Long Island City is defiantly not the new Brooklyn, a new restaurant group proudly states.
More than a dozen restaurateurs in the increasingly trendy community have formed the Long Island City Restaurant Association to promote the neighborhood and challenge recent misperceptions of what the area is — and what it will not be.
“It’s very important that Long Island City have its own identity and not be continually and forever compared to Williamsburg,” said founder Rebecca Trent, owner of the comedy club, bar and restaurant Creek and Cave.
She said the area is made up of young professionals and families — not hipsters, she said.
RELATED: BUILDERS ARE BULLISH ON QUEENS
The group, which met for the first time on Monday night, is bucking the trend, however.
Long Island City is booming with new development geared towards younger people — and restaurants have followed.
But Trent says her group was not only created to draw culinary tourists to the neighborhood, but to make sure locals support the new businesses fully.
“(Newer residents) come to Long Island City to sleep, but they work and they play in Manhattan,” she said. “Our job as business owners … would be to inspire people to stay in the neighborhood and enjoy what the neighborhood offers.”
