New Queens cocktail bar hides behind hardware storefront

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Strolling along Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria looking for a place to serve you an interesting cocktail, few would stop in front of a hardware store.

Behind a storefront modeled after that of the hardware store that co-owner Tommy Demaras frequented as a kid in this neighborhood, he and co-owner/bar guru Paddy O'Brien have hidden The Last Word.

A buzzer out front notifies the host or hostess someone outside thinks they want to come inside. If in the mood for a drink and not just in need of an extension cord, one enters and passes by walls of tools and supplies before entering a darkly lit tin-ceilinged room modeled after a 1920 speakeasy and named for a cocktail O'Brien encountered nine years ago.

The Last Word offers four different variations on its namesake, along with sixteen other signature cocktails, many of them hot ones.

The Last Word opens Tuesday, serves bar snacks and drinks, and -- at this point -- harbors no plans of selling any hardware at any point in the future, contrary to what scores of daytime visitors might believe.

31-30 Ditmars Blvd.
Astoria, NY 11105
(347) 670-4831