After a disappointing burger at Back Forty, I wondered if maybe a non-fancy place, one that doesn’t give a damn about fresh greenery or artisanal cheese, would pour more love into its beef patties. I turned to the crowd-wisdom of Yelp.com to help me find a solid East Village burger joint and the reviews of Royale sounded promising. Located on Avenue C, on a stretch once out of the stumbling powers of weekend warriors who come to party but that is now dotted with cute nightspots, Royale has an understated appeal. Inside there’s a bar, baseball on TV, classic rock pumping out of the Wurltizer, and beer in a can on the menu. I’m sorry to say that I was distracted from a thorough perusal by the soaring rock opus that is Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin‘,” (imagine if Pavlov’s dogs played air guitar, and you have an idea of the spell I was under). I barely had the wherewithal to order a Bacon Royale ($7), can of pork slap ($4) and basket onion rings ($4).

In maybe ten minutes, a toothsome stack of medium-well angus beef, crispy bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and tomato was placed before me. On the first bite a dribblet of hot grease ran down my wrist–a juicy, burning harbinger of sweet burger-scouting success. The batter on the onion rings could’ve used a bit more crunch, but I liked how they were sliced thin enough to bite through. No slab of onion becoming dislodged from its battered casing and slopping on your chin here! The pork slap was malty, gingery, and mild like a beery dessert in a can. I don’t think this is the holy grail of burger places, but this is relatively cheap and totally satisfying grub, attainable late, and probably even tastier when you’re drunk.

Eastvillagepodcasts compares Westville and Royale

157 Avenue C near 10th Street
Sun-Thu 4pm-2am. Fri-Sat, 4pm-4am

No cocktail soothes my summertime blues like a mint julep. This bourbony beverage hails from the South, where they know a thing or two about knock-you-down heat, and since 99.5% of bourbon comes from the Kentucky, it’s also the official Kentucky Derby cocktail. I don’t visit the track too often, but as it happens, it serves just as well as an official waiting-in-festering-subway-and-need-a-cold-drink drink.

A mint julep is pretty simple to make. You’ll need:
- crushed ice
- fresh mint
- granulated sugar (or powdered sugar) plus powdered sugar for garnish
- bourbon (Maker’s Mark is a common choice, but Booker’s, Baker’s, Blanton’s, and Woodford Reserve are all Snackish-approved)
- a silver-plated mint julep cup (for optimal frost-formation on the outside of your drink. But then if you’re already this serious about your mint julep you probably don’t need to read this)
- plastic straw

(ingredients–that’s a ziploc bag of ice, not crack, I swear)

Add 4-5 mint sprigs and sugar to a glass. I didn’t have granulated sugar on hand, so I used 3 teaspoons of powdered sugar, plus 3 teaspoons of water to help dissolve the sugar. Then, firmly press and twist the mint against the bottom of the glass with something flat. This is called muddling. The goal is to unleash the flavors of the mint without pulverizing the leaves and making the drink bitter. I ended up using an ice cream scoop, but there are specially-made instruments called muddlers for this. According to one theory, using granulated sugar in the previous step helps with muddling since the granules abrade the mint leaves.

Next add some crushed ice. This was the most difficult step for me, as my blender seemed to shave the ice to snowflake-size. The best method for making crushed ice short of buying an ice crusher seems to be wrapping ice cubes in a towel and beating them. The towel soaks up the meltiness, leaving you with dry ice. I was definitely also left with some largish chunks on my second attempt (top picture) so I think a rubber mallet would be ideal for the beating, as opposed to multitasking with your trusty ice cream scoop. Now pour in the bourbon and stir. About 4 tablespoons, or 2 oz, worked with this amount of sugar in a smallish glass, but you can always add more bourbon. Adding more sugar is difficult.

Almost done. Put a dollop of ice on top for sno-cone effect, garnish with mint, and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Head to your nearest breezy verandah, or prop a fan in your window, put your feet up, and enjoy some smooth sipping.

