Zodiac -- 31st and Newtown

Cafe number 5 and it's only May!

Brianna walks by Zodiac late at night on her way home from watching trashy television at Amy's house, and the strobe lights and loud music had her convinced that it was some sort of restaurant/dance club fusion venue. But, despite the small number of pastries on the menu, we were able to order frappes so it *must* be a cafe!

Zodiac carries the astrology theme throughout their decor. The signs of the zodiac adorn the walls and tables, we half hoped for fortune-stuffed baklava. The big blue chairs cradled our tushies and invited us to linger at our table long after our bellies were full -- a good furniture choice for people who want to sell you more coffee and booze. The only questionable decorating choices were the randomly placed faux stone columns and purple track lighting in the molding (inspired by the undercarriage lights perviously seen only on tricked out Hondas).

The crowd was more mixed then we had previously seen -- some of the customers were not only NOT Greek, they weren't even European! The wait staff was older (all things being relative -- they were probably in their early 40s at the oldest) and very inconspicuous. We had 2 waitresses and a busboy and we can't remember any of them speaking -- in general the service was good though slightly creepy in a "The Night of the Zombie Waiters" sort of way.

The frappes.. they were awesome! They were less icey and frapachino-ish than those we've had at previous cafe's and had the perfect level of sweetness and only $3.25. The lack of desserts and the time of day (7pm) lead us to order the Pikilia ($9.95) -- 3 dips: baba ganoush, tzatziki and mystery smoked fish dip served with warm pita and sesame bread sticks. All of the dips were super yummy. The baba ganoush very garlicky, but in a good way. The tzatziki was good though maybe a little watery. The third dip was a bit of a mystery, it was defiantly of oceanic (or lake-ian) origin with a little diary mixed in and perhaps some liquid smoke -- we spent a good 5 mins trying it and wrinkling our faces up in deep thought playing name that flavor but we never came up with anything more specific than, "it's good...ish..."


The bathroom was... well, a bathroom. Amy felt it didn't fit in with the rest of the decor, due to it's excessive plainness. It was a private room versus a group bathroom, but it just wasn't that nice-- the toilet seat was loose, there were tape remnants on the wall. However, it did it's job, so whatever. If only they had carried the Zodiac theme into the bathroom-- a stall for each sign. Brianna wishes to offer suggestions to Zodiac, involving urine and the "scales" of Libra, but Amy thinks it might offend the sensibilities of our gentle readers, so we'll leave it to your imaginations. There was also another MegaTouch machine outside of the bathrooms, so a trend has officially been tracked.

Amazing Astoria Activities:

Well, you could always go to the cafe across the street (that Amy's fiance swears is owned by the same people, possibly due to the neon lighting on the outside, but that has not been confirmed by anyone who's not just speculating):


There's what Amy believes to be a dance club next door:

Food: 4.5
Service: 4
Ambiance: 5 (Amy really liked the blue chairs)
Average Attractiveness of Staff: 3
Average Attractiveness of Patrons: 2.5