Sugar Freak - get your freak on

I'm always torn on trying a new restaurant as soon as it opens.  On the one hand I'm usually really looking forward to trying something new, different, and hopefully delicious, but on the other hand I'm frozen with fear on having a poor dining experience that prevents me from going back when the bad experience is probably at least due in part to the infant stages of a new restaurant with trial and error.  Well, with Sugar Freak I just couldn't resist and as it turns out, I'm glad I didn't.

Sugar Freak before opening

Since I moved to Astoria I have been walking by this place and very intrigued by the few glimpses of decor I snuck.  When one of my obsessive google searches about Sugar Freak finally came back with information indicating that this place had opened I couldn't wait to try it, you may even say I was an eager eagle, a rabid raccoon, or an impatient iguana.  Well, my elation was temporary because good old daddy doubt slapped me in the face - with paralyzing thoughts of "what if the food sucks?" "what if the service sucks?" "what if they receive less than an A rating by the DOH?" - luckily I got a hold of myself before my thoughts really ran prematurely askew.  I decided I would wait a couple of weeks before dining at Sugar Freak.  I also decided I would enjoy a tasty beverage at the bar at Sugar Freak to try to feel out the atmosphere and see what I should expect.

After having some beverages at some other local establishments one Saturday evening in early July, my co-bar attendee and I stopped in Sugar Freak for a drink.  The restaurant was crowded and there was even a wait for a table.  I should add that this was a holiday weekend, which is a good sign for Sugar Freak because often non-beach located establishments have less of a crowd on holiday weekends in the summer. 

The decor inside the restaurant is everything I imagined and more.  It has a rustic and homey feeling to it, almost like the restaurant form of the store Anthropologie.  Perfection.  One thing I did notice was there was no one behind the bar for a few minutes after we entered.  I'm sure they are still working out the kinks, but the wait time was noticeable.  Apart from that, once the bartender did reappear, he was extremely friendly and served our drinks pretty quickly after we ordered them.  They do not have the largest of best beer selection in my opinion, but the focus here is more on the restaurant so that is somewhat understandable.  This particular visit to Sugar Freak was limited in time, but did leave me curious to go back and try the food. 

I'm a big kid now!

A bit more than a week later, on a Thursday night, my co-diner and I decided to try Sugar Freak.  I was a nervous nelly because I had read a review on yelp that indicated some of my worst fears about a new restaurant may be coming true - running out of food, not great service, etc.  However, I took off my diaper, put on my pull-ups and ventured off to Sugar Freak.

We were seated immediately at a corner table in the back of the restaurant.  The decor which I really liked on my first visit turned into 100% love, lust, obsession, and a lot of other creepy feelings.  Our waitress was super friendly in a genuine way that we appreciated.  She informed us of the drink specials and gave us her opinion on her favorites.  Two of the specials sounded particularly delicious and so we decided to order one of each - a country lemonade alcoholic beverage and a watermelon alcoholic beverage.  The watermelon drink was mixed and muddled with fresh watermelon, elderflower, other liquor, and very thirst-quenching.  The lemonade elicited a similar reaction.  Both were perfection.  The good or bad part (depending on the type of night you are looking to have) is that you can't even taste the alcohol, the drink is so smooth, but the alcohol is definitely in the drink! 

As soon as we sat we also received a basket of heaven that came in the form of four mini corn muffins.  I don't know what else to say about them except that I could have ate about forty-one more.  Even my co-diner who isn't a huge fan of corn muffins loved them. 

My co-diner and I both ordered spinach salads for appetizers.  I ordered the half fried shrimp po boy as my main course.  My co-diner ordered the half turkey burger po boy. 

The spinach salad was delectable and I have not stopped thinking about the next time I can order it since I had it.  It is pretty simple overall, but that is what is so great about it, it is simply delicious.  The dressing was great and it had the perfect amount on it.  The portions were in proportion. 

