Opening a restaurant in NYC is a tough business, and the road to profitably is even tougher these days. Maybe that’s why there was a paucity of notable restaurant openings and announcements in LIC in 2016. In addition, there are a number of prominent restaurant spaces that remain vacant, most notably the city-facing corner location in the Hunters Point Commons building on Center Boulevard, the “Prime Retail Space” at the corner of 1 Vernon Jackson , and The Bread Box on 11th Street. Thus this year we have decided to include any establishment that allows imbibing on premises in our round-up, because who needs food?