Bareburger, Be Still My {Healthy} Heart

Taste-tested and approved by Rebecca Banchik

Bareburger has just released a new updated menu of lunch and dinner options that are not to be missed. The restaurant continues to offer organic and locally sourced food at a great price and even better taste. While I would only be fooling myself to claim that milkshakes, burgers, and fries are health foods, at least while eating anything from Bareburger I feel good about knowing I’m eating whole foods and nothing processed.

There are some old favorites that are still on the menu, like the buffalo chicken sandwich. Bareburger makes a mean buffalo sauce {the sauce itself is Whole30 approved if anyone cares} and smothers it over a perfectly crispy fried chicken thigh. Using dark meat for their fried chicken not only ensures that the meat is juicy, but it guarantees to provide a richer and more robust flavor. If it’s a lighter choice you’re after, the Guapo Chop salad has always been a go-to for me. I can’t say no to guacamole. Ever.

I love cheese almost as much as I love my husband, so I would never personally choose to go vegan. But I’m absolutely pro-delicious foods and treats that are vegan without any sacrifice to flavor or enjoyment. Bareburger’s new vegan “milkshakes” are a real treat, and you don’t even realize you’re not having actual dairy milk or ice cream. The Velvis is a fantastic take on The King of Rock n’ Roll’s favorite combo – peanut butter and bananas, with a rich chocolate goodness. The creamy base is coconut ice cream and hemp milk. Mmm. The other new shake is a mint chocolate cookie concoction made with Newman’s Own chocolate cookies. YUM. If you can’t decide between the two, just bring a date and order both. You only live once, right?

Have you tried the Impossible Burger yet? What about the Beyond Burger? These names make them sound like supernatural burgers and well, they kind of are…meaty goodness but completely vegan. What?! The Beyond Burger is even gluten, soy, and GMO free! Truly you can find something for everyone here regardless of diet, allergy, or preference. 

We tasted the Beyond Burger – a semi-firm patty made with beet juice for color, potato, and coconut among other ingredients. Compared to the Impossible Burger, the texture was more along the lines of a seiten. The Impossible Burger has the texture of ground beef. If you are trying to fool your carnivorous friend, give them the Impossible Burger. If you don’t need it to taste like beef or are ok with a different texture, try the Beyond Burger. Both are really quite satisfying and more distinct than I expected!

A new fried chicken sandwich features a pear compote and a sticky sweet sauce. This sandwich had a lot of sweetness, but was mellowed by a surprise guest of mustard. I was pleased that the chicken maintained its crispy exterior despite the sauce and toppings.

Let’s talk about fries, aka fried happiness. Bareburger’s new take on your diner fries are Queso Fundido fries which are fries covered in a melty cheese sauce, chopped black forest bacon (what?!), and coated with a stellar hot sauce called wham bam sauce. These were truly enjoyable ~ the spice from the hot sauce complemented the creamy cheese nicely, and the fries were crisp and salty. It took a lot of willpower not to finish every…last…one.

You won’t find anything else quite like Bareburger here in Forest Hills. It’s great to support this local restaurant, whose roots are in Queens {the original is in Astoria} and has become a mainstay on Austin Street. When you’re there, take a few minutes to admire the “artwork” and quirky design elements that make the restaurant a fun spot for date night, dinner with the kiddies, or a leisurely weekend hang.

Healthy & Fresh Eats in Forest Hills

With this post, we introduce one of our new writers, Rebecca Banchik. Rebecca has lived in Forest Hills for two and a half years with her husband after 10 years of living in Manhattan. She traded in her Upper East Side life for the quaint and ever evolving Forest Hills neighborhood and never looks back. She’s a true foodie always searching for delicious and interesting meals in Queens and beyond. You can follow her on Instagram and Facebook @Foodieinthefrills. Edge of the City is still looking for more local writers, photographers and contributors. Email edgeofthecity@gmail.com for more information!

