eateryROW: FOREST HILLS

Brunch Report

AGORA TAVERNA

70-09 Austin Street

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 793-7900

If any restaurant in Forest Hills looks like it should serve brunch, Agora Taverna is it. Bright white walls and tons of windows allow sunlight to pour in, a necessity for a decent brunch. So it's with a sigh that I wasn't impressed with my brunch here this past Sunday.

This past Sunday around one-ish, Elbie and I showed up and, despite being rather crowded, there was no wait for a table. We sat by the window - great for people-watching - and a plate of warm mini-blueberry muffins appeared in front of us. It was a nice start and we enjoyed them as we sipped our coffees while deciding what we wanted. Agora Taverna's brunch comes with a coffee (or tea) and a brunch cocktail (or juice) as part if its $14 fixed price.

The brunch menu is a fairly standard one (which I like): steak and eggs, french toast, crepes, omelets, mimosas... Elbie ordered the Classic Benedict, an eggs Benedict: poached eggs on an English muffin with Canadian bacon and Hollandaise sauce. She was offered an option of sides: a small side salad, home fries, or lemon potatoes. She chose the lemon potatoes. I ordered the French Toast. Agora uses "healthy" seven-grain bread and tops it with strawberries and blueberries and vanilla honey.

Neither of our extremely typical brunch choices were bad. But both are in serious need of improvement. The eggs Benedict, for starters, didn't come with Canadian bacon, just slices of ham. Not a huge deal, but still. And it was literally swimming in Hollandaise sauce. Swimming in it like soup. On the plus side, the Hollandaise sauce was good and not super tart as though made by a chef who went berserk with the lemon juice. But, speaking of lemon, the lemon potatoes are a little much. Though when I say a little much, I mean you get what looks like two whole boiled potatoes. At least make the pieces smaller. Next time, the salad.

The French toast was made fine but I'll never understand why anyone thinks that using seven-grain bread is healthy after dumping sugar and syrup over it. Agora should shitcan the healthy crap and go straight for taste. Lose the seven-grain and choose challah. But truth is, the real issue wasn't their bread choice. It was the vanilla honey. Apparently, vanilla honey tastes identical to fake-o Log Cabin maple-flavored pancake topping. Unless, and I know that this can't be the case, they actually just gave me fake maple syrup instead. But no. Probably the honey went bad. Yup. That's gotta be it.

On the whole, the experience was a pleasant one. Our waitress was super nice and the setting is spot-on. The coffee was good and I liked my Bellini. The food could have been perfect if only they didn't turn turn eggs benedict into a hollandaise stew, didn't use whole grain bread, and - and this is important - kept the menu descriptions accurate. It's sort of a let down when you're hoping for one thing and get Log Cabin.

JACK & NELLIE'S

108-25 Ascan Avenue

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 268-2696

If you're anything like me, you've been itching for Forest Hills to get a wine bar for years. If you're anything like me, you feel like it's hard for a neighborhood to honestly call itself "upscale" without one. If you're anything like me, you feel a sense of relief and joy with the arrival of Jack & Nellie's in the old Q space. At long last we fine fair residents of the 11375 zip code have a real wine bar, not just a few restaurants that sell a few bottles of plonk and don't mind if you sit in the corner with a glass and an appetizer for an hour. It seems that someone read my "Open Letter to Danny Brown" (even if it wasn't Danny Brown) and I can't say I'm displeased with the reply.

Elbie and I tried out Jack & Nellie's this past weekend. The few times that I'd walked past since they opened, Jack & Nellie's was packed, so I was worried that we wouldn't get a table. On Sunday, we arrived around 830ish and we were seated right away. About three-quarters full. As a side thought, it might be a good idea for Jack & Nellie's to subscribe to OpenTable. Anyway, we sat down, chose a bottle of malbec, began absorbing the new surroundings, and began going through the menu. 

Jack & Nellie's wine list is relatively small, but it's varied and well priced. Our malbec was in the mid $30s. They also have the best beer list in the neighborhood with microbrews and imports dominating the menu. Inside, it's dark. Dark woods, dim lights, high ceilings. Both romantic and masculine, it feels exactly the way I would want a wine bar to feel. My one complaint, and it's a significant one, is that the tables are laid out poorly. Rather than seat everyone perpendicular to the wall, guests are seated parallel to it. The result is that you can feel like you're sharing a table (and a conversation) with the people next to you.

