A Hamburger Today

Pasadena, CA: Classic Burger Joint Greatness at Jake's of Pasadena

2013-05-24T15:45:00Z

[Photographs: Damon Gambuto]

Jake's of Pasadena

38 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena CA 91105 (map); 626-568-1602; jakespasadena.com
Cooking Method: Griddled
Short Order: A classic Los Angeles burger joint that is still great 66 years later
Want Fries with That? Yes! These skinny cuts are truly great
Price: Jake's Original Burger, $5.99; fries, $2.59

After all these years covering the Los Angeles burger scene there is only one thing I can say for not having reviewed the classic burger joint Jake's of Pasadena earlier: I apologize. Is there an explanation for the oversight? Sure, but that doesn't change the simple fact that I should have long ago lauded this simple burger joint and its high quality burgers. Let's get past my litany of excuses and cut to the facts: Jake's makes some truly great burgers.

Jake's first opened its doors in 1947 on the stretch of Route 66 that took you through (what we now call) Old Town Pasadena. Its menu was the foursquare simplicity of the mid-century Southern California burger stand—we're talking burgers, fries, shakes and not a whole lot more. These days the menu has expanded a bit and the interior been gussied up (albeit with an attractive retro flair).

The ordering process starts with a checklist page (think: The Counter) so you can build your own. I started filling mine out when I realized the pre-configured Jake's Classic Burger ($5.99) was pretty much exactly what I wanted. It comes with their standard five-and-a-half-ounce beef patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and Thousand Island all atop a commercial, seeded bun, nearly my Platonic ideal. The only thing missing? American cheese. As it turned out, I didn't miss it.

The Jake's Classic and my side of fries came out looking like burger joint perfection. It's the kind of food styling you'd expect to see on some fast casual burger chain's obnoxious advertisement. Here's the thing: this one tastes better than it looks.

The patty is sourced from Ingardia Bros.. Yes, it was griddled to a near perfect medium rare and yes, it was properly seasoned, but it's the grind and loose packing that set this one apart. You can almost see just how crumbly and delightful it is. (It might be harder to see the warm, pink center due to the sizable portion of Thousand Island.) The classic lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle toppings were so fresh and pleasing I was almost taken aback. Perhaps I got a bit lucky on that days vegetable delivery, but these were all noticeably high quality. The Thousand Island is a bit less creamy than what I'm used to, but had a nice flavor (though could have been applied with a lighter hand). The bun is a seeded commercial one that is the perfect balance to the patty.

The whole of the experience of eating this burger is pure delight. A full-flavored and warm patty meshes with the crisp, cool toppings all held together with a nicely griddled bun (which adds chew to the sponginess) in such a way that it left me in eye-closed delight—that near perfect burger moment of salty satisfaction that is the signature of this sandwich.

What's more? The fries ($2.59) are excellent, too. These skinny cut spuds are display a beautiful blistering on their exteriors from a properly hot fryer. The soft, silky potato center combines with the salt and oil to make these the french fries of your burger joint dreams. I'd only rate a perfectly executed Belgian fry above them.

There is really very little I didn't like about Jake's. I imagine I could pick at the kitschy clipboard ordering or self-consciously retro remodel, but they are so beside the point. My food was so satisfying that I hardly noticed that stuff. Add to this a young and enthusiastic server (Luke) who made me feel like a regular within minutes of me taking a seat at the counter and you've got the ingredients that made the burger joint the preeminent American restaurant. A burgermeister in the know could fairly mention that Jake's biggest weakness might just be its proximity to the American classic Pie 'N Burger, but that doesn't mean Jake's burgers are faulty. In the end, the only real fault lies with me. I should have told you all about it sooner. Luckily, Jake's doesn't look to be going anywhere.

About the author: Damon is one of our roving burger reporters and food writers. When he's not eating more than is warranted or healthful (and then writing about it) he can be found writing and producing for television and film. You can contact him at seriouslydamon@gmail.com.

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San Diego: Hubcap's Burger is Within Inches of Perfection

2013-05-23T14:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Erin Jackson]

Hubcap

3926 30th St, San Diego CA 92104 (map); 619-291-1859; hubcapsd.com
Cooking method: Grilled
Short Order: A tasty burger that, with a few minor tweaks, could easily be one of the best in the city
Want Fries With That? Nah, skip 'em.
Price: Hubcap burger, $9; fries with red eye gravy and fluffy cheese, $9
Notes: Pints and cocktails are $5 from 5 to 7 p.m., daily. Restaurant is closed on Mondays

When farm-to-table taco spot El Take it Easy switched concepts to a "grass-fed burger, cocktail and craft beer shack" named Hubcap almost overnight, I was cautiously optimistic. Enthusiastically captioned Yelp photos showed promise, and owner Jay Porter's other venture, The Linkery, already puts out an excellent burger (or so says my San Diego AHT predecessor).

If you want to know exactly what goes into the burger, simply flip over your menu, or click here and you'll be directed to a doodle that deconstructs the entire creation, noting the seven-ounce grass-fed beef patty, housemade pickles and mayo, and "fluffy cheese spread" (cream cheese mixed with cheddar and blue cheese). The final assembled burger is a beauty to behold, and within inches—millimeters, even—of perfection.

Normally, I'd start off by speaking to the merits of the beef, but the bun was so delicious that it deserves top billing. It's buttered, then grilled on the plancha (aka flattop), until golden brown, giving it a crisp, crunchy texture (much like the buns at In-N-Out). All of the vegetable toppings, from the house-made bread and butter pickles and the tomato, to the iceberg and the white onion (which I nixed), were cut razor-thin. This treatment transformed the vegetable portion of the burger it into what tasted like a mayo-dressed salad on top of the beef. It worked for everything except the lettuce. Cut that thin, it registered as wet, not crunchy. Fettuccine-sized strips, as opposed to angel hair, would be better. That being said, the flavors were totally on point. The knockout combination of sweet and tangy pickles, fatty mayo, and salty, savory cheese was excellent. This is easily one of the best burgers I've had in months.

Not being one to question the infinite wisdom of a burger doodle, I went along with the suggested temperature: rare. The loosely packed, lightly seasoned patty I received had a moist and juicy pink center and a barely-browned exterior with almost zero crust. If your personal preference is for a patty with more char, order yours medium-rare or even medium. There's plenty of mayo to make up for any moisture gap that might result from a longer cooking time.

You can add a side of fries for $4, but I had to try the poutine-esque fries topped with fluffy cheese mixed into the red eye gravy, with sliced ham on top. The first few bites were great, but the high salt factor makes this a dish you'll want to split with four people (and drinking a beer with it is not negotiable). Next time, I'd skip the fries entirely. They're serviceable, but the burger outshines them and is more than enough to satisfy any appetite.

Tweaking the lettuce and getting some more char on that top-quality beef would put Hubcap's burger squarely within "best in the city" territory, but as served, it's still going to blow your socks off. Might want to spare them the carnage and opt for flip-flops.

About the author: Erin Jackson is a food writer and photographer who is obsessed with discovering the best eats in San Diego. You can find all of her discoveries on her food blog EJeats.com. On Twitter, she's @ErinJax

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AHT Giveaway: Case of Pat LaFrieda Burgers

2013-05-22T18:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

Inside the Pat LaFrieda facility. [Photograph: Nick Solares]

To celebrate National Burger Month, we're teaming up with famed New York City meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda to give away a case of their burger patties (24 per case) each week this month. Patties will be shipped fresh anywhere in the U.S. (sorry, international readers!), perfect for throwing a giant burger party or for cooking burger-centric meals at home. To enter this week's contest, just describe your ideal burger party in the comments section below.

Contest will end and comments will close at 5 p.m. ET, Monday, May 27, 2013. One entry per community member. One winner will be chosen at random. Winners are limited to U.S. residents. Standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.

33 Hamburger Recipes For Memorial Day

2013-05-22T15:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

VIEW SLIDESHOW: 33 Hamburger Recipes For Memorial Day

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, unless otherwise noted]

I don't know who it is that designated May as National Burger Month, but I'd like to give them a big, sloppy, greasy, onion-scented, cheese-covered kiss on the mouth. Or perhaps just a hug is fine. What better excuse to celebrate our national sandwich (national food?) and look back back at the dozens of well-tested burger recipes we have in our archives?

Let's start with the basics. Here are my top ten tips for better burgers. With those under your belt, you should be well on your way to backyard burger nirvana.

Got your notebooks filled? Great! Here are 33 recipes that run the gamut from simple to complex, with representation from around the country, breaking regional borders, and indeed inter-species relations. Perhaps burgers are the key to world peace. Check out the individual recipes below, or click through the slideshow above for a bigger look at the goods.

Get The Recipes!

Classic Burger Recipes

These burgers are all inspired by classic American or regional American burger styles.

Restaurant and Fast Food Burgers At Home

Fake Shacks, In-N-Out Double Doubles, Big Macs, and the like.

Non-Beef Options

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Burgers that cross that species barrier, yet still retain all the juice and flavor of a real deal burger. No compromise!

Condiments and Sauces

Chili, cheese, and other sauces.

