BoroMag_0217_p19

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FEBRUARY 2017 I BOROMAG.COM 19 RIA Elizabeth & Steve It was Labor Day Weekend of 2015, and Elizabeth Patterson, 24, was out with her roommate at the Irish Rover, just a couple blocks away from her Astoria apartment. Steve Ettannani, 30, was at the Rover with his best friend. He had just moved back to New York from D.C. and was planning on moving to Astoria soon. Patterson and Ettannani started talking and realized that they both went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina and “hit it off,” Patterson said. “It’s not very often that you meet someone from Wake Forest in Astoria, so we had a lot to talk about,” Ettannani said. “I got the courage to ask for her number and asked her out essentially the next day.” Ettannani and his friend met up with Patterson and her roommate at the Bohemian Hall and Biergarten. After that, Ettannani said, “I decided I wanted to get to know her a bit better, and that’s how things kicked off.” Ettannani, a senior adviser for the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, and Patterson, a production consultant for an event marketing agency, made their relationship official in January 2016 and just celebrated their one-year anniversary on Jan. 16. FAVORITE DATE SPOTS: Sweet Afton Museum of the Moving Image Astoria Park Kaufman Astoria Cinemas Mosaic Bar Irish Rover Photo courtesy of Courtney Steers Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Patterson Makana & Ashley Makana Shimaoka, 27, and Ashley Steele, 24, met on the set of “Orange is the New Black” in Kaufman Astoria Studios in August 2015. “We met through a mutual friend who was working with us one day at Kaufman, and we were just talking,” Steele said. “I sat down with her and I said that I liked her bird tattoos,” Shimaoka remembered. “We flirted on Instagram and then a day or two later I get this text from an 808 number, and I knew that it was her immediately,” Steele said. “I didn’t even have to know the area code but I knew it was her, and we texted for six and a half hours nonstop and then went back to work on ‘Orange’ the next day, and that’s where it all started.” That week, they worked on set for four or five days up in Rockland County, where the show films exterior shots, and spent their 12-hour days together in prison uniform. “It’s my favorite outfit that she’s ever worn,” Steele joked. Shimaoka said they had their “first fight” that week over a misunderstanding: Steele told her “stop flirting with me” over text as a joke, but Shimaoka took it literally, and the next day, Steele wondered why Shimaoka was ignoring her on set. Luckily, they got placed next to each other for a scene and were able to talk it out. They went on their first date the next day in Astoria, where they held hands under the table at Sugar Freak, and Steele walked Shimaoka home to her Astoria apartment. Steele was living in Manhattan at the time, but now the two share an apartment in Astoria. Shimaoka works as a photo double and stand-in for film and television projects, and Steele now works as a fifth-grade teaching assistant and middle school basketball coach. FAVORITE DATE SPOTS: Butcher Bar 16 Handles Antika Oliver’s Astoria Photo courtesy of Ashley Steele


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