Jack & Nellie's has a small plates menu and we ordered four items. Additionally, there's a selection of cheeses and a charcuterie plate (which I wanted to get but it was just too much food). We started out with the Grilled Brie & Prosciutto Sandwich with Fig Jam. Elbie wasn't a fan of it, finding it too greasy and too salty. I thought it was flat out fantastic. I love brie; I love prosciutto; I love foccaccia. Throw it all together and make it a grilled cheese. How can that not be great? At least, that's what I think. Then the Lamb Meatballs with Quinoa & Black Olives came. This time, we agreed that these were perfect.

The slider plate came next. You get three and we decided to get one of each offered. The Grilled Angus Beef with Bleu Cheese was pretty good, though the bleu cheese was a little overpowering. Elbie though that the bun was a bit dry. The weakest was the Braised Beef Short Rib with Caramelized Onions which was good, but how can barbecue beef not be good? It was mostly just too sweet and the least interesting. The best by far was the Fried Oyster with Peppered Slaw and Pickles. Fried, but light and tangy. The Macaroni & Cheese with Chorizo came last and was recommended by the staff as something that other diners have liked the most. But Elbie and I weren't blown away. The chorizo, basically a sausage that tastes like thick smoked bacon, made it a little too salty, but then without the bacon, it just seemed generic.

CORFU

70-17 Austin Street

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 263-6263

When you live in New York City in general, but Queens in specific, the attitude is that when you want good Greek food, go to Astoria. There is always that lingering hope that if you luck out and happen to live near a Greek restaurant, it'll at least be good enough to save you a trek on the subway. I was hoping that Corfu would meet this basic hope. Sigh. Corfu did not.

Corfu sits on the upstairs level of the black mini-mall-type structure on Austin Street. There are a handful of outdoor seats which, I'm sure, are quite pleasant in hotter days. The interior is simple and cute, and indeed, was extremely comfortable. A few framed posters and Greek thingies decorate the wall and distract one's eyes from the massive Health Department in-case-of-choking poster. The tables and chairs are straight out of a diner and the booth-style seat along the wall couldn't have been less comfortable if it wanted to. But the staff was very friendly and very attentive.

Corfu follows the quantity over quality strategy of restaurants. Pike and I each ordered an entree and despite filling the plates to the point no more food could possibly fit on it, each dish came with a large salad and we were also given a plate of pita bread and yogurt. But one thing at a time. Appetizers. I ordered the Spinach Pie and Pike went with the Befteki. Both of these appetizers could either be split and served for two people or could be a meal in and of itself. The spinach pie, pureed spinach and feta cheese served in a filo dough crust was okay, but I've had better. And it's heavy. I got most of the way through one of them (there were two) and was ready to crawl into a ball and fall asleep. Pike's befteki was very, very good, on the other hand. But likewise, they served him way too much. It was easily a half pound if was an ounce of seasoned hamburger with pita bread to wrap it in. It cost less than $5. They could serve half as much and charge twice as much and people would still walk away happy. 

We didn't try dessert, so maybe they're fantastic, and maybe Corfu excels at more street-food things like gyros. Still, Pike and I wanted something a little different from the standards, and here I can't say that I'd choose Corfu over Agora Taverna, which really can do seafood and which doesn't bury you in cheap carbohydrates.

OLD VIENNA CAFE

108-22 Queens Boulevard

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 268-8436

The Old Vienna Cafe, a Viennese restaurant which took over from a series of failed Italian restaurants, rolled up its welcome mats and closed its doors for good a few months ago. An overpriced menu, mediocre food, and service that stunk on a good day spelled its certain doom. But then, up from the ashes like a glorious phoenix rose... The Old Vienna Cafe. Don't ask me why the new Old Vienna Cafe chose to keep the name of the old Old Vienna Cafe, because the menu is basically upscale bar food. It could have easily been Golden Dragon Mandarin Palace in a prior life and I doubt it would have made any impact on the menu. But I digress. You get the picture.

On any given day, OVC will be empty. A customer here, a customer there. If every other restaurant is filled to bursting, rest assured that you'll find ample seating for your party of ten here. Most likely, the old Old Vienna Cafe had such an awful reputation that no one who had eaten there or doesn't believe that the management is any different will return. Meanwhile everyone else will look up reviews on Yelp only to read a seemingly endless array of negative comments and then shy away. And that's a shame because it's actually NOT terrible at all. Mind you, I will follow my food review up with (constructive) criticism. But until then, on to the meal!