Over The Top

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Burgers that take it to the extreme. Bigger, bolder, and badder than any other beef on the block.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

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WTF: Lotteria's Ramen Burger Topped with 10 Extra Ramen Servings

2013-05-21T14:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: RocketNews24]

Behold the latest fast food burger tower monstrosity from Japanese blog RocketNews24: Lotteria's new Ramen Burger topped with 10 extra servings of ramen. (Previous towers include cheese tower, onion tower, and bacon tower.) Yup, it has no good reason to exist.

But I've got to give props to Mr. Sato—RocketNews24's resident burger guinea pig—for eating the whole thing. You can watch him go at it in the video below (warning: loud music ahead):

[Video: rocketnews24]

For a more reasonable food stunt, RocketNews24 also transformed Lotteria's ramen burger into a bowl of ramen, which they beefed up with extra water and sliced green onion.

About the author: Robyn Lee is the editor of A Hamburger Today and takes many of the photos for Serious Eats. She'll also doodle cute stuff when necessary. Read more from Robyn at her personal food blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.

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Green Curry Burger Wins $100,000 in the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger Contest

2013-05-20T20:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photograph: Sutter Home]

Congratulations to Erin Evenson from Brooklyn for winning the $100,000 grand prize awarded last weekend in Sutter Home's 2012 Build a Better Burger Contest. Her winning recipe for 7 Train Caramelized Green Curry Burgers features beef patties mixed with pancetta fat and basted in green curry glaze, crispy watercress salad, and fried pancetta, all sandwiched between toasted bun halves that get spread with minted basil aioli and dipped in chopped roasted cashews. The recipe's name is inspired by the 7 train—or in Evenson's words, "The Crispy Watercress Express"—that runs through Queens in New York City. I'll assume she's referring to SriPraPhai's crispy watercress salad, which is a damn tasty salad.

Other winners are Mark Richardson's Indian Lamb Burger, which won $15,000 for Best Alternative Burger, and Mark Pyne's Grilled Green Tomato Burger and Kim Jones's Better than Breakfast in Bed Burger, which both won People's Choice Awards.

You can take a shot at the $100,000 grand prize by entering the 2013 Build a Better Burger Contest at buildabetterburger.com until September 2, 2013.

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Brooklyn: Well-Crafted Burgers at Fritzl's Lunch Box in Bushwick

2013-05-20T19:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Noah Arenstein]

Fritzl's Lunch Box

173 Irving Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11237 (map); 929-210-9531; fritzlslunchbox.com
Cooking method: Griddled
Short Order: A worthy pub-style burger in a neighborhood lacking in good burger options
Want Fries With That? Absolutely
Price: Hamburger, $8; cheeseburger, $9; fries, $3 with a sandwich

In residential Bushwick, the steamroller of gentrification rolls forward, bringing rising rents and new amenities to a section of the neighborhood where even the whisper of a hip coffee shop or a cozy restaurant sprouting among blocks laden with nail salons, hopping barbershops, and laundromats would have been unbelievable only a few years earlier. Fritzl's Lunch Box opened this spring on one of these blocks, just around the corner from the Dekalb Avenue stop on the L train. Fritzl's is the creation of chef Dan Ross-Leutwyler, whose previous cooking experience includes Roberta's, The Breslin, and Resto, among others. Though its opening is yet another signal that gentrification will soon breach Ridgewood and Queens, its wayward location means that crowds are manageable and prices are still comfortably low.

Fritzl's is narrow, seemingly squeezed between its neighbors. The walls are painted a pale yellow and a long wooden bench parallels the arched, white ceiling. A lone bookshelf holds an eclectic collection of cookbooks, but the restaurant is otherwise relatively plain, making it feel more spacious than its dimensions. The effect is pleasant, seemingly closer to a comfortable bungalow in Hilton Head than north Brooklyn. It's especially sunny during the day, when doctors and nurses clothed in scrubs from nearby Wyckoff Heights Hospital crowd in for lunch.

The menu is divided into sections ranging from snacks to "pastas and plates," but the focus seems to be on sandwiches, including a fried chicken sandwich ($8) and fried bacalao ($9). But I'm here for one reason, laser-focused on my goal. Ross-Leutwyler makes a fine burger, setting a new standard in an under-served neighborhood. At only $8 ($9 with cheese), it's a bargain. Patties are close to six ounces and made of a combination of chuck and cheek, which Ross-Leutwyler estimates to be about 75/25 meat to fat. Ross-Leutwyler grinds it himself, throwing slightly more chuck in the mix. The cheek hails from Pineland Farms in Maine and is a leaner (but more flavorful) cut, so Ross-Leutwyler combines it with a fattier piece of chuck, which comes from grass-fed and grain-finished California vintage beef. Together, these bi-coastal cuts result in a beefy, tender patty whose rough grind holds a steak-like chew.

Too-soft burger innards.

Better innards.

On my first visit, the beef was cooked correctly, but its texture was a little too soft. A return trip revealed tighter meat cooked to a rosy medium rare with a burnished brown sear. Both times the patty has been perfectly seasoned. (Before you hate in the comments over rare/medium rare, be aware that low lighting and a crappy camera mean that color correction makes the meat appear more magenta than IRL.)

According to Ross-Leutwyler, he wanted to emulate the original Resto burger. Some similarities are apparent (they're closely sized and the Resto burger famously incorporated beef cheek), but Ross-Leutwyler has made version 2.0, Americanizing the original. Here, the patty is cooked on a griddle and topped with two slices of sharp, sufficiently melty, extra-sharp cheddar, then slipped between a toasted, sesame-studded "Big Marty" bun whose bottom is spread with a "Special Sauce" (but really a charred miso aioli) and finished with a housemade relish made up of finely chopped pickles and onions. The pickles are a little too sweet, but they can't detract from what is a well-balanced, extremely satisfying burger.

The kitchen is also adept with the fryer. A seasonal appetizer of beer battered asparagus with sweet and sour sauce ($7) was light on the breading, ensuring that the vegetable was the star. Fries ($4, $3 with a sandwich) are killer. Ross-Leutwyler says he was inspired by the thrice-fried fries at The Breslin, but to me, the similarity seemed much closer to the Belgian-style fries at Resto. Their crisp, well-seasoned crust gives way to soft potato innards. If only I could get the fries with Special Sauce instead of just ketchup (it never hurts to ask).

Dessert is straight from Pies & Thighs. Banana cream ($5.50/slice) comes studded with Nilla Wafers and a rich, buttery crust.

As a Bushwick resident, it's exciting to find any new restaurant in the neighborhood, let alone one that serves a burger as meticulously crafted as Fritzl's. Previous tutelage under renowned NYC beef whisperers has taught Ross-Leutwyler well—he's engineered a complex, yet deviously simple burger that's among the most satisfying of the year.

About the author: Noah Arenstein is a practicing lawyer, freelance writer, and co-founder and managing editor of Real Cheap Eats, a site dedicated to finding the best dishes under $10 throughout NYC. He can also be found at Smorgasburg in Williamsburg on Saturdays, making "Global Jewish Sandwiches" for Scharf & Zoyer. Follow him on Twitter @ChiefHDB.

The Napoli Panda Burger, a Spaghetti-topped Burger from Lotteria Japan

2013-05-17T18:00:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photograph: lotteria.jp]

What do pandas have to do with spaghetti? Nothing. Until Lotteria in Japan released this limited edition, Italian-themed Napoli Panda Burger only available at their somewhat Italian-themed L'Ueno food court in Tokyo's Ueno Park, famous for its zoo's pandas. Italian-themed food court + Lotteria + pandas = a burger topped with a mound of spaghetti and tomato sauce, capped with a cute panda head-branded bun. The burger is available with spaghetti and cheese (¥‎350) or spaghetti and an egg patty (¥‎370).

RocketNews24 has a review (in Japanese) and video of the burger:

[Video: Rocketnews24 on YouTube]

More from Lotteria

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Las Vegas, NV: Don't Bet on the $60 Rossini Burger at Burger Bar

2013-05-17T15:15:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Dennis Lee]

Burger Bar

3930 Las Vegas Boulevard S. #121A, Las Vegas NV 89119 (map); 702-632-9364; burger-bar.com
Cooking Method: Grilled
Short Order: Over the top ingredients that just don't justify the $60
Price: Rossini Burger, $60

Let's say you're at another trade show for your day job, back in Las Vegas (which is my version of hell), for the second time in two months. Let's also say you won $200 on penny slots, like a lucky grandma, except in this case, "grandma" is a troublemaker named Dennis. The money is burning a hole in your pocket, and curiosity brings you to gamble on the most decadent and expensive burger at Hubert Keller's Burger Bar: the $60 Rossini Burger.

The menu describes it as "Kobe-style Wagyu Beef from Australia, sautéed foie gras and shaved truffle on an onion bun. Named after a XIXth Century Italian composer whose love for fine food was legendary. The preparation always contains foie gras, truffles, and a rich brown sauce—in this case, Black Perigord Truffle." Translated? This burger is balls to the wall. But is it the balls?

The Rossini Burger comes out looking rather handsome, piled with huge slices of seared foie gras and plenty of shaved black truffles. As soon as I saw it, my arteries puckered in anticipation. It comes speared with a toothpick tipped with frilly plastic, you know, to add a touch of class. I may or may not have accidentally eaten the blue plastic with the burger, like a dumbass. Accidentally eating plastic reminds me of my childhood.