Around this time of year, you’re either staying strong and committed to those New Year’s resolutions and plans to eat better, drop a few pounds, workout more, yadda yadda yadda or you’re feeling sorry for yourself because it’s cold and nasty outside and you definitely deserve a giant bowl of macaroni and cheese. I fall somewhere in the middle – I know I want to eat well and feel good about what I put into my body…but I still want my meals to be tasty and flavorful. Forest Hills has some good options for healthy eats – here are some of my personal favorites. I hope you give them a try and never forget, it’s always ok to ask for alterations to your selection to make them fit into your healthy lifestyle. So, hold the bun and take a look:

Agora Taverna 70-09 Austin Street

Agora Taverna's Prasini Salad

The Prasini salad is my favorite. It’s simple, but that’s what makes it so fresh and satisfying. The feta Agora uses is a really delicious Greek feta that is creamy and not dry and crumbly. There are herbs that really bring out a nice flavor to the salad and the greens are crisp and refreshing. The salad is tossed with a house-made vinaigrette too – no creamy fatty dressing here.

Looking for protein? The lamb or pork kebab sticks are hearty, simply grilled, and can be ordered with a side of horta – a sautéed escarole green with garlic and oil. Squeeze some lemon on the dish and you have a protein rich, no carb dinner that will warm you on a cold night.

Bareburger 71-49 Austin Street

Burgers and fries probably sound the opposite of healthy. But that’s why Bareburger is a great choice if you know how to order. You can customize anything from their menu. They also have a great selection of salads and greens. They even have some interesting appetizers making quinoa and wholesome grains taste quite delicious. You can feel good about the food you eat here too, almost everything is organic and even the ketchup is homemade.

What to order? Try a burger (pick your protein – for a leaner choice, try the Bison) wrapped in a collard green leaf or for a gluten free option try the tapioca bun. Load up on the veggies and avocado for toppings. Order a side salad or for a more creative salad, order a small-sized main entrée salad. If you need a beverage, try their natural sodas. The ginger brew is my favorite; this isn’t Schweppes. This is natural soda made with real ginger. It’s strong, spicy, and delicious.

Ripe Juice Bar and Grill 70-13 Austin Street

Ripe has been around and they know how to do smart eating. They make a mean smoothie too. For a more treat-like smoothie, try the Pina Colada made with coconut milk, yogurt and honey for sweetness. It has the taste of the islands {ignore the snow mount by the stairs}. The Sunset Beach and the Coco Cabana are also excellent choices.

If you’re making Ripe a stop for a meal {great for a post workout dinner or lighter meal mid-week}, try the Grilled Tilapia platter. The dish is filled with brown rice, simply steamed vegetables, and a nice piece of fish. Ripe is focused on healthy low-calorie ingredients. Don’t expect jam packed flavor. But you can feel good about fueling up with whole foods that aren’t overly salted. For more jazz, the Mexican-Tex Quesadilla is a healthier take on a comfort food staple. Order it with the grilled steak and you have a nice protein rich but yummy dinner.

Roast n Co 100-12 Queens Boulevard

Roast n Co's Rotisserie Chicken

This newcomer to the area has some really delicious rotisserie chicken. You can’t go wrong with a platter of nicely seasoned and slow roasted chicken alongside greens. If you aren’t nearby to walk over, they deliver well and quickly. The chicken is antibiotic free, free range, and non-gmo which makes you feel good about consuming a responsibly raised meat. I enjoyed the sautéed kale and broccoli, but you can opt for a beet salad or ratatouille for something a little more unique. They operate a full service coffee shop as well that I haven’t yet tried – but it looks cozy and worth a stop soon!