Pike and I showed up on a mid evening Wednesday night and Old Vienna was more crowded than usual. Four tables were taken. Five when we showed up. There are precious few places in the area where one can sit outside on a nice night to enjoy the warm air and OVC happens to be one of them. So that's where we parked ourselves and looked over the menu. As I said, OVC now serves upscale bar food. With hamburgers, mac and cheese, salads, and cheesy fries, I described OVC as a fancy diner, but, because there's no breakfast-at-any-time option, Pike disagrees. 

In any event, I ordered the Salt & Chilli Calamari as my appetizer and was pleasantly surprised. I don't entirely know why they have the word chili (or chilli) in the name, but the calamari was pretty good and I'd certainly get it again. Not too overly battered and the batter was nice and crisp. Pike ordered the Crab Cakes. The crab cakes came with a large side salad and a mango salsa. Pike found the mango salsa to be only meh, but he liked the crab cakes themselves. So far, despite that fact that the menu is wholly generic, we were doing pretty well here at the new Old Vienna.

So overall, the food was fine. It's biggest competition is clearly Bonfire. Except not really. Bonfire has a good beer list, a good cocktail list, and people actually go there. The service this evening was fine for what it was, but because our waitress was doing everything in the whole restaurant save actually cooking, even with the few patrons she was always busy. Bonfire has a whole staff. The interior is nice and with outdoor seating on a nice day, the place should be packed. I can only imagine that this it's not because the reputation of the old OVC lingers on. 

My advice is as follows. First, change the name. Old Vienna Cafe was a bad name when it was new and it's a terrible name now. Second,  OVC needs to decide what it wants to be. Given the decor and such, it appears that OVC wants you to think it's a classy joint. But you can't be classy and serve onion rings. Plus, they have no wine list. Over the rear wall is a big sign that says "wine and coffee bar" but when I asked what wine there was, the waitress pointed to a glass fridge filled with a selection of red, white, and blush from Beringer or some such mega-vineyard. Sorry, but boxed wine in a bottle does not a wine list make. So maybe OVC wants to be more like a diner. But then it needs to redecorate and loosen up. 

I do happen to believe that people need no longer avoid Old Vienna like the plague. In return, Old Vienna should focus on being less generic. And at the bare minimum, fix that damn name.

GARCIA'S

70-09 Austin Street

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 575-0007

Mexican restaurants tend to fall into two main camps: upscale ones like Dos Caminos and cheap ones like Five Burros. There are some others of course, but these two take up most of the pie chart. Forest Hills doesn't have any upscale Mexican yet, but it does have cheap. With Marianella's gone, I ventured forth to Sgt. Garcia's, the large, second-floor restaurant near Barnes & Noble. 

Sgt. Garcia's is large and, with half of its seating outdoors but under shade, I would have expected it to be far more crowded than it was. Not that it was empty or anything, but it wasn't crowded by any stretch. It being seven hundred degrees out this evening, Pike and I opted for the air conditioned interior and took a seat by the wall.

Mexican restaurants have yet to embrace the craft beer craze by importing Mexican microbrews, so Garcia's has the standard Mexican beer selection of Corona's and Negro Modelos along with margaritas and daiquiris. Pike and I just had soda, but factor in an extra few bucks if you drink. $6 for bottle of beer up to $48 if you want a pitcher of pina coladas.

Pike and I split the Guacamole with chips. You aren't given very much but, even with relatively little, we didn't get very far into it. The guacamole was extremely bland, the chips were tasteless, and the salsa was thin and far far far too mild. Nothing was disgusting. It didn't taste bad. It just didn't taste anything.

The entree menu can run from cheap taqueria standards like tacos and enchiladas to more high end stuff like grilled salmon in a tangerine glaze. We went cheap. Garcia's "platos tradicionales" menu has enchiladas, tacos, burritos, chimichangas, toastados, and chili rellenos. You can pick any two for $14 or any three for $16. We each chose two, thinking we wouldn't go overboard. Little did we know how much food Garcia's gives out.

