How a foodie and business promoter in Queens spends his Sundays
Dirk McCall de Palomá is a serious bon vivant in search of spicy and ethnic food, and a passionate connector of people. For the past two years, he also served as executive director of the Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District, a city-funded nonprofit that promotes Sunnyside, Queens, as a destination.
“I help companies and empower communities,” says 55-year-old McCall de Palomá, who plans cultural celebrations. “People come to me with problems; I find solutions.”
The foodie in him is thrilled that he is leading Taste of Sunnyside Restaurant Week.
He grew up in Georgia and then migrated to New York in 1991 to attend graduate school in political science at Columbia University. In 1994, he began renting his one-bedroom apartment in Astoria, Queens, on the top floor of a four-story apartment.
“When you’re 30, it’s OK because you think, ‘This is great exercise. My ass looks great,” he said. “When I turned forty, I realized that I would have to live on the first floor. Now that I’m fifty, I wish I had a ride.”
Yet his love for his neighborhood overcomes the grueling climb, making him also very good at forgetting nothing at the top. He lives with his 12-year-old Norwegian forest mix cat Herbert.
NATURAL INCREASE My body kicks in around 6am and wakes me up. I do not drink coffee. I’m from Georgia – I drink Diet Coke. People are surprised when I tell them, but it has caffeine in it. I also want the carbonated one. Then I feed Herbert, a big, fluffy, loud boy with an opinion about everything and who expects breakfast as soon as he sees me move.
READ AND MAKE A LIST Over the next few hours I follow the news that I get from the internet: Joe.My.God, an LGBT news site, which I supplement with Politico, The New York Times and The New York Post. Then I make lists of the errands I need to run, the phone calls I need to make, and the emails I need to send. I like lists. You can cross things off and that gives you a feeling of satisfaction.
DISTANT HUSBAND I WhatsApp with my husband, who is currently stuck in Bucaramanga, Colombia. We do this several times during the day. We met on Grindr in 2019 and got married in 2021. When he went to visit his family, Covid was still an issue. And even though travel restrictions have been lifted, he is struggling to get permission from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to re-enter. It’s been terribly lonely without him. He loves to send voice messages so I enjoy it and listen to it all day long.
TO CONNECT I showered and got dressed at 10am. Then I take the Q104 bus on my street, which I take to 49th Street and Queens Boulevard. I walk the first six blocks of Greenpoint Avenue so I can interact with merchants and store owners and make sure there are no problems: that the streets are properly swept, that the traffic lights work, and that no furniture is damaged. I like to stop in the small specialty shops like Parrot Coffee, which has jams, marinated olives and artichokes and different types of soaps, and Chakra Cafe, which is Turkish. They sell breakfast sandwiches and baklava, which are delicious.
GROUP ACTIVITIES A large part of my job involves planning cultural events for the Sunnyside community. Past events have included a Day of the Dead celebration, a Sunny Pride parade and Chuseok, a Korean harvest festival. It is important that communities see themselves reflected in programming and that public spaces help promote local commerce.
CONNECT WITH FRIENDS I’m usually at brunch at two o’clock. I am an evangelist for the region. My goal is to bring friends from Manhattan or the Bronx to Astoria who want to eat or drink with me and can’t because everyone is so busy. Brunch is usually easier. People don’t mind traveling on weekends. Astoria gets a bad rap because people think it’s far away. They haven’t discovered its beauty yet. I usually go to Salvatoria Kitchen and Bar, owned by a lesbian couple. Their pupusas are great, there’s also The Shady Lady and Fresco’s Grand Cantina.
INGREDIENT HUNT I cook quite a bit, which relaxes me. I like hearty southern food that reminds me of home. I’m always grocery shopping or looking for interesting ingredients. Last week it was the Witte Beer in Vlissingen to get frozen dumplings and wontons. It’s the biggest hole in the wall. Now I’m on the hunt for Armenian cracker bread, which I researched and discovered is sold in Rego Park.
FORGING CONNECTIONS I coordinate two different groups: Out Astoria, an LGBT social group for Astoria and Western Queens, which I co-founded with a friend in 2006; and AstoriaCentric, where 20 to 30 people from the neighborhood come to a local restaurant. It makes me happy to bring people together. There is a sense of joy that is palpable. When I was single I used the apps, which isn’t very personal or social, and it made me feel part of something. Now that I’m married, I live on my own, so having a sense of community has become important.
TV lover I’ll be home at nine o’clock. I love RuPaul, who has a drag racing empire. I watch all the franchises, but that can cut into my ‘Eurovision’ time, which I stream on YouTube, on my TV. It is a national European songwriting competition between 26 to 40 participating countries. Each song can last a maximum of three minutes. Abba got their start here and won for the Swedes. Celine Dion got her big break representing Switzerland. It’s a great way to find new artists who are unique. I become obsessed with songs. This year in Finland there’s a song that reminds me of the trashy Eurodance from the 90s, which I love, and allows me to relive my glory days. The people I want to win usually don’t.
LOUD NIGHTS The lights go out at midnight. My block is particularly loud; so do my neighbors, so I have a white noise machine and sound-deadening curtains on the window. When I can’t calm my mind, I take notes on a notebook I keep next to my bed. When I’m really dizzy, I tend to write strange things that I can never read again the next day.