Red Pipe Café 71-60 Austin Street

Red Pipe's Breakfast Sandwich on Ciabatta

I can’t tell you how much I love this place. It’s a coffee shop serving organic Counter Culture coffee. Forest Hills needed a high caliber coffee shop and Red Pipe came to answer that need. In fact, the entire place is organic serving fresh, wholesome breakfast and lunch salads and sandwiches. Stay for a meal and you won’t be disappointed. The breakfast sandwich on a multi-grain ciabatta roll with hard- boiled egg thinly sliced, layered with melted Vermont cheddar cheese, a garlic aioli, and avocado is to die for and super filling. It’s no carb or dairy free, but it’s organic and it’s delicious. If you want to go lighter, they have salads and creative vegetarian sandwiches to enjoy. You can’t go to Red Pipe and not feel relaxed. Sip an almond milk latte, linger long enough to order a snack, and be grateful Forest Hills has place for the cool kids to hang.

Honorable mention:

You can find wholesome dishes at other restaurants in Forest Hills. It’s all about being creative, ordering smartly, and exploring your options. To name a few, Nick’s Bistro serves a really great homemade quinoa veggie burger. Have it over lettuce {sans bread} and substitute the fries for some lemon roasted potatoes. Aaheli Indian Cuisine does a nice warming mulligatawny soup and tandoori chicken that’s free of cream and the heaviness that often comes with Indian cooking in America. A Sushi NY has fresh sushi and {insanely} fast delivery if you’re craving sushi but want to keep it affordable, simple, and yummy. Inside Natural you can have them make you a healthy salad with all the mix-ins you can imagine.

Forest Hills Burger Wars Reviewed!

My fellow blogger in crime, Jon Parker, over at eateryROW: foresthills has taken it upon himself to test out three of our Austin Street burger joints by downing a cheeseburger at each one:

PREMIUM BURGER WARS!!! BAREBURGER vs. SHAKE SHACK vs. TWIST & SMASH'D

The result is quite amusing. My biggest complaint with Twist has always been the size of their burgers. Way too pricey to still leave hungry! I wrote that on Day One, and I don't think they ever changed.... oh well.

I love the Shack and Bareburger equally - in my view they are just too different to compare....

Bareburger's New Menu

One of my favorite local restaurants, Bareburger, gave its menu a makeover a couple of weeks ago. I've included it below. So far, I've tried what they call the "Guapo Chop" salad and really liked it. I guess it takes the place of their former Mexican-inspired salad, which always kinda fell short in the Mexican department. This one comes with a nice scoop of guac and tortilla chips and just tasted great. Pic's below. Happy eating my friends!

Bareburger Forest Hills

Due to the storm, Bareburger Forest Hills tells me they will be opening tomorrow (Thursday, 2/13/14) at 4:30pm.

On a brighter note, for Valentine's day (this Friday, 2/14/14) Bareburger Forest Hills will be offering its Rose wine as a special. The bottle will be available for purchase for dine-in guests for only $15. Wine info: Domaine Bousquet Rose 2012.

Forest Hills Bareburger Expansion Opens

I visited the newly-expanded Bareburger on Austin St. over the weekend. The expansion, which seems to have more than doubled the restaurant's size, makes a huge difference. Gone is the crowded section of tables when you walk in. Instead, they have been incorporated into two sections with a partial wall in between. The result: what was a rather cramped space is now wonderfully spacious and really comfortable. A great new addition to our restaurant scene.

The Forest Hills Bareburger's new section seems to more than double its space.

A partial wall which runs much of the restaurant separates the two sides.

Bareburger Expands

A sign that our neighborhood is welcoming healthier, more upscale dining options. Congratulations to this innovative local chain of restaurants. Well-deserved!

Bareburger's New Menu

My favorite Forest Hills burger joint has updated their menu. You'll notice they've added some new types of burgers and salads to their already extensive menu. (Click on the images to read)

Now Delivering - Bareburger

Bareburger says it now delivers throughout the Forest Hills/Rego Park area.

I had lunch there yesterday, trying one of their salads for the first time instead of a burger. The Mexican salad (shown below) was just perfect. I also had a side of panko covered chicken strips, which were just awesome. It was all washed down by their terrific diet root beer (free refills included :) )

As you can tell, I really can't find anything lacking about the food at Bareburger. My only "complaint"— it would be great if they could eventually move to an even bigger space.