What you see below is either my plate or Pike's. We got different things but both plates came buried in cheese, rice, and rice. Halfway through the meal I could have easily crawled under the table and passed out. I ordered the Beef Burrito, a soft corn-shelled pocket of ground beef and Mexican fillin's and the Beef Chili Relleno a large chili pepper filled with ground beef and cheese... then topped off with more cheese. Don't eat at Garcia's if you're lactose intolerant. The burrito was very good in that it was better than the average burrito you might find at, say, Chipotle and I preferred the burrito to the chili relleno, which I was expecting to like more, but it fell a little flat. No flavors jumped out at me. Meanwhile Pike ordered a Beef Chimichanga, which was the best of the bunch because, well, anything deep fried automatically wins. Now imagine deep frying a taco. Impossible to go wrong. He also ordered a Chicken Enchilada, which he preferred over the chimichanga and which I thought tasted just like my burrito. In the end, most of these flavors somewhat clump together under the onslaught of refried beans and sour cream. Nothing is really that different and everything tasted good, if forgettable. I certainly don't recommend appetizers. 

Naturally, comparisons with Five Burros are necessary. If the typical crowd at Five Burros is young and loud, the crowd here is... not. FB is practically a college bar. The music pumps, girls dress sexy when they go, there are a throng of smokers milling around the entrance all the time, it's open later than almost any restaurant in the area. Sgt. Garcia's isn't geriatric, but the people here seemed more interested in hanging out and eating than in being someplace popular. To be fair, the food at FB might actually be slightly better (certainly the chips are), but not by such a margin that it's really worth waiting a half an hour to get a table and not by such a margin that it's worth me waving a money-clenched fist at the bartender for ten solid minutes to get his attention because he was too busy flirting with Ms. Redhead in the sequined shirt and fuck-me pumps (Hey, I get it. I like redheads in fuck-me pumps, too. Just get my drink first. You'll have the whole rest of the night to get shot down, I promise). My point is, Garcia's is a good backup if you want to avoid the crowd and if you go with friends you're more likely to get a table quickly.

A mountain of food, a relatively untouched appetizer, two sodas, tax and tip, came to about $30 per person.

And if any readers have had any of the entrees, feel free to leave a comment describing it. I tend to go to cheap Mexican restaurants for cheap Mexican food. It never crosses my wallet to order anything but the comfort food standards.

The Forest Hills Farmers' Market Is Here

Some of you may not have known that there's a farmers' market here in Forest Hills. Well as of now, every Sunday into November, there is one. It's small, but in time, they expect it to grow ever larger, and, with some stands having all but sold out by noon, that time may be very soon indeed. Spread a good word, eat some good food, and maybe save yourself the trek out to Union Square.

All photos come courtesy of the ever vigilant Susan who pounded the pavement for us all while I was out of town.

Wine Bar Yes - 70

Wine Bar No - 11

Well folks, the results are in. The gimme-vino-on-Austin crowd beat out the Danny-Brown-stay-home bunch a whopping 70 to 11. This thoroughly unscientific poll can only mean one thing. Forest Hills has evolved. It used to be a sort of happy medium between the urban density of Manhattan and the suburban sprawl of Long Island. People no longer want to travel to get stuff. There's a reason that Sushi Yasu moved from Yellowstone to Austin Street and it wasn't the ambiance. There's a reason that Atlas Park is crumbling beneath the weight of its own dream. There's a reason I am, to this day, shocked that Trader Joe's opened where it did. Convenience. People don't want to drive or walk a half hour to get things. Oh sure, some people do. They like the exercise or enjoy having a good stroll or giving themselves an excuse to see a new neighborhood. But most people just want to be able to go somewhere on the fly with their wives, or friends, or lovers, or wife's friend's lovers. Shoot the shit, drink a bottle, stumble home without a cab. It's in the fine print of the American dream. 

If you read the comments of my various posts, as I often do, then you know that one of my readers, the smokin' hot Susan, did some unsolicited recon for us all and found out that, lo and behold, the old Q Thai Bistro space will become... a wine bar! We're number one! We're number one! USA! USA! Reward her efforts by giving her money. Reward the guy opening the wine bar by giving him even more money. Danny Brown, for those who are interested, never replied to my direct letter to him and never commented on the open letter (which were the same) that you all read here. I'm hardly surprised and so can hardly be disappointed, though it would have been pretty neat to have influenced someone to such a degree that they drop a half million dollars on my suggestion.

Up next, I want a real espresso in a big fat cushy chair, made by a hipster barrista covered in tattoos whose only goal in life is to make perfect coffee.