On the side, you also receive a little bowl of salt, cracked pepper, and a tiny dollhouse sized pitcher of that "rich brown sauce" described in the menu. The waitress helpfully suggested I sprinkle the sea salt on my burger before eating it, which raised a red flag in the back of my mind. Shouldn't the burger come salted?

Turns out that red flag was right. The burger doesn't come salted, which is a mind-boggling error of execution for a $60 burger. You have to sprinkle a lot of sea salt on the thing before you eat it. It was grilled perfectly to my request of medium-rare, at least. The patty isn't particularly beefy in flavor, and the claim of being Kobe-style Wagyu beef doesn't do much for flavor, either. If I was blindfolded and had beef crammed down my throat (my typical Saturday night, guys) in a taste test, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this versus less expensive beef. The beef isn't all that juicy, either. It's definitely moist, but it doesn't go into gusher territory.

The helping of buttery foie gras on top is generous, which is good, considering the hefty price tag. It adds a large amount of fat and velvety richness to the experience, and the "rich brown sauce" is a must; it brings a deliciously sweet and savory flavor to balance out the foie, plus it adds a portion of the much-needed salt the burger is crying out for. But the real disappointment? The black truffles. Fresh truffles are a tricky thing, as you only have a small window in which they have their maximum flavor. These truffles are extremely dry, chewy, gritty, and even worse, flavorless. You are tearing me apart, Hubert!

There are two types of fries on the menu: skinny fries and fat fries. The waitress recommended the default skinny fries, which are your standard fast-food cut. Unlike the burger, these are salted perfectly, crisp, with a soft interior.

Thankfully, a shake or dessert is included with your order of the Rossini Burger, and if all that foie gras isn't enough to kill you, there's nothing like an over-the-top dessert to put you in the ER. I chose the intriguing Burger Bar Krispy Kreme shake, which is a vanilla shake with half of a Krispy Kreme doughnut blended into it. Yes, you read that right, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, only the best freshest ingredients for chef Keller. The milkshake, unsurprisingly, tastes exactly like a vanilla milkshake blended with a Krispy Kreme donut. And another shocker—the whipped cream on top had no sugar in it. None.

So as you can tell from my reaction, don't double down on this burger. You know that irritating catchphrase, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?" They're wrong. Disappointment definitely comes home with you.

About the author: After a failed attempt at starting a chain of theme restaurants called "Smellen Keller," Dennis Lee traveled the world to discover his true passion. Sadly, midwifery didn't pan out. Now he works in a cubicle, and screws around as much as possible. Follow his shenanigans on Twitter.

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Chicagoland: World's Best Burgers at Fred's in Burlington, WI

2013-05-16T16:15:18Z

From Chicago

Fred's cheese-sauced burger is worth driving for. [Photographs: Jennifer Olvera]

Have you ever taken a day trip for a burger? If not, Fred's in Burlington, Wisconsin, makes the case to start. Giving itself the tagline "World's Best Burgers," it's got some hype to live up to. I don't know about the "world" part, but "best" is pretty tough to argue with.

It's a typical wood-paneled place, and a crowded one at that. Going into the experience, the uninitiated should know you seat yourself. It's a self-order situation, too.

Grab a menu from the wall, along with an order card. Then, write down what you want, including any special requests, and bring it to the far end of the bar—this is where you place your order and pay.

As far as pubs go, the menu is pretty large, housing atypical appetizers—fried green beans ($3.99), broccoli and cheese poppers ($5.59), and jalapeno-cheese-filled tots, ($4.59), for example, plus a other miscellany. Honestly, everything I've tried, including the peppery popcorn chicken ($4.99), is good.

Still it's the bragged-about burgers everyone comes for. One bite, and you'll know why. Choosing one is hard, as there are versions both straightforward and fancified. Stick with what Fred's is known for: the sloppy melted cheddar cheese sauce cheeseburger ($4.29 for a 1/4 pound, $5.49 for a 1/2 pound). It arrives perfectly pink with or without crispy, fresh toppings like lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles, plus grilled onions if you wish.

Skip the fries in favor of house-made, Parmesan-showered potato chips ($2.49), and leave a happy man, woman or child.

Great taps house icy-cold Sprecher root beer and locally loved Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing. Watch, too, for limited release and lesser-known brews from the brewery as well, such as crisp, balanced Two Women lager, named for Viking gals who brewed in Norse society.

Fred's

596 N. Pine St., Burlington, Wisconsin, (map)
262-763-8370
frp.tripod.com

About the author: Jennifer Olvera is a veteran food and travel writer and author of "Food Lovers' Guide to Chicago." Follow her on Twitter @olverajennifer.

San Diego: The KGB at D Bar is Stunning, Minus the Beef

2013-05-16T14:00:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Erin Jackson]

D Bar

3930 5th Ave, San Diego CA 92103 (map); 602-381-7632; dbarsandiego.com
Cooking method: Grilled
Short Order: A waffle burger that's missing a tasty patty
Want Fries With That? Garlic parmesan fries come standard, but you'll still need to order crüe fries
Price: KGB, $15; Crüe Fries, $5 for a small portion during happy hour, regular size, $9

When I sat down with Keegan Gerhard at D Bar to watch him assemble the Sunshine on a Plate, he clued me into a menu item that I just had to try: the KGB. It's from D Bar's secret menu and features a grilled beef patty sandwiched between two cheese and herb waffles, topped with bacon, caramelized onions, cheese, mayo, and the standard veggies.

Enough time had gone by for me to recover from the waffle woe that was Pete Mayo's Waffle Burger, so I placed the order with full confidence that a restaurant that specializes in awesome desserts (including a few with sweet waffles) could do the genre better justice.

In many ways, that's exactly what happened. Toppings were of a high caliber, the burger was carefully constructed, and the waffle was flawless...but the beef never really showed up to join the party. D Bar uses American Kobe (aka wagyu), and based on the burger I received, it's not money well spent.

The patty was striped with hash marks from the grill, but otherwise it was an unappealing shade of gray. The grind was so fine it looked pulverized, and while there was some crust on the exterior, the interior was cool and mushy, and any flavor the beef had was totally overwhelmed by the bacon. I'll forgive the restaurant, a Denver import, for not knowing about local farms like Brandt Beef and Sage Mountain Farm, and to be fair, Keegan did let it slip that they're considering reformulating the burger by looking into local producers (as well as adding it to the regular, printed menu). Hey Keegan, if you need a beef consultant, my fee is one Cake and Shake.

Garlic parmesan fries come standard. They're tasty, but the garlic was imperceptible, and the cheese wasn't melted, so it felt separate, like some random flotsam strewn about the thin-cut spuds.

See if your server will upgrade to the Crüe Fries, or go during Happy Hour, when a small serving is $5. The addition of creamy mac sauce, ranch dressing, cheddar jack, and bacon doesn't just elevate the spuds, it blasts them to another dimension. Even if you don't plan on eating every last one, you will...and then you'll use the fries that come with your burger to swipe up the remaining sauce.

With a beef upgrade, the KGB would be a hot little number. Here's hoping D Bar gives that wagyu the boot.

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AHT Giveaway: Case of Pat LaFrieda Burgers

2013-05-15T19:00:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

Inside the Pat LaFrieda facility. [Photograph: Nick Solares]

To celebrate National Burger Month, we're teaming up with famed New York City meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda to give away a case of their burger patties (24 per case) each week this month. Patties will be shipped fresh anywhere in the U.S. (sorry, international readers!), perfect for throwing a giant burger party or for cooking burger-centric meals at home. To enter this week's contest, just tell us your biggest burger pet peeve(s) in the comments section below.

Contest will end and comments will close at 5 p.m. ET, Monday, May 20, 2013. One entry per community member. One winner will be chosen at random. Winners are limited to U.S. residents. Standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.

Los Angeles: A First Look and Taste at Built Custom Burgers

2013-05-15T15:00:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Damon Gambuto]

Built Custom Burgers

3584 South Figueroa St., Los Angeles CA 90007 (map); 626-795-5800; builtcustomburgers.com
Cooking Method: Grilled
Short Order: A solid entry into the crowded fast casual burger scene
Want Fries with That? Yes, but only if you are ok with a quickly cooling shoe string fry
Price: Burger with choice of cheese and basic toppings, $6.75; + fries and drink, $9.75

It seems foolish for a restaurant group to think now is a good time to enter the crowded fast casual burger market—a market that looks like it reached its saturation point long ago. But when your particular restaurant group could be credited with being among those that launched the trend, perhaps it only seems fair that you get a piece of the action.

Back in 2003, The Counter—a mid-scale, sit-down burger restaurant—opened on a sleepy street in Santa Monica with a simple idea: you know what kind of burger you like better than they do, so why not allow the customers to, well, customize? It caught on; they've since opened and franchised to over 30 locations worldwide.

Now the folks behind The Counter want in on some of that fast casual fast money. Enter Built Custom Burgers by The Counter. Yes, it's in oddly long name, and yes, it's clearly a business development strategy disguised as a restaurant, but that doesn't mean they can't serve good burgers. And, as it happens, they do. Mostly. Let's take a closer look and agree that we'll just call it Built from now on.