Some Loose Ends

With the excitement over Bareburger's opening having died down here in Blog-land while we wait for the next big restaurant or shopping news, here are some other smaller items of note:

• Bareburger says it may start home delivery next week.
• Gloria Pizza says it may open on April 2nd.
• Readers have told me that medical offices are planned for the former Mandee/Annie Sez building on the Western end of Austin. Not sure if that means the entire building will be medical offices, or just a portion of it. The facade was very good for a retailer, so that seems like a huge waste to me.
• I have to remember to get myself down to Metropolitan Avenue where there are some delectable restaurants awaiting me down there. Wafa's and Taci's, the new Turkish restaurant. 

Bareburger's Menu

Here's their menu... Click on the images to see a larger view. It also includes their delivery area and hours (nice and late).

Inside the New Forest Hills Bareburger

They let me take a peek into the new Bareburger on Austin St.
It opens at 5 p.m. on Monday...

Figuring Out FoHi

One thing we could definitely use here in Forest Hills is an independent coffee place. Why there are like a zillion of these in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and zilch here in Forest Hills is beyond me.

Here's a photo I took of the O Cafe on 6th Ave. and 12th Street in Manhattan. This is the type of place I'm talking about.

The closest thing we have to a coffee place like this is La Boulangerie. They do brew great coffee and it's a great place to hang out, albeit a little small.

Here in Forest Hills it seems all of our coffee places are of the diner or bakery variety And, of course, there's Starbucks. It's time we joined the modern era here and someone opened an independent coffee house, or two.

This goes to something I've been thinking about for a while. That our neighborhood is still very misunderstood by retailers and restauranteurs when it comes to places to just kick back and relax and have a cup of coffee or a drink with friends. Just look at what has dominated the local scene up until now - sports bars, like Exo Cafe, or calorie-laden bakeries that also happen to serve coffee as an afterthought.

And meanwhile, the biggest success locally in recent years has been the most upscale of the bunch, La Boulangerie.

Walk into La Boulangerie and you can't help but be struck by how many people are just soaking in the wonderful atmosphere, unwinding with a coffee or something to eat. It's obvious that Forest Hills' residents are just aching for more places like this. I think any that open would be astonished by how popular they would be. Enough with the sports bars. We have plenty of those. When are more business owners going to cater to the sophisticated residents of FoHi who frequent places like La Boulangerie?

When Bareburger opens this month I think everyone will be amazed at how popular it is. Why? Because, once again, it caters to a sophisticated clientele that has been grossly underserved here in Forest Hills.

A Peek Inside Bareburger

The wood panelling on the walls looks very similar to the Chelsea location I've eaten in a couple of times...

Changing Restaurant Scene

Bareburger

There's an interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal about the changing restaurant scene in Park Slope. One of the restaurants they highlight is the recently-opened Bareburger (with a nice color pic to boot). I used to live in Park Slope and it's interesting to hear about these changes. When I lived there, in the 90's, there were just a handful of good restaurants. When I recently went back, there were too many to count. It was unbelievable. And now this article in The Journal says the restaurant scene is evolving again. Some old favorites, like Aunt Suzie's on Fifth Ave., closed this month.

Slippery Slope For Brooklyn Restaurants

Not saying Forest Hills will follow this path exactly, but our restaurant scene is perking up a bit. So maybe there is some foreshadowing of what's to come here as well.

By the way, I am particularly intrigued by this Dizzy's Diner the article discusses. I haven't been to that one, has anyone? Interested to know what you think about it if you have. An excellent, upscale, fun and modern diner is just what Forest Hills needs.

More Bareburger Details

The folks at Bareburger shared some info with me about plans for their new Austin St. location here in Forest Hills:

• Our Bareburger will indeed be a sit-down restaurant, with about 50 seats.
• It will have the same menu as their other locations. 
• They also confirm it will open sometime this Spring.