Someone make that happen.

AN OPEN LETTER TO DANNY BROWN

(don't forget to take the poll) ---->

Dear Mr. Brown, 

I think that I speak for all of Forest Hills when I say: "Please open a wine bar near Austin Street as soon as humanly possible".

But first, since this is my letter, let me just whine poetic for a spell and tell you exactly what I mean when I make this desperate plea.

The neighborhood needs a place where people can go with friends to chill out with wine and cheese and prosciutto. A place without loud music or ESPN on a television behind someone's head. In fact, a place with no televisions at all. The neighborhood needs a place where a guy like me can go on a date without having to scream a conversation or fight for a pair of bar stools or have someone's buffalo chicken sauce drip on my shirt. The neighborhood needs a place where you can kick back before or after or instead of dinner without feeling obligated to have an actual meal. The neighborhood has plenty of bars, and needs a little more class. The neighborhood needs a wine list that doesn't include Yellow Tail or Ecco Domani or Beringer. The neighborhood needs a destination location that can be accessed by subway so that my friends who don't live in the neighborhood don't have to drive and it needs to be good enough that they can't wait to return.

I think that you're the man for the job. It's the perfect time. Thanks to getting the only Michelin star in all of Queens, you put Forest Hills on the map. You have foodie street cred. Everyone in Forest Hills already loves your restaurant. And beyond. I took friends from out of town to have dinner at Danny Brown and they rave to this day. Hell, I was at Peter Luger and our waiter brought up how great your restaurant was (though exactly how that conversation started was lost on me. I blame too much steak).

You've already done most of the work. When your restaurant on Metropolitan first opened, it was supposed to be a wine bar. Now, it's an actual, full-on restaurant, but the wine list has already been made. The cheese plate menu is already created. The appetizers have already been honed. If you stick to the small stuff and don't offer entrees, you won't compete with yourself. I'll miss the organic chicken under a brick, but keep the grilled calamari with white beans and arugula and I'll order it every day.

Come on, man. We need it. I'm begging you. We've got nothing. Jade's about all there is, and they gave up on that cocktail lounge idea years ago. Exo wants to be a club without a dance floor. I like Irish Cottage and Dirty Pierre and Manor Oktoberfest but they're each about as romantic as a bent tin can. Tap House is a fratty sports bar, Billiard Club is a pool hall and don't get me started on that pit, Bartinis.

The closest thing we have to what I'm really talking about is Uvarara, which I love, but it's in Middle Village and couldn't be in a less convenient location if it tried. 

With EuroPan kaput, there's a good sized space right on 70th by restaurant row. It has big glass doors that can open to let in cool summer breezes and it's right where people would go to window shop menus. Or maybe check out where Best 1 Sushi used to be on 72nd. It's quieter, there's space for outdoor seating, and if you open with a small plates brunch menu, you'll grab everyone going to and from church. There are probably a dozen spots in the area that you could... nay, should consider.  

Anyway, think about it. And hey, maybe I'm way off base. Maybe no one really wants a Danny Brown Wine Bar on the Austin Street corridor. But I think they do. I know I do. 

Sincerely, 

Jon Parker

eateryROW

GLORIA PIZZA

108-22 Queens Boulevard

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 263-1100

Gloria Pizza has been the talk of the Forest Hills blogosphere for a few months now. One would have almost thought that Jean Georges Vongerichten was moving into the area what with all of the frantic postings wondering when, oh when! will Gloria finally open it's gloria-ous doors to us. Now that it's here, there's usually a line. Is the pizza good? Yes it is. I can easily see myself returning here for a slice or ordering a pie on a rainy, windswept night. Is it the pizza worthy of all the heart-pounding anticipation? No. It's pizza. It's good pizza. I'd go so far as to say it's very good pizza. But it's not breaking new ground. Gloria serves good, NY style pizza in a generic NY style pizza parlor space (Gloria's isn't competing with Nicks's or Dee's. Those two are their own animals and whether you love them or hate them, they simply don't serve the same kind of food).

What impressed me the most about Gloria wasn't the pizza so much as the staff. Every time I've been there, they always seemed pretty happy. Jovial sometimes. They're not dancing a jig at the register or anything, but everyone seems to be smiling, no one's yelling at the delivery guy or grunting at customers rather than using real words. Maybe this is because it's so well lit and the kitchen isn't hidden in some back room. Sunlight does kill depression. 

