Fresco’s Cantina (Provided by Brian Martinez)
May 27, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
An Astoria restaurant is launching a new food delivery service with a twist.
Fresco’s Cantina, a Mexican fusion restaurant located at 12-14 31st Ave., tested out a drag queen delivery service recently and will formally roll out the service on May 31.
Drag queens will deliver food and drinks to customers starting this Sunday from midday to 4 p.m. The restaurant will repeat the service every Sunday through June to celebrate Pride Month.
The LGBTQ friendly restaurant is popular for its in-house drag events like bingo nights and viewings of the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race. However, the COVID-19 shutdown brought such entertainment to a halt.
Brian Martinez, who co-owns the eatery with his husband Adrian Suero, decided to incorporate its drag entertainment with their deliveries. They have called the service “drag-livery.”
Martinez said they conducted a trial of the service on May 17–which got rave reviews–and they are now ready to launch on Sunday.
Customers will have to pay an extra $15 to get the drag Queen service with a minimum food and drink order of $50. They will then be asked to select a song they want to see performed from a pre-selected list.
One of the four drag queens they have on the roster will then turn up at the destination, blast some music on a loudspeaker and “do a number,” Martinez said.
The performance includes a dance and lip-syncing to the music. The drag queens may briefly remove their face masks while maintaining social distancing from the customer, Martinez said.
And it’s not just the customers who are kept entertained by the girl’s curbside antics.
“The neighbors get to enjoy it too and join together and dance, so it’s a lot of fun,” Martinez said.
“People really love it because it’s very different from any other delivery out there right now,” he said.
Martinez said customers ordered the service on May 17 for birthdays and other special occasions.
“It has put a smile back on people’s faces because celebrations and gatherings have been canceled due to the shutdown,” he said.
“This made their occasion feel special again,” Martinez said.
“People love our food and drinks and now they’re getting some entertainment with their deliveries,” he said.
From June 1, Fresco’s Cantina will be open for takeout and delivery on Wednesdays to Saturdays from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. and on Sundays from midday to 7 p.m.
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8 Comments
First of all, the car is blocking the lane and causing the traffic.:. Like really? Second, the car is on and again, more pollution. Then, masks and people watching this “number” being performed- so desperate and selfish. Like do we really need this?
I don’t know who feels comfortable with this? How is it even legal? To do this on the street?
Do I even have to…….
1. This looks like Broadway between 12th and 14th—a two way street with two lanes going both ways and a parking lane—so there’s plenty of room on this low traffic street. No one’s blocking anything.
2. Pollution? Have you driven lately!? There are barely any cars on the road so I can’t imagine double-parking for a few minutes will melt any glaciers.
3. The people less than 6 feet from each other were wearing masks and the queen was more than 6 feet away from everybody. Again, Bway/12/14 is not busy, with little foot traffic.
4. I’m pretty sure you can dance on the sidewalk for 10 minutes without the KGB showing up, so yeah, it’s legal.
Look, we get it: you don’t like drag queens and you probably don’t like gays either. Hopefully after the lockdown is lifted, you can just stay indoors forever.
What the hell ??? Are you kidding me…..
Both sad and pathetic.
Post a few of the yelp reviews in this article. It’s not all sunshine and unicorns. Delivery service is spotty too. If you need to hire transvestites to deliver your food to add to the “experience” you have to be covering up something
Liberals like you are the worst. Giuliani was there for NYC when we most needed him. Now he is our president’s lawyer.
Just Giuliani is a drag queen doesn’t mean you get to disrespect. He’s done more for this city than you ever will.
Yea… no thanks…
FYI HOW DO YOU GET OFF TAKING THE MASK OFF!!! People are getting ARRESTED, and Beat Down by Cops pulling such stunts! Not to mention YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DRAW A CROWD which your stunt will do people screwing up the social distance rule. Making it HARDER for NYers to finally get the state open so we can get back to make a living! If you pull this stunt Cuomo & DeBlasio will PAUSE us again! They will take your vendors/resturant license are make you PERMANENTLY UNEMPLOYED if your stunt gets 1 added to the Covid-19 count! They are still hopping on that 3 zip codes in QUEENS are still with high numbers that they’re not comfortable with! Take people’s health into consideration before your own considerable GREED to showboat!!!