[Image: builtcustomburgers.com]

The underlying architecture of this fast casual burger customization outfit is the assembly line. You've seen it before and you'll see it again because it works. Subway and Chipotle figured out that we like watching our food prepared under our instructions. (I find sometimes people enjoy this a little too much, at least the giving instructions part.) Built takes the same approach to your burger preparation. It's an eight-step ordering process, which sounds like a lot because it is. You order the basics (type of patty, toppings, and bun) and then make your way down the line. The process was awkward during my visit, but seeing as they just opened in March, I'm sure it'll get smoother as they work out the kinks.

I ordered their basic beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onions on their standard hamburger bun with a side of Thousand Island dressing. Add a side of fries and drink and it all comes to under ten bucks. This seems the right price point for what you get.

The patty sounds a bit undersized at 1/4-pound—I'd choose a 1/3-pound as the Platonic ideal—but I didn't find it to be woeful. I wouldn't opt for the double on a Built burger. The beef was full of flavor from a hearty bit of seasoning which, I'm happy to report, seems less dangerous than we might have once thought. Built won't give you much temperature control over your patty, which is too bad because this beef is good enough for a proper medium-rare cooking. To their credit, my patty still showed some juice even in its overcooked medium-well presentation.

The toppings were all solid and tasty. It turns out I do know what I like on my burger. What I don't like is a weak bun, and again, to Built's credit, theirs is a good one. At first I thought it was too big for a single patty, but I ended up enjoying the substantial bun.

The "shoestring" fries were not so much disappointing as poorly constructed for this concept. The thin cut (a little thicker than traditional shoestring) of these spuds works with a hot-out-of-the-oil side of fries, but even then you get a scant couple of minutes of tastiness before they cool and lose their bite. Mine made their way onto my plate well before my burger was ready, so they had cooled passed their sweet spot. Built would do better with a wider cut fry that holds the heat a bit longer.

You can tell Built is still ironing out some of the operational wrinkles, but the basics seem to be in order: good burgers at a fair price. Perhaps there's always room for that.

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Get Coupon for Free Shake Shack Burger Next Week in NYC

2013-05-14T20:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

Mmm...free ShackBurger. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Shake Shack and Delta are giving away "burger passes" for free ShackBurgers to celebrate the opening of Shake Shack at JFK International Airport's new Terminal 4 on May 24. You can get a burger pass redeemable for one free ShackBurger at participating U.S. Shake Shacks, including the upcoming JFK location, by heading to Delta's T4X pop-up space at 376 West Broadway (map) from May 19 to 22, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., while supplies last.

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Atlanta: Brunch Burgers Worth Waking Up For at Buttermilk Kitchen

2013-05-14T15:15:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Todd Brock]

Buttermilk Kitchen

4225 Roswell Road, Atlanta GA 30342 (Map); 678-732-3274; buttermilkkitchen.com
Cooking Method: Cast iron skillet
Short Order: Breakfast and lunch spot does a cool brunchy twist on a burger
Want Fries with That? The Crispy Fried Potatoes are a great add-on
Price: Dad's Waffle, $13; Bacon-Cheddar Burger, $12
Note: Opening hours: Tues. to Fri., 7:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 8. a.m. - 3 p.m.; Bacon-Cheddar Burger only available during weekend brunch

I love brunch. Mainly, I think, it's the anything-goes variety of what you can get away with eating in a single meal. Let's see, I think I'll have eggs Benedict, a slab of prime rib, pancakes, chicken fingers, home fries, and some red velvet cake. Right away, sir. Enjoy your brunch. (Yes, I have a bit of an overeating problem. Especially at brunch places. Shut up and pass the banana pudding.)

And while a hamburger may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you're handed a midmorning menu, maybe that just means you're not brunching at the right place. Buttermilk Kitchen, tucked away in the Chastain area, has more than one burgercentric brunch option; either one will totally make your morning, whether you're dragging yourself in after a long night, or just getting a leisurely start to a busy Saturday.

The old residence can get lost on busy Roswell Road, despite the bright blue paint job. Inside, it feels authentically homey, with timeworn hardwood floors and mismatched seating spread throughout the former rooms and outdoor patio. Open for breakfast and lunch, chef/owner Suzanne Vizethann's weekend brunch menu brings them together and is liberally dotted with Southern classics and homestyle favorites alike, from shrimp and grits to biscuits and gravy.

But it was Dad's Waffle ($13) that caught my eye. Instead of the more common slap-an-egg-under-the-bun-and-call-it-a-breakfast-burger approach, Dad's Waffle brings the burger to the breakfast by topping Buttermilk Kitchen's sourdough waffle with a huge burger patty, gracing it with a pat of house butter, and serving it with maple syrup.

I know. It's a burger on a waffle. Surprisingly simple in its construction. But Dad's Waffle is superb in its execution. First, a word on the waffle. That bad boy is made from 105-year-old starter. Not overly sweet like many versions, Buttermilk's sourdough batter has a yeasty, tangy flavor about it that makes feel it much heartier than just an oversized Eggo.

The burgers themselves at Buttermilk Kitchen are impressive, too. At least eight ounces (I'm guessing more) of grass-fed beef, given a fantastic char in a cast-iron skillet, cooked to a beautiful medium-rare that I regret not getting a flattering photo of. But that's a testament to how quickly I devoured my Dad (not a phrase I ever expected to type) once the butter melted and the syrup gave it all a sweet, sticky bath.

A burger-topped waffle isn't everybody's cup of tea, though. My server Jamez (yes, with a z) called it, despite it being his favorite thing on the menu, "the least seller." Apparently no one orders Dad's Waffle. I promised him I'd get the word out that this is a tasty twist of a dish...but I might humbly make a suggestion. Next time I order Dad's Waffle (and there will be a next time), I'm ordering a side of bacon, crumbling it up, and sprinkling those beautiful pork bits all over the top of everything for some textural crunch and an extra hit of needed saltiness.

But maybe you're not looking for any breakfast component at all. (That's okay. It is brunch, after all. Whatevs.) For a more traditional burger choice, go for the Bacon-Cheddar Burger ($12). Available only for brunch, that same grass-fed, cast-iron-kissed beef sits atop a beautiful and squishy bun, with lettuce underneath, and grated cheddar, superthin-sliced red onion, house pickles, and two strips of thick, holy-crap-TRY-this-but-one-bite-only bacon on top.

One of the more photogenic burgers I've been served recently, it was also one of the better tasting ones, with every element proportioned just right and another spot-on medium-rare by the cook. Buttermilk Kitchen would never call itself a "burger joint," but they do an exceptional burger nonetheless.

The accompanying Crispy Fried Potatoes feel brunchier than standard fries and are fantastic any time of day. Tossed in fresh herbs, fried onions, and sea salt, mine had an outer shell that almost shattered on impact and gave way to a warm and fluffy interior that had me wishing for even more of them in an already-respectably-sized side order.

I didn't expect to be blown away by burgers at a brunch place, but Buttermilk Kitchen's burgers did just that. My biggest complaint about them is that they'll make it harder for me to work my way down the rest of the menu. That Pimento Cheese Omelet/Blueberry Cobbler Pancakes/John & Yoko Ono Whoopie Pie combo platter extravaganza I had fantasized about may have to wait longer than expected.

About the Author: Todd Brock lives the glamorous life of a stay-at-home freelance writer in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides being paid to eat cheeseburgers for AHT, pizzas for Slice, and desserts for Sweets, he's written and produced over 1,000 hours of television and penned Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. When he grows up, he wants to be either the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the drummer for The Gaslight Anthem. Or both.

Shake Shack is Coming to Chicago

2013-05-13T21:15:35Z

From Chicago

Shack Burger from Shake Shack in NYC. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Remember the rumor about the potential Shake Shack location in the old Harley-Davidson store in River North? At the time it was just real estate gossip, which the owners refused to discuss. Luckily, last Friday Eater Chicago received official confirmation from the Union Square Hospitality Group about plans to open in Chicago, though no other details were released. (For the record, Grub Street is getting really good at calling these things ahead of time.)

Why should you care about the New York hamburger chain? Sure, it's universally adored here on Serious Eats, but if you have further questions, check out this behind the scenes video to see the care that goes into each burger (also, look out for the spotless chrome griddle). Let's just hope the line never gets this long.

The Burger Lab: A 60-Day Dry-Aged Home-Ground Prime Rib Burger (That You Will Probably Never Make At Home)

2013-05-13T20:15:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

VIEW SLIDESHOW: The Burger Lab: A 60-Day Dry-Aged Home-Ground Prime Rib Burger (That You Will Probably Never Make At Home)

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

It's time for another round of The Food Lab. Got a suggestion for an upcoming topic? Email Kenji here, and he'll do his best to answer your queries in a future post. Become a fan of The Food Lab on Facebook or follow it on Twitter for play-by-plays on future kitchen tests and recipe experiments.

Burgers made with aged meat are making big inroads into the New York burger scene (and I presume around the country as well). Places like, say, Minetta Tavern and their infamous Black Label Burger have not only introduced people to the power of a bit of aged funk in a good burger, but have actually created a fervor for it. Is it possible to recreate some of that magic at home?

The short answer is, unfortunately, no.

