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In keeping with our affection for offbeat bites, Gothamist trekked out to Ridgewood this week to get a taste of Sietsema-sanctioned "Balkan Burgers."
Bosna Express is a dismal little place tucked beneath the subway rail at Forest Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. Its neighbors include a Montenegrin social club and a sprawling basketball plaza dotted with the occasional deflated ball. It's not a scenic place, or even a particularly inviting one, but it has something that we hadn't yet encountered in all of our explorations—an elusive Balkan Burger.
Actually called pljeskavica, the sandwiches are a popular fast food in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia. As thin and wide as a dinner plate, the patties are mostly beef with a portion of lamb mixed in for flavor. They are grilled with onions and plopped gracelessly into a pillowy split pita with layers of creamy house-made yogurt, sour cream, chopped salad and spoonfuls of ajvar, a bright red relish of pepper, garlic and eggplant.
We were warned that we couldn't finish one. We scoffed and tucked into the meaty monstrosity with confidence and very nearly made it through. It was smoky and alluring, a heavy indulgence that could feed four and should rightly feed two.
Flawless it’s not; it lacked for salt and the meat was textured such that it refused to tear without force. It might not, truth be told, hold its own in a big-ticket burger brawl. But New York’s a big city, and we believe there must be a more transporting pljeskavica to be found in its less traveled regions. Heard anything?
Bosna Express
791 Fairview Avenue
Queens, NY 11385
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Hey J.
If you think that that establishment is dismal (or even the surrounding Ridgewood environs), you have a lot to learn about the world.
Stay in your trust-fund supported apartment in some hipsterish part of MAN/BKLYN, and keep your ill informed opinions to yourself.
-YESH
OK, the level of bitchy, nasty comments on Gothamist has really reached an all-time low. The bile that seeps into cop-shooting posts has now bled onto food articles? Sheesh. I really enjoy these outer-borough dining articles, and I assume "dismal" is probably an accurate way to describe this kind of place objectively.
And what's with the automatic assumption that anyone who lives within an hour of midtown is affluent, or has a trust fund--I don't know a single soul who does--and is a "hipster," whatever the fk that means at this point. Only people who live in the outermost stretches of this city are "keepin' it real"? Yawn.
I like my pljeskavica with extra ajvar and a tall glass of gscklrprflckx and some jkadlsjf kjDR$$
YESH is the sound of a man with their jaw wired shut agreeing with someone.
I've had the burger there and I'm not a trust fund supported child but agree on two points with the author here.
The only thing memorable about the burger was its size and that's not really enough to bring me back. And the area is not without it's charm. Wait that wasn't the right phrase, I meant the area is without charm, lose the "not." It's reality TUSH I mean YESH. I'm not saying I wouldn't live there but if I did I wouldn't pretend I'm living on the Upper West Side. You should be glad places like this are getting press at all.
No Irish food this week? Mmm, colcannon.
The Burger Man agrees with Thar, there are some really sour bitter people on Gothamist and it makes it rather unpleasant reading through comments sometimes.
does anyone know where to get some cevapcici in the city?
I'll tell you this much, Ridgewood is a hipster-less paradise. It's one of the main reasons I moved there. Am I the kind of person that despises 'hipsters' and 'trust fund babies'. Nah. I'm just not fond of the commerce and real estate issues that develop around them. I think Jeannie Kraph would agree... in fact - she'd probably love it here.
Ridgewood is great. Anything near the Forest stop or the Fresh Pond Rd stop is cheap - quiet - family oriented - and incredibly un-hip. Perfect if you just don't want to be bothered with issues surrounding everything happening in Brooklyn whilst living close enough (in Queens) to enjoy all of its benefits. I sort think of it as "East Williamsburgh's Canada."
The amount of Polish bakeries and Easter European grocery stores make it feel like Greenpoint, only ten times cheaper and with transportation that KILLS the G train any day. Seriously. The M train can get you to the L and to Union Square in about 30 minutes - or the M can get you straight to the F at Delancey/Essex or the Greens and Yellows at Canal Street in a jiff. The M train is very reliable, quiet, and never crowded.