Next came the main courses.  Unfortunately, a full fried shrimp po boy appeared before me rather than the half that I ordered.  In all fairness, I could have brought this to the waitresses attention as soon as the plate was put before me, but I chose to let it go and enjoy the meal.  If it happened again I would speak up, but as a new restaurant, there was probably a miscommunication and the meal had been great so far.  The po boys come with french fries.  I got regular fries and my co-diner got sweet potato fries.  I preferred my fries over hers and she preferred hers over mine.  The fries are the one place they went wrong with portions, I received about five french fries.  The actual fried shrimp po boy on a scale of okay-delicious-perfection was delicious.  I won't say it is the best thing I ever ate, but it was far from just okay.  I can't exactly place my five boroughed fingers on what was off about the sandwich, but it was missing something.  My co-diner felt similarly about her turkey burger po boy and said she would definitely try a lot of other things on the menu before reverting back to ordering the same thing. 

With dinner we each had another beverage, I ordered a glass of white wine and my co-diner ingested another watermelon beverage.  The wine glass was generously filled to the tip top of the glass, but unfortunately was Chardonnay and a bit sweet for my taste.  Hopefully, in the future, Sugar Freak expands their wine selection.  Additionally, the table next to us ordered a carafe of wine, which is $28.00 and I found the size of the carafe a bit small for the price.  On the topic of prices, while I find the food prices average, I found the price of the specialty drinks a bit much for Queens.  Each drink was $11.00, which I would expect in the City, but not in Astoria.  The glass of wine was $6.50, which I found fair considering how much the glass was filled.

Checkmate

For dessert we ordered the Chess Pie.  This was one of the best decisions of the night.  It was served in a small mason jar and earns major bonus points for presentation.  My co-diner describes the pie as "yummy yummy yummy in my tummy tummy tummy" and I would have to concur.  The crust was the perfect consistency, the peanut butter crumble was crumbleicious, and the chocolate practically melted in your mouth.  Needless to say, I would recommend the Chess Pie.  This Chess Pie is so good that I think it could even beat Bobby Fischer.  King me. 

Sugar Freak is currently open Thursdays-Sundays from 5pm-11pm.  I wish they were open a bit more often and a bit later because I could see just getting a few drinks there for happy hour or on a weekend.  Also, I'm crossing my fingers that Sugar Freak starts serving brunch.

I sense a long and prosperous future ahead for Sugar Freak.  There is no restaurant in the neighborhood that comes to mind that bears any real similarities to the Sugar Freak menu and ambiance and when you combine that with great food and drinks you have a winner.  I suggest all of you RUN, don't walk, to getcha getcha getcha freak on!

Warning: Cafe Orlin may cause the developmen​t of a severe love/hate relationsh​ip

The first time I tried Cafe Orlin was for dinner a few years ago.  We waited a good 7 minutes after we sat without menus, but we were finally able to flag down a bus boy who brought us menus.  After looking at the menu, which is reasonably priced for the City, (both in food and drink prices) I ordered the Warm Mozzarella sandwich, which at the time came with fries AND a small salad.  My co-diner ordered the Chicken Cutlet sandwich, which also came with fries and a small salad.  We also ordered one of the special wines at the time, which cost only $20.00 for the bottle.  When we ordered, we requested bread for the table and never received said bread the entire meal.  This was especially frustrating because ALL of the tables around us were getting bread! Note - the bread debacle has happened on a few other occasions as well.  Truly puzzling.  Despite this, the food at Cafe Orlin is consistently great.  I have never had a dinner meal that I did not feel fully satisfied with at Cafe Orlin.  Also, the wine is always good too.  Recently, I also tried their spicy margarita, which was the perfect amount of hot.  Their alcoholic blueberry lemonade is tasty too, not overly sweet.  The waitress also told us they have a non-alcoholic version as well, which I imagine is just as delectable.
I have also dined at Cafe Orlin numerous times for breakfast and brunch.  They have a great selection.  I highly recommend the Malawach if it is listed as a special at the time. Simply superb and different from other brunch items I've had anywhere else.  During the week when breakfast is served they have a really good breakfast special where you get two eggs (any style) served with home fries and toast, plus orange juice and a cappuccino for only...wait for it...wait for it...$6.00 - CRAZYYY. 
So there you have it, the love part of the relationship.  Moving on to the hate...