To get dry-aged flavor into your burger, you need to start with dry-aged meat. And I'm talking real dry aged meat; The kind that's been stored in the open air for at least 45 days or so to really develop some flavor. When dry-aging a steak, the purpose is twofold: to tenderize (which occurs within the first 21 to 28 days), and to intensify flavor (which doesn't really start happening until after 21 days and continues well into 8+ week territory).

A dry aged steak, about to be seared and torched.

With a burger, tenderization is not really an issue—the stuff gets ground up anyway. It's really only flavor you care about, which means that you need to start with meat that's been aged at least a few weeks, preferably longer.

This meat is expensive. At a standard New York butcher or high end supermarket, aged rib steaks, New York strips, or Porterhouse steaks (the three cuts typically sold aged) are in the $25 to $30/pound range, and somehow it just feels wrong to cut up a beautiful steak just to grind it.

So what do the fancy burger joints do? Well, when you trim a ton of meat the way, say, Pat LaFrieda does, you end up with a lot of trim that's actually still quite edible; it just happens to be in small pieces or come from muscle groups that aren't as desirable as those that come in a high end steak. This trim and muscle can then be collected and ground, packing dry-aged flavor into a burger without quite the sticker shock of a dry-aged steak.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't leave much hope for home cooks who don't have first dibs on Pat LaFrieda's prime rib trim.

So here's the truth: I'm not even going to pretend that anyone is going to actually make this recipe start to finish from scratch, or even from not-scratch. It's just not practical unless you own a restaurant or are planning on aging 80 pounds of beef yourself and saving the trim to make a half dozen or so burgers. So you can consider the slideshow above to pretty much be straight-up food porn.

How did I manage to do it, you ask? Well, I aged 80 pounds of beef myself and saved the trim.

The thing about aged beef is that the outer layers are the funkiest. The very exterior is generally inedible and must be discarded. But the creamy white fat in the fat cap should have a deep, rich, almost blue cheese-like aroma, and that aroma will get ground right through your burgers, flavoring them. Because trim comes from the fatty outer areas, the burgers you end up with are very rich. I'd guess upwards of 30 to 35%.

Cooking Method

I tried cooking the funky ground meat in a number of ways including grilling, smashing, and simply searing in a cast iron skillet and basting it with its own rendered fat.

I figured with the strong aroma of the meat that grilling, with its equally powerful smoky/singed flavors, would be the best bet, but it proved to be a method that was a bit too flavorful. Most of the funk of the aged beef was lost in the char of the grill.

Smashing was much more successful. Pressing thin patties down hard into a hot surface to give maximum browning and crispness brought out the flavor of the meat while leaving it nice and juicy.

But my favorite method was to cook the burger in a cast iron skillet. Perhaps it's because dry-aged flavor is something I associate so strongly with steaks that it seems wrong to treat a dry-aged burger as anything else. It comes out with a beautifully crisp crust with plenty of nooks and crannies left behind by rendering fat for gooey cheese to melt into.

Because of the amount of fat in the patty, the method makes a ton of smoke, so make sure you've got your fans on full blast, or, better yet, work outdoors by heating your cast iron skillet over a roaring hot coal fire.

I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep his toppings simple. Onions, pickles, American cheese, and special sauce are my jam. As are Martin's potato rolls.

Let the drooling commence...

Check out the play-by-play in the slideshow »

Milwaukee: Diner Burgers Shine at North Avenue Grill

2013-05-13T14:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Lacey Muszynski]

North Avenue Grill

7225 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa WI 53213 (map); 414-453-7225; northavenuegrill.com
Cooking Method: Griddled
Short Order: Tiny "new American diner" that serves breakfast all day, along with homemade soups, sandwiches, shakes and amazing burgers
Want Fries With That? Fries are a MUST. They're hand cut, crispy on the outside, light on the inside, and seasoned well
Price: Peppercorn Horsey burger, $8.95; Build-your-own burger, $6.95; Oreo shake, $3.95

Milwaukee isn't really much of a diner town. We've got a few, but they're a little bit overblown and overpriced. It's a weird thing, really, considering Milwaukee's got working-class roots.

So it took a little bit of searching to find a diner that wasn't one of the big tourist-attraction ones. No, neither politicians nor Rachael Ray have visited it like some other diners (ok, one in particular). But I'm willing to bet that North Avenue Grill has some of the best diner food in the city—and I'd stack the burgers up next to any other restaurant's, too.

North Avenue Grill recently came under new ownership at the beginning of the year. I hadn't eaten there before, but it's hard to imagine that the burgers could have been much better than they are now. The owner, Mike Topolovich, is also manning the grill, which is a great thing in this case. You can tell by the food that he really cares about sending out great product.

The half-pound burgers were thick and juicy, even if they were a little bit above the requested medium. There was still a little pink in there though, which is certainly better than a lot of places do with "medium." And in the cooks/owners defense, a salesman happened to come in as my burgers were on the grill—it's an open kitchen—which may have distracted him for just a minute too long.

But no worries, they were still some of the best burgers I've had in a while. The beef was well seasoned with salt and a good amount of black pepper. They were griddled on a flat top but still retained a nice char around the edges.

Onions turned out to be the star toppings of the night, on both the Peppercorn Horsey burger ($8.95) and a build-your-own option. The horsey burger was topped with crispy onion strings, which were freshly breaded while the beef was on the griddle. They were perfectly crunchy and not greasy at all.

The griddled (fried) onions on a build-your-own burger were just as delicious. I mean, look at some of those deep, dark caramelized bits. They were mostly sweet but with a little bite left. They're exactly the kind of fried onions other onions aspire to be.

The Horsey burger was topped with a relatively strong horseradish cream sauce. If you like horseradish, you'll love it. There wasn't too much sauce to make the bun soggy, either. The only thing I'd change is applying the sauce underneath the onion strings, as they got soggy quickly in the sauce.

When I think diner, I think good old American cheeseburger, which is why I went with American cheese and fried onions on the build-your-own ($6.95). Sometimes you really just have to have that gooey cheese, and here it definitely worked. The cheese stuck the perfectly toasted bun to the patty, making one cohesive sandwich, and I love when that happens.

The fries that come with the burgers are not to be overlooked. In fact, I could go here and make a meal just out of fries. They're hand cut and perfectly crunchy on the outside while being light and fluffy on the inside. They're tossed in a bowl with black pepper-heavy seasoning before they're served.

They also just started serving shakes for the summer, so I snagged an Oreo shake ($3.95). While it was a little bit thin and could have used more ice cream, it's still a great compliment to a diner burger and fries.

North Avenue Grill may not be the most famous diner around, but it should be. It's tiny, quaint, and the food is excellent on top of being extremely reasonably priced. I'm looking forward to going back to try the all-day breakfast menu, in classic diner style.

About the author: Lacey Muszynski is an editor, freelance writer and restaurant reviewer from Milwaukee, WI. When she's not burgerblogging on AHT, she might be updating her food blog, making fun of the Food Network, or wondering what her art degree has to do with all of this. Her idols growing up included Martin Yan, Chairman Kaga, and whoever was on Great Chefs, Great Cities that day.

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Snapshots of Kenji's Sliders and More Food at the Sweetlife Festival

2013-05-13T13:00:40Z

From Serious Eats

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Snapshots of Kenji's Sliders and More Food at the Sweetlife Festival

What did we do this weekend? Make about 800 sliders at the Sweetlife Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. Many festivalgoers came back for seconds and thirds of Kenji's ultimate sliders. It was a crazy day, not to mention interrupted by some scattered thunderstorms which made for some fun umbrella-protected griddling of burgers. Check out photos of us and other food vendors at the festival!

Canby, OR: Good Days and Bad Days at Frack Burger

2013-05-10T15:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Adam Lindsley]

Frack Burger

919 SW 4th Ave., Canby, OR 97013 (map); 503-266-7654; frackburger.com
Cooking Method: Griddled
Short Order: Depending on when you drop by, you'll get either a sterling example of the classic fast food burger or a ho-hum one.
Want Fries with That? Like the burgers, they're inconsistent from one day to the next. But the onion rings are pretty good, as long as you salt them.
Prices: 1/4-pound Single Frack, $3; Double Frack, $4; hand cut fries or onion rings, $2; milkshake, $3

Living in the Pacific Northwest, I am constantly disheartened by this region's lack of understanding when it comes to building a good griddled burger. Outside of Little Big Burger (and to a lesser extent, Five Guys), Portland's cheap burger scene ain't pretty. While our bistro burger scene is alive and well, sometimes I just crave the simple pleasures of thin, well-seared beef patties crowned with school-bus-yellow American cheese and placed between two toasted buns slathered with a "special sauce" that always seems to be some combination of mayo and ketchup. How so many so-called burger joints in Seattle and Portland can get these fundamentals wrong when the international fame of In-N-Out has practically drawn up the blueprints to do it right I will never know, but one thing I do know is this: on a good day, Frack Burger nails it.

"On a good day..." Yes, there's a catch. My two visits to Frack Burger so far have resulted in vastly disparate experiences, but I'll begin with the meal that convinced me it was perfectly fine to drive 30 miles from home for a cheeseburger twice in one week.

Frack Burger offers single ($3), double ($4), and triple-patty ($5) burgers, and the double-patty option provides the best ratio of meat to bun + toppings. Arriving at my table (one of only four in the tiny restaurant), the hand-formed patties gave off a mouthwatering aroma of charred beef, more akin to a grilled burger than a griddled one, and the first bite delivered on that promise of a crisp crust courtesy of the high-heat flat top. Each patty was cloaked in a slice of melted American cheese, reaffirming the axiom that, when it comes to cheese on ground beef, more is more.