Adapted from Mint Julep recipe on Drinksmixer.com

I wanted to like Back Forty. I’m all for elevated gastropub fare using ingredients straight from the Greenmarket, and I don’t mind the rusticated interior design that’s in vogue these days. And there were a few highlights. An impeccably-sugared mint julep ($10), mixed with Ezra Brooks bourbon and muddled mint arrived in a de rigueur frosted silver cup, cooling under a mound of snowconeish ice particles. The golden beet and chevre salad ($10) seemed aimed to make you marvel over the perfection of each green, balsamic-coated arugula leaf. Spicy homemade ketchup, with a rich undercurrent of molasses, kicked up the interest factor on some otherwise so-so rosemary fries. A pint of Chelsea Sunset Red ($7) was the first cask ale I’d had since the cask ale festival, and was suitably flat and complex in flavor.

Unfortunately, we were waiting 30 minutes for a table and when another party of two who just walked in was seated immediately, it become apparent the host had thought we’d requested a table in the backyard. We had not. A simple mix-up I suppose–however, another place might offer a free round of drinks or something for wasting our time, and we received a brusque “sorry.” The second screw-up happened when I ordered the burger. The menu recommended ordering the grass-fed beef not cooked beyond medium, but I ordered it medium-well, having had that work out with grass-fed beef before. It arrived just-past-rare, and I suppose I should have sent it back, but I was at that point starving, and crankily picked at instead. Fans of rare beef might like this burger, it probably would have been fine cooked, (the Burger of the Month Club put it on their top ten), but for $11, I don’t want something that’s been thrown back on the grill.

There were other items on the menu that piqued my interest (pork jowl nuggets, chicken and waffles), and I believe a review usually warrants two tries, but I’m in no rush to go back. We ended up, predictably, at the bar, tossing back another round of cocktails, which at $10 each, were well-mixed and not too outrageously priced.

Back Forty
190 Avenue B at 12th Street
Dinner: Mon-Thurs 6pm-11pm, Sat 6pm-12am, Sun 6pm-10pm,
Brunch: Sat&Sun, 12pm-3pm

Reputed to be the best Thai restaurant in the city, Sripraphai sits on an unassuming block, almost in earshot of the rumbling elevated 7 train, way out in Woodside Queens. Since their renovation a few years ago, this spot is less of a famous hole-in-the-wall, and more of a modern sanctum for serious lovers of Thai cuisine. I hoped it would be worth the schlep.

watercress salad–tastes better than it looks

After an overwhelming purusal of a 12-page menu, and fortified by a Singha, the dishes began arriving at a brisk clip. One standout was the crispy watercress salad–tempura-coated greens covering tangy bits of chicken, squid, and shrimp ($9.50), which was best enjoyed with coconut rice ($2.00). The fried shrimp cakes with chili dipping sauce ($8.50) and fried chive vegetable dumplings ($4.00) were somewhat less remarkable, although the crisp, yet deeply chewy texture on the dumplings was a nice surprise, rather like biting into fried cake. My favorite dish of the night was the tom kha gai soup ($4.00). Huge chunks of chicken and mushroom marinated in sweet coconut milk, which had a lovely heat (I asked for medium spicy). It was easily the best tom kha I’ve had. The cashew chicken entree ($8.00) looked innocuous enough–breaded chicken coated with sweet chili sauce and pineapple–but one accidental bite into a dried, rather tasteless chili set my tongue on fire. The burning lasted for half an hour.

cashew chicken

There was no choice put to order some coconut ice cream ($4.00), which was a soothing dessert although one had to dig through a slimy pile of sweet palm seeds to get at the good stuff. The yellow bean cakes ($4.00), which resembled uraniam-esque hockey pucks, tasted a little flat on my chili-pepper numbed tongue, but eaten later at home they were a dense, sweet and coconutty treat.

coconut ice cream

All in all, the flavors were good, the prices were fair, and the service was fast. I was not as blown away as I’d hoped to be but I would go back, and just be careful to avoid any dried chilies. At least I can now proudly add deep-fried salad to my snacking resume.

64-13 39th Avenue Woodside Queens
11:30 am - 9:30pm Closed Wednesdays