The Gloria storefront is in what should be a great location, right next to the movie theater. There's no end of folks either too young to drink who need a place to go with their dates before a movie, or people like me who just want to get a bite that's fast and cheap in order to avoid spending a week's salary on a bag of mediocre popcorn. And I'm sure that the timely demise of Ariana only one block away can't hurt. 

ALBERTO

98-31 Metropolitan Avenue

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 268-7860

If you read this blog then you know that I have, with good reason, a pretty low opinion of red sauce Italian restaurants. But you know something? Alberto, the restaurant on Metropolitan, was pretty good if I do say so myself... and I do. Forest Hills has its share of crap Italian, but it's nice to see that there are options available should you want to escape their foul, rank mediocrity. It's too bad that many of the better restaurants in the area are on Metropolitan. There's no be subway access, and parking is often difficult.

The interior of Alberto is large and high ceilinged, with dark, exposed woods, exposed brick, and stained glass. Like a cross between a converted church and a repurposed beer hall. The bar in the front room is large and wood and was probably carved in 1890 out of a single thousand year-old tree. Alberto is every part the classic restaurant. But it doesn't fall into the kitchy trap of Italian restaurants typical of the area. No plastic flowers, no doilies, no happy little figurines in chef's hats holding pizzas over their heads, no red checker tablecloths. There's also Frank Sinatra playing garishly from the sound system, but they did cheapify the atmosphere with Olive Garden style foil-wrapped butter, one of the greatest of my pet peeves.

The average age trends older, but there's a good mix overall, from my early 30s demographic to couples in their 70s. I was surprised at how lively, if not outright loud, the restaurant was. It made me feel less self conscious taking flash photos.

Our waiter arrived and, after he took our order of a couple of glasses of wine, proceeded to rattle off a seemingly endless array of specials. I lost track, stopped listening after he passed the two dozen mark, and we ended up ordering off the standard menu anyway.

Pike's appetizer was the Scampi Alberto, shrimp in a garlic and olive oil red sauce. When it arrived Pike looked at me. His eyes said "you can't have any of this."

Remember last week, when news broke that the General Services Administration had held a huge weekend bash in Vegas where they bought, among other things, a meal that included shrimp at $4 a pop? People made a huge deal out of the $4 shrimp. Bill O'Reilly nearly had a heart attack for Chrissake. Look at the photo below. As it turns out, the Scampi Alberto costs EXACTLY $4 per shrimp. $4.50 once you factor in tax and tip. The lesson here is threefold. First, calm down and don't shit yourself when you watch the news. Second, don't order the shrimp appetizer if you're hungry. Third, Alberto needs to work on presentation. At least make it look like $12 worth. Pike said that the shrimp was good.

I ordered the Carpaccio Originale, beef carpaccio with cracked pepper, Parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of olive oil. This appetizer was great and it even made me feel like I got my money's worth. I would certainly order it again.

For an entree I chose the Gnocchi. I love gnocchi and Alberto's little potato dumplings in a meat sauce were quite pleasant. It didn't break any boundaries of what gnocchi is. It was comfort food, plain and simple, and again, Alberto isn't going to win any awards for originality or presentation (actually, now that Forest Hills is on the Michelin map, it might actually lose them), but you certainly won't be disappointed with this dish. And the meat sauce was perfect. It was slightly sweet, wasn't swamped in meat, nor was it meat sauce in name only, and the chef didn't drown the dumplings in it. There was enough to enhance rather than mask any flavors. Pike ordered the Risotto with Seafood, risotto with clams, calamari, mussels and shrimp, which he liked, but which I didn't really think much of. This is mostly because mixed seafood dishes tend to turn me off (paella being the only exception I can think of), not necessarily because Alberto did anything wrong.

Dessert-wise, Alberto was hit-or-miss. We ordered two cakes. The Napoleon was fantastic. Light, creamy, a flaky crust, enhanced with just the right amount of raspberry drizzle on the plate. But the Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse (we think it was called this. The server had an accent you'd need an axe to cut through) was at best weak. Dense and bitter and while it looked fine on the plate, had about as much flavor as a styrofoam cusion.

Two appetizers, three drinks, a soda, two entrees, two desserts, two coffees, tax and tip totaled $139. Alberto is pricey, for sure, but better than expected and entirely pleasant. While it will probably never become a destination spot the way Astoria's Trattoria L'incontro has, I'd certainly return.