Extra crunch came courtesy of the well-toasted bun, which was nearly black around the outer rim, the way I like it. The bottom half of the bun had a healthy smear of Frack Sauce, which to my estimation was the expected ketchup and mayo combination, heavier on the mayo. The sauce lacked the deceptive complexity of In-N-Out Spread, but it did its job. Sliced onions, iceberg lettuce, tomato, and pickles rounded out the remaining toppings, though the pickles were a (free) add-on. Altogether, that first burger reminded me very much of my attempts to recreate the In-N-Out Double-Double (minus the Animal Style) at home. That's a good thing, because my home versions taste pretty darn good, if I do say so myself (thanks, Kenji).

The hand-cut fries ($2) weren't quite as successful, but they were by no means a failure. Some were too soft, as is almost always the case with hand-cut fries, but some had a nice crispness to them, and all were well salted. Bottom line, they tasted as good as an all-around more superior version (and certainly better than what In-N-Out calls fries).

I also sampled the onion rings ($2), which, texturally, I had zero complaints with. The batter formed an audibly crunchy exterior that housed the oh-so-tender onions, but the rings weren't salted. The best time to salt anything deep-fried is straight out of the oil, rather than at your table as is expected here, so hopefully they'll fix this going forward.

I see very little reason to ever pass up the chance to try a new milkshake ($3), so I've tried three here. The Peanut Butter shake was a pass for me; far too sweet. The Rich Chocolate? A marked improvement, and one of the few chocolate shakes I've had that didn't taste like it used Hershey's Syrup as the base. But the real winner was the Fresh Banana. For those looking for banana cream pie in semi-liquid form, get thee to Frack Burger. Just remember to ask for a spoon; mine was so thick I could barely coax it up the straw.

A few minor quibbles aside, that was a mighty satisfying meal. Imagine my disappointment then, when on a visit just six days later, everything would go wrong. The burger lacked a proper sear or seasoning, so the wonderful crust I just raved about was MIA. The bun was barely toasted, resulting in a sad, mushy pillow you could chew through with a sideways glance. The fries? Even sadder: limp and burnt tasting. I felt duped.

So what's the real Frack Burger experience? Like so many places, it's a gamble. But if you're lucky enough to be there on a day when they're running on full cylinders, you're in for a real treat. Especially if you're a local craving a burger in the style of In-N-Out but don't feel like driving down to California to reach the nearest location.

About the author: Adam Lindsley is a Seattle-based writer, musician, and the author of the pizza blog, This Is Pizza. As a contributor for both Slice and A Hamburger Today, he is contractually obligated to say he loves pizza and burgers in equal amounts. Which is to say he is a polygamist.

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Ramen Burgers Coming Soon to Lotteria in Japan

2013-05-09T18:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photograph: lotteria.jp]

Fast food chain Lotteria in Japan is teaming up with famous ramen chain Menya Musashi to bring you the Menya Musashi Ramen Burger: a seasoned, lightly charred ramen patty, stewed barbecue pork (chashu), and mayo on a burger bun. This carb-laden sandwich will be available for a limited time from May 20 to mid-June for ¥‎634 (about $6.40) and comes with a side of bonito-flavored soup. The name Musashi refers to the legendary samurai but is also shorthand for the number 634, hence the price. You can also get an extra ramen patty with soup for ¥‎100.

[Photograph: mikimousy on Flickr]

But before there were ramen-stuffed "burgers", there was the Kitakata Ramen Burger, griddled ramen-patties-for-buns filled with common ramen toppings like pork belly, fish cake, scallions, and bamboo shoots. (So, again, not really a burger, but I'm sticking it on AHT anyway.) You can see how it's made in this post at Eataku or in this video:

Serious Eats reader Geoff T. emailed us about ramen burgers a few years ago. ...An email that got lost in the murky depths of my email archives. (Sorry, Geoff!) I'll take this opportunity to resurrect his thorough description of the ramen burger:

Usually enjoyed in a big bowl while sitting at a table or counter, ramen is not known as a food for people on the go. The ramen burger looks to change all that, combining all the ingredients that make ramen so tasty into handheld form. I found this specimen of gourmet goodness at a summer matsuri (festival) right outside Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

The name 'ramen burger' is a bit misleading because there is no actual hamburger patty, only a slice of chashu pork. Many sandwiches are mislabeled as burgers in Japan but in actuality, it should be called a ramen sandwich.

To start off, this sandwich doesn't have a traditional bun, instead using ramen noodle discs fried into the shape of a bun. The noodles aren't fried until they're crunchy but rather just long enough so they could keep their shape.

In between the noodle buns were all the usual ingredients you might find in a bowl of ramen: chashu (roast pork), naruto (fish cake), negi (scallions), and menma (marinated bamboo shoots).

After it's assembled, you have a choice of which type of ramen soup flavor you'd like in your sandwich: shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt), miso (soybean paste), and tonkotsu (pork bone). Don't worry about it being super messy; the soup base was thickened significantly to make for a nice condiment. Finally, if it was to your liking, you could add some togarashi (Japanese assorted chili pepper powder) to spice up your sandwich.

The ramen burger really captures the essence of a bowl of ramen but so far, it hasn't really caught on besides being sold on the street at local festivals. However, with the worldwide explosion in the popularity of ramen, I'm hoping that you'll soon see the ramen burger at a restaurant near you.

Have any AHT'ers tried ramen burgers before? Anyone looking forward to trying Lotteria's ramen burger?

[via Kotaku]

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Pasadena, CA: The El Cholo Café Burger is Something To Be Missed

2013-05-09T14:15:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Damon Gambuto]

El Cholo Café

260 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena CA 91101 (map); 626-795-5800; elcholopasadena.com
Cooking Method: Griddled
Short Order: An outpost of the classic LA Mexican restaurant makes a sad burger
Want Fries with That? Pass; have the rice and beans instead
Price: Cheeseburger (w/rice and beans), $9.95

It may seem like folly trying to hunt down a delicious burger at a Mexican restaurant, but allow me to present a few pieces of evidence that argue in my favor. First off, there's the recent review by my colleague Wes describing the awesomeness to be found at Mexican joint in San Francisco. Earlier this year, fellow AHT'er Erin found a great chorizo-topped burger at a Mexican restaurant in San Diego. More locally, one of my favorite local burger lunch options is Yuca's in my sleepy little neighborhood of Los Feliz. Lastly, if you go hunting at one of the outposts of the legendary LA Mexican restaurant El Cholo, you'll see a reproduction of the original menu from 1923 that served up a "Hamburger Steak." Oh, did I mention that I was out for dinner on Cinco de Mayo? There's that, too.

So there I am at the Pasadena location, El Cholo Cafe, margarita in hand, mariachi band blaring, ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a fantastic Mexican meal that would include the restaurant's historical cheeseburger. How was it? Well, let's say that the Mexican food was tasty and the cheeseburger should be relegated to history.

El Cholo Cafe's version is so completely unappealing and underwhelming I loathe to summon my memory, but alas, let me power through the description of this burger so that others needn't suffer through it.

The six ounces of ground chuck came out so overcooked I thought it might be a practical joke. It was a desiccated and leathery mass that was barely better than what you'd find at the worst of fast food outlets. Think airplane cheeseburger and you're getting close.

The cheese, which you'd imagine to be a strongsuit for a restaurant that must go through hundreds of pounds of the stuff every day, was barely melted and offered little solace to the dry and juiceless patty. The bun wasn't all bad as it had a nice sponginess and was reminscent of an authentic bolillo. And that's it. There isn't anything else to talk about with this burger. A little jalepeño to spice things up? Nope. A little mayo to add fat and flavor? No sir. Just a wan, dry patty, some bland cheese, and a bun.

I went with the rice and beans as a side to keep with the Cinco de Mayo theme and they delivered. El Cholo's version is straight up refried tradition with short grain rice. Simple and pleasing is perfectly acceptable and this side dish is just that.

Now, I actually don't mind a meal at El Cholo and that's because I usually go with the blue corn chicken enchiladas. I ordered them as a backup and thank goodness I did. They remain an entirely satisfying take on the classic enchilada plate.

In the end, perhaps that's all one should ask for from a Mexican spot; that is, good Mexican food. Add to that a convivial atmosphere and some margaritas (both of which were in abundance on Sunday evening) and you've got a resturant worth going to, burger or not. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, I've discovered a delicious burger at a Mexican joint in the past as have some of my colleagues. Perhaps the burger I got at El Cholo is what I deserved since I ordered it on Cinco de Mayo.

...Scratch that, no one deserves a burger that bad.

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AHT Giveaway: Case of Pat LaFrieda Burgers

2013-05-08T19:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

Inside the Pat LaFrieda facility. [Photograph: Nick Solares]

To celebrate National Burger Month, we're teaming up with famed New York City meat purveyor Pat LaFrieda to give away a case of their burger patties (24 per case) each week for the next four weeks. Patties will be shipped fresh anywhere in the U.S. (sorry, international readers!), perfect for throwing a giant burger party or for cooking burger-centric meals at home. To enter this week's contest, just describe the best burger you've ever had in the comments section below.