It's cool to see this little spot that I walk past every day get a mention on my daily read here at the Gothamist - but I do agree that calling it 'dismal' and 'uninviting' is a poor choice of words, even if you are praising the soul of its existence - that being the burger.
All of that said - I know this story is really about food and not housing - so I hate to get further derailed. But still, maybe in nine months some sort of 'hipster migration' will happen again into Ridgewood - just like it did in Greenpoint - and there will be some other blog covering Bosna Express and calling it 'boutique', 'trendy', 'sheik', or whatever else people say to make life in post-industrial non-Manhattan sound like it's cool to pay $3000.00 for a studio apartment. Until then, I'll continue to enjoy the quiet... enjoy the prices... enjoy the food... and enjoy living in an 'uninviting' neighborhood - even if it is just delaying the inevitable.
I'd be lying if I said I'd hate to chime in on this comment thread. The above post by Job really grinds my gears what with all the self-righteousness. Frankly pal, it sounds like you are just waiting for the day when you can claim status as a before-the-hipster-influx Ridgewood resident.
Now to really ruffle people's feathers: I spent a week in Belgrade and had the displeasure of eating a similar sandwich in a truly dismal restaurant. On the whole I think it would be safe to say that urban Serbia is not a gastronome's heaven. In fact, excluding two sort of traditional meals, I don't think I've ever eaten so poorly in my entire short life.
I lived in Ridgewood for three years and kept waiting for the inevitable "hipster" influx (I mean, it touches freakin' Williamsburg but Bushwick has more gritty cache, apparently). It didn't happen by the time I left in 2001 and it doesn't look like it's upscaling any time soon.
My point is that while Ridgewood has a low level charm of its own (the M is favorite train in the system) I never did eat at Bosna Express because frankly, it seemed a bit dismal...
I've been looking for cevapcici and burek in this city, too, ann. I'm actually trying out Djerdan on 38th, btw 7th and 8th tonight. I've heard the cevapcici is good there...
Hey thar
you probably meant to say "the level of bitchy, nasty comments on Gothamist has really reached an all-time HIGH." Not low. you know, the OPPOSITE of what you meant.
p.s. you are a fucktard
pop pop!
bestill my beating heart! please post another comment tomorrow to let us know if it's any good.
I made some cevapcici over the summer to try and recreate the fab ones I had on a 2 week tour of Croatia last year
they were good, but nowhere near what the folk at Kantun Paulina in Split turned out
sigh
luke - sorry if it came off that way. status claims are what i was trying to move away from.
scaredkat - i hope you're right about the first part - i simply don't want to be priced out. too bad you missed out on the burgers though... why else live in the Ridgewood if you don't take advantage of what makes it unique? also though... if you were waiting for it to happen - did you want it to happen? or were you fearing it?
Guys, try the restaurant Cevabdzinica Sarajevo in AsLIC for your Bosnian sausages and meats.
Speaking of AsLICs, Sietsema is an idiot, he should be saying "Gothamist approved". Drop that clown.
People have already been priced out. I grew up in this neighborhood (well, south Ridgewood, anyway, which is a difference of about 6 or 7 blocks), and rents are easily 2-3x what they were even 6-10 years ago. Houses that sold for 40k in the mid 80s are selling for nearly half a million now, if not more, and it's not as if the quality of these places has gotten any better.
Ridgewood is the new Greenpoint, but it will probably stay the new Greenpoint, at least further north of the L train. Bushwick is the quick gentrify location, but north Ridgewood will most likely stick to middle class immigrant families. Though 10 years from now, I'll probably be wrong. But accoring to some scary ass map I saw on here yesterday, 10 years from now we might all be underwater, so who knows.
Kebapcha
What does AsLIC mean?
thanks for the rec
Hey kurt,
No, actually, I meant exactly what I wrote. The level, as in standard, is low. If I had meant the frequency of nasty comments is high, I would have written that. But thanks for proving my point so vividly!
I'll refrain from using passé Gawker insults and leave the name-calling to you.
Thar
Ann,
Astoria Long Island City