See my previous posts about Bareburger for more information, and my review of one of their other locations.

Bareburger Review

My review of Bareburger, the burger place that is coming to Austin St. this Spring, in the space where Lee Martin Salon used to be.

I visited the location on Laguardia Place at NYU in the Village last weekend.

I'd give the place an A+, pretty easily. The food was great and so was the atmosphere.

Quite frankly, this is just the kind of place Forest Hills has been lacking. A place to get a healthier burger, sandwich or salad, and drumroll please, the food is effortlessly delicious. Do you know what I mean by "effortlessly delicious"? It's hard to put it in words. It's more of a feeling actually. You feel it when you walk into a place and just know this is a really well-run business. That's the feeling I had walking into Bareburger. Before the food even came out, I started getting very excited just looking around, thinking of what this place will add to our neighborhood - how it will take things up a notch.

In some ways it feels like Forest Hills has been stuck in 1972 when it comes to its casual food offerings.  We've been doing quite well when it comes to more formal dining options—places like Agora Taverna, Aged, etc. But when it comes to more casual, or takeout food, we have sorely lacked. Europan just doesn't cut it.

With Bareburger, we finally enter the modern era. We will be getting an upscale, yet casual, place to take out high-quality, healthier but great-tasting, burgers, salads and sandwiches. You know, the kinds of places that you find, oh, almost anywhere else? :)

Here's my pictorial review of the NYU location:

The outside is very inviting and at this location they have outdoor seating. Ours won't though because it's on Austin St.

The NYU location is extremely popular with a younger crowd. It's very upscale, fun and relaxed. 

Stylish, too.

Everyone seemed to be having a really good time. It was obviously a local favorite.

Bareburger is very modern in explaining the thinking behind its food offerings. It treats its customers like they have a brain and want to learn. Hey, isn't that a novel concept for restaurants in Forest Hills??

Stylish, yet fun.

It's the little things that can add so much. A basket of sauces to choose from;  water in a caraffe at every table; descriptions of their artisanal brews.

One of my favorite things they offered: an appetizer with three different flavors of pickles and cole slaw. I've been trying to lose a few pounds these days, and this really was awesome! Pretty much guilt-free indulgence (if there is such a thing!)

I decided to go with the turkey burger, and also tried the regular burger. The regular burger was great. I'd give my turkey burger an A-. It wasn't the best turkey burger patty I've ever had, but what boosted it way up was all the fixin's and the great, fresh bun.

I'd give their milkshake an A. Loved the presentation! It was served really cold and nice and thick. And they let you customize it pretty much any way you like it.

Yes, Thar Be Pickles

Chalk the strange headline up to my writing this post at like 2:30 in the morning. I have Monday off, so I can. Anyway, the real point of this post is to tell you I visited the Bareburger in the Village over the weekend. I will post a full review soon of this new burger joint that is coming to Austin, but for now I just wanted to tantalize y'all with the flavored pickle appetizer Bareburger has. I am still thinking of them, days later...

Bareburger For Austin Confirmed by Company

Bareburger has indeed confirmed on its website that it is coming to Forest Hills.  Now the bad news: It says we will have to wait until the Spring! 

I made the terrible mistake of reading the review here, and now I am starving beyond belief (is that slaw on that burger? I think I have all but died and gone to heaven) : MyWorldReviews.com

Bareburger's Site

Bareburger Coming to Austin St.

Hooray!! This may just be some of the most awesome news I have had a chance to report in the two years I have been doing this blog: Bareburger Rising

Heres' the link to Bareburger's site: http://www.bareburger.com/ I have never been to Bareburger, and don't know anyone who has. But that's not the point. The fact that this new burger place has chosen Austin St. as one of its locations, along with Astoria, Park Slope, Chelsea and the NYU neighborhood in the Village, says tons about our neighborhood and how it is changing. :)