Contest will end and comments will close at 5 p.m. ET, Monday, May 13, 2013. One entry per community member. One winner will be chosen at random. Winners are limited to U.S. residents. Standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.

Tempe, AZ: Get Smoky, Flame-Kissed Burgers at The Chuckbox

2013-05-08T16:15:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Erin Jackson]

The Chuckbox

202 E University Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281 (map); 480-968-4712; thechuckbox.com
Cooking method: Charbroiled
Short Order: A tasty, no-nonsense, budget-friendly burger topped how you like it (at the condiment bar)
Want Fries With That? Unless you like eating fries strictly as a ketchup delivery system, I'd skip them
Price: The Big One (1/3-pound patty) with cheese, $5.09; Tijuana Torpedo, $5.85; fries, $1.66

After five hours of driving through the desert, slow-cooking under the powerful rays of sunshine that beat through the windows, I was ready for a great hamburger. AHT editor Robyn had steered me towards The Chuckbox, and after about 2.5 seconds of checking out the website, I had a good feeling it was my kind of place. The burgers are charbroiled, prices are more than reasonable, and the cook, Big Juan, clearly has a sense of humor. Sold.

Inside, there are two main focal points: what looks like a 1980s-era salad bar (it's stocked with condiments), and a grill pit stoked by a combination of charcoal and mesquite. Hot, orange flames shoot up through the grill, charring beef patties and bacon, and flavoring them with smoke.

The menu is fairly simple. Get a 1/3- or 1/2-pound patty, single or double, with your choice of cheese for an extra 50¢. There are also burgers with bacon and guacamole, and the Tijuana Torpedo ($5.85), a burger with jalapeño jack inside the beef and a grilled green chili on top. I nabbed one of those, plus a 1/3-pound burger with American cheese ($5.09).

No one asked me how I wanted my burgers cooked, and I didn't insist on anything specific. I was confident that after 40 years on the job, the grillmaster (Big Juan, himself) knew what he was doing.

He really does. The beef is coarsely ground, smashed on the grill, and cooked to medium. The patties are fairly moist, but nowhere near juicy enough to make a mess. The approach here isn't as much about coaxing flavor out of top-quality cuts as it is about the broiler. It imparts a smoky, backyard barbecue flavor into the beef, resulting in a burger that's delicious in its simplicity and (for me, at least) powerfully nostalgic. There's so much smoky flavor that I couldn't even quibble about the beef being cooked past my preferred temperature.

The lightly toasted sesame seed bun provides the perfect bread-to-meat ratio. It's soft and fluffy, and since there's no worry about it being doused with leaky burger juice, it stands up to the patty to the last bite.

My second burger, the Tijuana Torpedo, wasn't exactly as advertised. The jack cheese was on top, not inside, the patty, and the bun was a typical burger bun, not a torpedo. Some preliminary Google images research reveals that the presentation is standard, and in any case, it was delicious. The chili was mild, and gave the burger a nice, earthy flavor. In my rush to jam it in my face as quickly as possible, I skipped adding any additional toppings, to the burger's detriment. As served, it's a good starting point, but it needs some lettuce for crunch and tomato slices for acidity.

Like the standard cheeseburger, the TJ Torpedo had beautiful striping from the broiler. Check out that char.

You can grab an order of fries ($1.66) near the cash register, but I'd skip them unless you feel a burger isn't complete without them, or your primary objective for eating fries is to use them as a ketchup delivery system. There's nothing wrong with the perfectly acceptable spuds, but there's also no compelling reason to bother with them. It's better to go for a double patty instead.

If I lived closer, I'd be a regular... just like if you do, you probably already are. If you're passing through Arizona's Valley of the Sun, this is the place for a great, classic burger with an uncommonly delicious smoky flavor.

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Video: Season 2 Premiere of Top Chef Richard Blais's 'Burger Lab'

2013-05-07T20:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

Richard Blais's YouTube cooking show Burger Lab premiered earlier this year and now Blais's back for season 2. The first new episode features a New Orleans-inspired mash-up: the Spicy Po' Boy Muffaletta Burger. From the bottom up, there's a charred Italian bread bun; a layer of crawfish and Old Bay mayo ("Old Bayo"); olive salad mixed with shredded lettuce; double-battered, deep fried crawfish tails; ground pork and andouille sausage patty; provolone and mozzarella, slices of mortadella, tasso ham, and salad; and the top bun.

All locations of Flip Burger Boutique will be serving this burger from now until May 13.

Spicy Po' Boy Muffaletta Burger - Burger Lab

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NYC: Truly Terrible Burgers Barely Saved By Excellent Fries at Hudson Common

2013-05-07T15:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Hudson Common

356 W 58th St New York, NY 10019‎ (map); 212-554-6000; hudsoncommonnyc.com
Cooking Method: From freezer to griddle.
Short Order: A joke of burger so bad even Yelpers have caught on. But if you've ever felt like eating excellent fries in an Epcot Center interpretation of a New York party, this may be the place for you.
Want Fries With That? You want fries instead of that. Their thrice-cooked fries are excellent.
Price: Tiny, poorly cooked patty, $12; extra for a slice of dried out Velveeta, +$2; fries, $5

Let me start this review off by telling you that the Thrice-Cooked Fries ($5) with duck fat and sea salt at Hudson Common, the new burger joint/beer hall in the ultra-trendy Hudson Hotel, are excellent. Like, best-in-class, how-do-they-get-them-so-crisp? level good. I suggest you go in, order those fries and perhaps a beer,* then get out while the gettin's good, because it's all downhill from there.

* If you can put up with their ridiculous system of no waiters and two different lines to stand on in succession for drinks and food.

I'm not really the type of person who deals in take-downs or overly negative posts. But once in a while I feel so duped, so cheated, so entirely frustrated that I just spent $13 on the worst burger I've had since my middle school cafeteria days that I feel a bit of warning is due to our readers, in the hopes that the same fate will not befall them.

Excellent fries.

I also only choose to write this post because the burger joint in question happens to be inside a very popular hotel—one which there are good odds that a visitor to our fair city may stay at, or even choose to visit for their impressive outdoor drinking space and lounge.

If you do happen to find yourself at the bar enjoying a cocktail, I implore you to look elsewhere for your meal. It's not that difficult, seeing as they don't allow you to order food from the bar, despite the fact that the bar window and burger window are in the exact same room.

There actually, is some degree of culinary magic going on in the kitchens at Hudson Common. How else can you explain a burger that manages to be charred to the point of blackening around the edges, yet pale and steamed-looking across its entire face?

I have seriously never seen a burger patty that looks like this and am a bit mystified as to how it was accomplished. Perhaps an overly-compressed, potentially frozen patty that cooked so hot the edges shrunk, causing it to cup up and lose contact with the griddle is the answer? I really don't know.

I believe—I hope—that those frizzled things sticking to the meat were some sort of blackened caramelized onion detritus, though the menu description didn't advertise them and their flavor offered no clues.

Want to witness a bit more kitchen wizardy? Just watch as we take this slice of Velveeta cheese—well known as the processed cheese that will melt into gooey sauce if you even look at it wrong—and convert it into a plastic sheet so dry and shriveled that it will actually refuse to melt under the heat of your burger. Ta-da!!

A strangely sweet, horseradish-flavored sauce distracts you from the meat, which can be a good thing. At least the bun was properly toasted.

This is a rare case in which the veggie burgers are actually superior to the regular burgers. Though not by much. They have decent flavor and appear to be made with real vegetables, but are mushy to the point that the squeeze out of the sides of your burger as you bite.

If you're willing to spend even more money, you can treat yourself to even larger sandwiches that aren't worth eating. The breaded cutlet inside the Pork Katsu BLT ($15) is alright, albeit greasy on its own. Smears of unidentifiable creamy sauce, insipid off-season tomatoes, and clumsy fat slices of iceberg lettuce doused in Japanese Worcestershire sauce don't do it any favors.

I'm serious here: stick with the fries. If you want a full-meal, order the Bloody Mary Bacon Fries, which, for $9, is not only cheaper than almost anything else on the menu, but is also infinitely more edible.

Think poutine meets barbecue meets bibimbap meets nachos and you have a fair idea of what's going on. The awesome triple-cooked fries are topped with slices of pickled okra and jalapeño, along with plenty of squeaky cheese curds, a soft-yolked fried egg, and tender chunks of braised pork belly (which I wish they wouldn't call bacon). The dish is so damn good that it makes you forget all about the earlier trespasses.

Until the deafening house music starts pumping. Dammit, time to get the heck out of here.

Video: 'American Burger', Upcoming Comedy Horror Movie from Sweden

2013-05-06T18:15:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Image: facebook.com/AmericanBurgermovie]

American Burger is a happy horror comedy written and directed by first-time filmmakers Bonita Drake & Johan Bromander. The directors bring a busload of American students on a culture trip in Europe. In the middle of nowhere they stumble upon a mysterious Hamburger stand and are about to realize that European notion of American Hamburgers is terrifyingly different to what they're used to...

Psst...the not-so-secret ingredient is Americans.

Sweden-based Little Big Productions is releasing American Burger this fall on all platforms—theaters, DVD & Blu-Ray, DRM-free download, and stream. Check out the trailer below and if you like what you see, help them spread the word.

