“The vision, for me, is to make Flushing world-class,” Helen Lee, the co-owner of this Queens cocktail lounge, said on a recent Thursday night. The rooftop bar, opened by Lee and her business partner Todd Leong last year, makes a compelling case for that dream: it’s refined but comfortable (warm woods, flattering light) and disarmingly luxe. The parking lot below is an expensive game of Tetris played with Bentleys, Porsches, and MacLarens. (“Like the baby strollers?” Lee asked Leong. “Like the racecar,” he responded.) But around the corner soup dumplings at Nan Xiang are still $5.25. When pressed about the disparity, Lee asked, “Do you know the term fuerdai?” Indeed, the neighborhood known for blue-collar Asian immigrants is making way for China’s billionaire youth. (They could afford Park Avenue, Lee explained, but where would they go for hot pot?) One can’t help feeling like a high roller as well, sipping a Pineapple Express (vodka, sherry, pineapple purée, salted-caramel syrup) out of a copper reproduction of the fruit while perusing the terrific selection of Kavalan whiskeys. Leaf’s sights may be set on international renown, but its heart lies closer to home. “We wanted to create something that is for our people,” Leong said—Asian-Americans, in other words. “We don’t share everything culturally—what do the Vietnamese really have in common with the Fujianese?” He motioned toward the sweeping views of Queens. “A bar brings them all together, because everyone likes to drink.” And so it appears that Flushing has arrived, whether one’s pleasure is Red Star erguotou (the high-proof Chinese liquor of the proletariat) or a twelve-dollar Matcha Do About Nothing (rye, sherry, orgeat, matcha), topped with a cherry blossom plucked from just outside. ♦