Brunch Report 

JUST LIKE MOTHER'S

110-60 Queens Boulevard

Forest Hills, NY 11375

(718) 544-3294

Just Like Mother's (JLM) has a reputation for being one of the neighborhood's go-to brunch spots, in no small part because Time Out Magazine profiled it once upon a time and said so. It's been around for seemingly forever and I decided that it was finally time to go there for this famous brunch. Pike, who'd been there many a time, was hesitant. "They don't serve mimosa's". Mimosa's be damned, we went.

JLM, this past Sunday, was packed with a fifteen minute wait for a table (meanwhile, over at Old Vienna Cafe, there were plenty of open tables). "I've never seen them this crowded" said someone else waiting for a table. The waitresses scrambled, frantically cleaning tables and bringing out dishes. We were soon seated and coffees were ordered. I'll reserve my description of the interior for the full dinner review that I'll do later. Long story short, I'd upgrade.

In any event, the waitresses were so overburdened by what must have been an unexpected crowd that coffee took about fifteen minutes (once it did come, though, someone kept refilling my cup with lightning efficiency) and the toast that was supposed to come with my meal arrived after I had finished more than half of it. So service was on the weak side, but I'm happy to give them a pass this time.

As Pike warned, brunch comes without mimosas or bloody Mary's or anything to calm your Saturday hangover. And, really, brunch at JLM almost doesn't come with brunch. There's a breakfast menu of diner breakfast standards like omelets and pancakes, but not much else. Most of the menu is lunch stuff. Burgers and sandwiches and, of course, Polish food like blintzes and pirogi, which I wasn't going to order (I'll save those for the dinner review).

As for the brunch, Pike ordered the Pancakes, with a side of scrambled eggs and a huge dollop of jelly. Honestly, I wasn't impressed. They were dense and overcooked. They weren't inedibly bad or anything like that. They were just forgettable. The product of a rushed kitchen? Perhaps. I can't rule that out. Certainly the presentation needed work.

My choice was the only unique brunch dish on the menu. Polish Style Poached Eggs, two eggs over sliced ham with a creamy dill sauce, served with toast and a choice of side. I chose the home fries. It was good. The eggs were nice and runny, the sauce was tangy and sharp. The home fries were nothing to write home about, but home fries never are. If they found a few more brunchy dishes in the cookbook like this one, I can see myself going back. But if not...

Basically, JLM is a diner and brunch in a diner is something I try to avoid. Brunch, as I've said countless times (if not to you readers, then to my imaginary friends) is all about atmosphere. It should be bright and happy and colorful and there should be fruit and berries and make you feel like a WASPy chiche from a Caddyshack movie. That's not JLM. It's dark, it's super hot, it's stuffy and at one point during our brunch, the table next to ours starts packing up to leave. So one of their party decides to sit and wait at our table. And while she's there, starts picking up my camera and looking it over. No "hey, do you mind if I take a peek at this new-fangled piece of equipment?" Then she starts chiming into our conversation. This sort of casual discourtesy was infuriating, but somehow it was very difficult to scold an 80 year old. "Stop touching my shit and mind your own business" is easier felt than said.

R.I.P. Ariana's

Ariana's Cafe, the pizza place on Austin next to Martha's Country Bakery is, it would seem, dead. Pike told me that he saw them moving out big equipment the other day and now they're all boarded up. I liked Ariana. The pizza was always good, they were convenient, they were decently priced, and unlike Lillian they delivered... Anyway, until whatchamacallit by the movie theater opens, A&J has the market for regular NY pizza cornered. I hope y'all like A&J. 

CABANA

107-10 70th Road

Forest Hills, NY11375

 (718) 263-3600

It took a while for me to finally make it, but the other day I schlepped over to Cabana for dinner. My overall impression was a positive one, with the exception of dessert, which was unimpressive at best. Still, the entrees and appetizers were very good. 

There was an energy at Cabana that's rare in a neighborhood filled with staid and stuffy restaurants who ironically think that lining the walls with fake flowers adds life. This is changing, of course, as the old school red saucers on Metropolitan seem perennially empty and Old Vienna Cafe hangs on by a thread. Meanwhile restaurants like Exo, Bare Burger, MoCA, Common Space, and even Bonfire attract younger energetic crowds. As this trend continues and indeed grows, I expect that Cabana will continue to pack them in.