HONEY HOUSE, ASTORIA

I have always been wary about bees and their relatives, the hornets. They have stingers on their butts and aren’t afraid to use them, the hornets especially. Worker bees that are forced to sting usually lose their lives as the stinger, when depressed into an offender’s skin, usually pulls out considerable tissue from the worker bee. Contrary to the expression “bee line” I have found that bees and hornets hover and zigzag around too much for my taste as well. It’s not a phobia, but let’s say I leave Hymenoptera to their business and generally, they leave me to mine. Bees are essential in pollination for commercial consumable plants, and they produce tons of honey per year. Wary of eating something ejected by a bee’s orifice? Remember where milk comes from.

I was attracted to the Honey House sidewalk sign at 23rd Avenue and 35th Street, directly below the elephantine iron trestle taking trains to and from the Hell Gate Bridge. It’s in near-Futura, the 20th Century’s go-to sanserif font before Helvetica arrived in the late 1950s. (Serifs are the little lines at the top and bottom of some printed fonts; sanserif fonts don’t have them.) It was developed by German typographer Paul Renner in 1927.

As you may expect Honey House offers locally-produced honey, but also candles, soap, lip balm, toys, books, baked goods and candy, and also deals live queen bees, the boxes their honeycombs and progeny are kept in, and beekeeping lessons if you want to beekeep in your back yard. I do not know if masks and gloves are offered but it wouldn’t surprise me.

If you didn’t know, an apiary is where beekeepers stash the bees, in the boxes mentioned above. If bees are kept in an apiary, where do they keep gorillas?

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the  gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site. 

10/27/25