ChainburgerChainburger(CheeburgerCheeburger)

Diva2 here, just back from early eats at the local CheeburgerCheeburger franchise. This is another of those faux 50s diners that seem to be everywhere these days - you know, the pseudo 50s jukebox tunes, the fake pressed aluminum trimming, the enforced hearty peppy atmosphere, the kitschy wall decor, etc. I arrived at 5:30 to be greeted by a sign announcing Family Night from 6 to 8. Apparently in this neighborhood that means 5 to 7, because when I went inside there were more kids than adults. I turned down the first table offered (too close to a dad burping a baby) and was shown to a better spot. After perusing the menu I settled on a Large Coffee Shake, Small Onion Rings and the Classic Burger (smallest of the several sizes on offer) with lettuce, tomato, onion and horseradish sauce.

Waiter/Diva2 conversation:

W: How would you like the burger cooked?
D2: Pink and juicy.
W: Well done.
D2: No, well done is NOT what I want.
W: OK, medium then.
D2: As close to medium rare as you can get it.
Waiter departs with perplexed look on his face.

The food arrived in a very odd manner. First came the shake, which was thick and tasty, but I was 3/4 of the way through it before the onion rings arrived. I was halfway through the onion rings before the burger came and there was a long, long wait between onion rings and burger. It really would have been nice to have everything come to the table at the same time. I had heard a lot about the onion rings, and in their defense, the ratio of batter to rings is good. You can actually taste the onion; it's not all batter, batter, batter. However, the batter itself is not good; there's something "too uniform and made somewhere else and reheated here" about it. The burger itself was not bad although it certainly was closer to well done than medium or medium rare. Condiments on the table included mustard, ketchup and pepper, but there was no salt in sight anywhere on my table or any table near me. Luckily the burger had enough taste that salt wasn't necessary. I wonder what happens when someone wants salt for their fries.

All of a sudden I heard a great commotion behind me and I turned around to discover that Family Night means the Balloon Man and the Face Paint Lady. The kids were all having a blast and the balloons were pretty awesome looking - the green spider was a particularly big hit. Face Paint Lady was also doing a roaring business.

Overall verdict: If you are doing errands in the nabe, you can duck in here for a burger, but I can't see making a special trip here, unless of course you have kiddies that need entertainment on a dull Wednesday night. This is not a place I would deliberately seek out again.

Lunch success at last

Today, on the spur of the moment, Diva2 had lunch at Tuscan Hills, the new upscale Italian restaurant in Forest Hills on the corner of Queens Blvd. and 77th Avenue. This place is seriously good and very definitely needed in the area . The lunch special at $9.95 is a true bargain. I had Tortellini in Brodo to start; the chicken broth was delicious, with a nice glistening layer of fat and a garden's worth of fresh chopped parsley on top, plus all those lovely tortellini. Yum! I was also served a basket of bread, which seems like overkill, since the special also came with the panini of my choice. I choose the grilled steak panini and it came with a lovely small salad. Tasty, tasty, tasty. I love this place, seriously. Thank you, Tuscan Hills, keep doing what you do.

Still basking in the afterglow....

of the spaghetti and meatballs on Wednesday night. What did you think I meant?

Needing fresh air and wanting an outing, Diva2 took the bus down Queens Blvd. to the Tower Diner in Rego Park.

First the bus ride: highly entertaining in the black comedy sense. Diva2 took the first seat she could find; there was a reason it was empty. Directly in front was a religious fanatic who spent the whole time talking to air about the joys of Jehovah's Witnesses. It was a thrill when her cell phone rang and she had to have a normal conversation for 2 minutes, but boy did Ms. Fanatic get off the phone fast, the better to be talking to air again.

At last, Tower Diner is in sight. It's a funny triangular shape - methinks it might have been a bank in a former life, but it's very light and cheery. There were some unusual lunch specials (coconut shrimp with orange dipping sauce, anyone?), but in the end I went for that rainy day comfort classic of Chicken a la King. It was a great choice. It came with a decent basket of breadsticks, melba toast and a roll plus a really nice salad; the salad had generous slices of plum tomato and cucumber as well as a big slice of red onion (and the usual iceberg lettuce, of course).

The waitress was at the top of her game, asking me if she should put in the order for the C a la K while I was eating the salad, or did I want her to wait until the salad was finished? Now,please. The C a la K was dee-lish! The chicken pieces were big and the chicken had been grilled first, so it had nice color and a great taste. The sauce was quite tasty and there was a nice timbale of rice, studded with peas and carrots, to go with the chicken. The portion was huge; Diva2 took home enough leftovers for dinner tonight.

The only mistake was dessert. They were out of coconut custard pie so I had lemon meringue. Generic at its best and not helped at all by today's rainy weather; even good meringue could not stand up to this dampness.

Boring bus ride home - no professional eccentrics on this one.