Astorian Weekend Edition - December 20
By Meg of Joey in Astoria

Your last weekend to shop is here! A number of local Astoria places are having sales, too. Candy Plum (30-98 36th St) has a special on earrings - with every purchase of $50, receive a free pair of selected earrings! The gift shop at the Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Ave) has a store-wide sale with discounts of 10% (and 25% for Museum members). They've got collectibles, books and DVDs (that Bladerunner DVD looks particularly good!). And Vine Wine (12-09 Jackson Avenue) in LIC is offering a 15% discount on cases (their Wednesday night tastings are pretty great, too).

For wellness gifts, head over to the SPAce website (29-09 Ditmars) and order a gift card online! I hear very good things about the massages there, and their haircuts are reasonable and well done. The Yoga Room (32-32 Steinway) offers discounts through December 31, too, for you and a friend.

For good eats, stop by Mundo (31-18 Broadway), which also has a new art on the walls, plus new menu items and the same wonderful ambiance. Il Bambino (34-08 31st Ave) just celebrated its one year anniversary in town. I was there last night and the food was delicious, as usual. They've been making soup lately, and the butternut squash soup was phenomenal. (You can vote for Il Bambino in the Best of Queens poll.)

Finally on the eating front: meatballs. The newly reopened Philoxenia (32-07 34th Ave) makes excellent, almost tube-shaped meatballs (in a Greek style), and Cassino in LIC (47-18 Vernon Blvd) makes some of the best Italian meatballs I think I've ever had. Really nice people run it, too.

This weekend is also the Winter Solstice, marking the shortest day and longest night of the year, and that just means we're in store for more and more sunshine each day. Happy Eid, too!

• Previously on Joey in Astoria
• Neighborhood Profile - Astoria, Queens