You know how in interviews sometimes the person interviewing you asks "now tell me one thing you could work on about yourself" or "tell me one flaw you have" - well, I think Cafe Orlin would or should answer, their service.  Cafe Orlin's servers are SO neglectful.  Besides the failure to bring bread to the table consistently, even when asked, I have went an entire meal without getting my drink until my food is brought or after my food is brought.  Once, I didn't even get my drink at all!  I have also had instances where I never see my waitress or waiter again after my order is taken.  They simply vanish, to where is one of the seven wonders of the world.  Now this is really where the hate part of the relationship comes in...the thing is it doesn't last for long because as soon as you are about to complain, the waitress or waiter will come to your table and they are extremely kind and pleasant to deal with and really do not seem to realize that they have been absent for the entire length of your meal.  It is a true conundrum.
Cafe Orlin makes me feel like a middle child must feel, always there, hardly noticed.  Better yet, Cafe Orlin makes me feel as though I have a split personality, one minute I'm happy and smiling and enjoying my meal and the next minute I am frantically searching for my server before I become irreversibly dehydrated.  Overall, the food makes up for the service and I will continue to suffer at the hands of my inattentive waitress or waiter and return to Cafe Orlin for many meals in the future.

The Stadium formerly known as Shea

What is long, skinny, padded by buns, and one of America's favorite past-times?  A hot dog at a baseball game of course.  Now, in the past, a hot dog at a baseball game did not cost $6.00.  Said hot dog was also reliably delicious and for some reason tasted better at the Stadium than anywhere else.  My how things have changed.  If you have been to Citi Field then you are aware of the excessive amount of Nathan's concession stands.  Our mistake was choosing convenience over waiting in extremely long lines.  This mistake resulted in an order from Nathan's consisting of one regular hot dog, one vegetarian hot dog, and an order of french fries.  Having not ate the hot dog, I asked for a description.  I was told that it was "okay" and "just a hot dog" - what a depressing day for baseball stadiums across America to have any hot dog described this way, Nathan's or not.  Now my "vegetarian hot dog" I would describe as a sort of "mystery non-meat" - which, when loaded with toppings disguised both the strange taste and smell wafting from the hot diggity non-dog.  Even the fries could use some work!  They were crinkle fries, typically delicious when actually crisped to perfection.  Unfortunately, these particular crinkle fries were soggy and room temperature.  In the past, I have tried other concession stands and enjoyed what I ordered a lot more.  One that comes to mind is the french fries at Box Frites, along with their cool variety of dipping sauces.  In retrospect, rather than order from Nathan's, I should have waited on a different concession stand line the extra ten or so minutes to eat something a bit more...edible.

The good news - Citi Field has some great beer selections.  Virtually every concession stand has beer and many of them have different types of beers.  This is putting aside the drink selections in the various "clubs" at Citi Field.  There is a "Beers of the World" stand as well, which has a bunch of different bottled beers.  The price of beer is what you would expect at any Stadium, definitely overpriced, but not a surprise.  Typically, I enjoy trying different types of beers and did do that, but also had a few Bud Lights from a neat stand that fills your beer from the bottom up.  Basically, you have a cup that has an opening on the bottom of it and the cup is then placed on a button which fills the cup from the bottom up.  Once filled, the cup is then sealed with some type of magnetic disc.  This type of pour decreases foam and increases flavor.  I know Bud Light is Bud Light, but these Bud Lights I have to say were especially delicious.  Thumbs-up to Citi Field for investing in this type of genius.

Putting aside the food and the drinks, Citi Field is a great stadium with tons of super food and drink options to choose from.  Also, having sat in a variety of seats at a bunch of games, there do not seem to be too many "bad" seats in the Stadium.  Overall, my biggest gripe with the Stadium would be the dirty feeling that comes over me each time I write, say, or think of the new Stadium name that came along as a sort of package deal with the new Stadium.