! Or we just actually never visited the C-town at the corner of 44th Drive and 21st St, in Courthouse Sq, which as we all know, is a part of Hunters Point.

All that’s changed now. We went there. It’s a bona-fide grocery store folks. It’s small, but they have all the basics. The produce section is decent. There are both yuppy and hipster vittles, though somewhat limited. Mostly mainstream, commercial products. But it was decently clean, and much more gently priced than the E & I Deli on Vernon Blvd.

It’s located right next to a subway entrance for the E,V,G trains, which is convenient, but it sort of serves a limited geography. It’s still not very accessible for Vernon-Jackson residents, and Queenswesters might as well go to Astoria or Greenpoint for fancier stores that are just as far. Courthouse Square residents who are off Jackson Ave also are probably more easily served by Greenpoint. Oh yeah, and the hours are relatively limited. Didn’t see any officially posted, but they don’t seem to be open past 8pm or so.

Overall, C-town in Hunters Point gets a B/B-. The hours could be longer, some of the buying could be improved, but the prices are reasonable, and it’s relatively clean and maintained. So, we’ll be busy modifying our battle-cry for a grocery store in Vernon-Jackson and Queenswest. Long Island City and it’s subneighborhoods! Sheesh.

[For more of a peek inside C-town »]( http://www.liqcity.com/life/hunters-point-actually-does-have-a-grocery-store-albeit-a-small-one.php#full)