American Burger - Official Trailer

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Chain Reaction: Famous Dave's

2013-05-06T15:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Lacey Muszynski]

Famous Dave's

5077 South 27th Street, Greenfield WI 53221 (map); 414-727-1940; 191 locations across the US and one in Canada; view all locations at famousdaves.com
The Schtick: Smoked meats and southern-inspired food geared at families and groups. Each table has six sauces and a roll of paper towels
The Burger: Smoked brisket burgers mix brisket into the ground beef. It's not bad but might make you wonder why you didn't just order a less expensive brisket sandwich
Want Fries With That? Thumbs up for the crisp potato wedge fries, or try one of numerous other sides
Price: Devil's Spit burger, $10.99; Ultimate burger, $11.99; BBQ Nachos (small), $5.99; side of mac and cheese, $2.29

I love Famous Dave's Devil's Spit BBQ sauce. It's my preferred sauce from the grocery store whenever I have any type of barbecue at home. It's one of the few commercially-made sauces I've found that actually has a good bit of heat to it. Not so much that it's a hot sauce, but enough that it's hotter than a typical barbecue sauce.

When I heard Famous Dave's promoting their new Brisket Burgers I was intrigued. And when I saw that one was named the Devil's Spit Burger, I was excited. But when I tried the new Devil's Spit Brisket burger, I was mostly just confused.

The problem really stems from something Famous Dave's anticipated, and tried to solve: Why would you order a burger at a barbecue place? I guess there are probably some people who don't enjoy their barbecue. I suspect that Texans, for instance, would not dare set foot in a Famous Dave's if it wasn't for their nephew choosing it for their 10th birthday party. In that case, a burger might be welcomed.

"And who doesn't love barbecue sauce, right? And smoked brisket? Fantastic, we'll just throw some into the burger!" is what I imagine the focus group to have said. This is where I start getting confused, though: When you add so much smoked meat and sauce to a burger, at what point does it stop being a burger? Why wouldn't I just order a brisket sandwich?

Frankly, the brisket sandwich would have been more enjoyable than the two burgers I tried. The one saving grace was the great charbroiled flavor, like from a backyard grill. But if you had blindfolded me, I would have never guessed there was ground beef somewhere in there.

There's smoked brisket chunks—HUGE chunks in some cases—mixed in with the ground beef. This is great for flavor but little else. The combination of ground and shredded meats together makes for a slightly odd texture. While I ordered the burgers with "some pink"—the way my server asked—the ground beef was way overcooked. That dried out the brisket, too. A travesty to even mediocre smoked meat.

The Devil's Spit burger ($10.99) didn't have all that much Devil's Spit on it. I still ended up squirting a puddle on my tray for dipping. The pepperjack cheese wasn't all that peppery, but at least there was a lot of it. "Hell Fire" pickles were not hellish or fiery in the least; they tasted like sweet pickles.

Pulled pork topped the Ultimate burger ($11.99), and in combination with the brisket in the patty, it made me ask once again, why order the burger at all? The good thing about this burger was that the pulled pork distracted you even more from the overcooked ground beef. Everything else on the burger—cheese, bacon—just got lost.

Burgers come with a choice of side, so I went for the Famous Fries. I actually quite like these. They're kind of a mildly seasoned potato wedge, but with a nice crunchy coating on them. Perfect for sopping up Devil's Spit. Definitely skip the mac and cheese unless you like mushy pasta in bland, congealed sauce.

For an app, I tried the BBQ Nachos ($5.99). House-smoked cheddar, Wilbur beans, and Famous chili all intrigued me, as did the pulled pork. Too bad the cheese was of the bland sauce variety, the beans were thin and runny, and there was no chili to be found. I believe that there were a few shreds of the smoked cheddar, but they weren't even melted and couldn't be discerned. The best part was by far the pork, but it definitely doesn't make these worth getting again.

It's not that I wouldn't go to Famous Dave's again; I've been there a bunch of times and will probably go back. But I'll stick to barbecue and tried-and-true sides, like fries and cornbread muffins. Unless you really can't decide between a burger or barbecue, I suggest doing the same.

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San Francisco: Awesome Drive-in Burger in Mexican Joint, Garaje

2013-05-03T15:30:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Wes Rowe]

Garaje

475 3rd St., San Francisco CA 94107 (map); 415-644-0838
Cooking Method: Char-grilled
Short Order: Hand-pattied, drive-in style burger that packs a delicious cheesy punch
Want Fries with That? For an extra $2 you get delicious thin cut Kennebec chips
Price: The Cheeseburger, $6; double, +$2; hickory bacon, $1; housemade chips, $2
Notes: Open Mon. to Fri., 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.; cash only; prices include tax

"Mexican food and burgers, why not?" was my reaction to hearing about Garaje, a new spot on 3rd Street in SoMa. Like the name implies, the restaurant is themed to look like a big garage: long and narrow, and adorned with street signs and other auto memorabilia. While you'd expect the Mexican-themed menu to have a Mexican-themed burger, surprisingly, Garaje serves a simple drive-in style burger—a burger that not only delivers on flavor but is also of the most affordable burgers in an area filled with white tablecloth options.

The first thing I noticed when I picked up my cheeseburger ($6) was how hefty the burger felt for its size. The burger is a perfect example of what I would make if I were to make a fast food style (or drive-in style) burger: a super soft bun from Acme Bakery, a thin, well salted, crusty patty covered in two slices of melted American cheese, and minimal, fresh, toppings.

The Acme hamburger bun appeared a little on the large side for a single patty burger, but it squished down nicely and was so soft and toasty (some butter probably helped there) that it didn't detract from the whole experience. The fresh ground Angus chuck patty is char-grilled with only the addition of salt. Despite only being 1/3-pound the patty maintained a bit of pink in the middle and its pronounced beefy flavor came out despite the large bun and copious amounts of cheese.

Toppings are are simple and traditional with just the right balance of shredded lettuce, grilled onions, cheap pickles, and homemade Thousand Island. From the first bite to the last this is an amazing burger.

At first I was skeptical of a place that offers chips instead of fries, but Garaje's paper-thin chips ($2) were deliciously crisp and salty. Made from Kennebec potatoes and topped with salt and cooked in rice bran oil, the chips were so good I was tempted to put them on the burger. I would have liked a bigger order considering how thin they are, but these were awesome, like original Lays but much tastier.

For $6 you'd be hard pressed to find a better burger for the price in the city, and with Garaje's many Mexican-themed options and decent beer selection, you can bet that this newcomer will stick around.

About the author:Wes Rowe is a photographer and eater based in San Francisco who believes there is no such thing as too many burgers, and when given the opportunity, likes to spend the whole day smoking brisket. Follow him on Instagram @wesrowe.

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NYC: Burger Joint Can't Meet High Expectations

2013-05-02T16:45:00Z

From A Hamburger Today

[Photographs: Robyn Lee]

Burger Joint (in Le Parker Meridian)

119 W 56th St New York, NY 10019 (map); 212-708-7414; parkermeridien.com
Cooking method: Grilled
Short Order: Solid but unseasoned burgers served up in a unique space.
Want Fries With That? Sure, especially if you like McDonald's fries.
Price: Hamburger, $7.58; cheeseburger, $8.04; fries, $3.90
Note: Cash only

April was a good month for Burger Joint. While the original—open since 2003 in Midtown's Le Parker Meridien Hotel—had settled comfortably into the recognized pantheon of NYC burger excellence, the sudden, unexpected announcement of a second Burger Joint opening in Greenwich Village (joining other locations in Seoul, South Korea, and a planned restaurant in Dubai) set off a storm of excitement within our little food-centric universe. Chief among them was Eater, whose "Burger Week 2013" coverage was uncannily timed with the opening. Their coverage culminated in a March Madness-style face-off between "fancypants" and "budget" burgers. In the end, Burger Joint pulled off a stunning victory over dark horse Brindle Room, whose Steakhouse burger is easily my favorite burger in the city—twice as good as the Minetta Tavern Black Label Burger at half the price.

Now I have to clear the air and admit that I'd never been to Burger Joint prior to this review. Can you really blame me? Le Parker Meridien is located in a neighborhood anathema to most New Yorkers. Sure, I promised myself, if I should wander into the area during lunchtime with an hour to kill, I'd absolutely try a burger, but it turns out that the only time I'm ever in the West 50s is to visit out of town relatives (and they have other plans). It was the Burger Week victory combined with the new location that made the trip overwhelmingly relevant and completely unavoidable. So late last week, intrepid burger editor Robyn Lee and I ventured to both Burger Joints in succession—a semi-scientific experiment in burgerology.

First up was the original. The marble and mirrored lobby is dominated by an incongruously beefy smell emanating from the massive maroon curtains in the far western corner. For a moment I empathized with the jet-lagged traveler who books an expensive room in a stylish hotel, only to find that a half-hidden burger spot overwhelms the otherwise staid lobby without ever being seen.

Once we pulled back the curtains, the revealed restaurant evoked the basement set in Wayne's World after Rob Lowe's character took charge. Sure, years of use has naturally added character, but the faux-'70s basement setting feels forced, especially with '60s Music 101 blasting over the speakers, straight out of a Robert Zemeckis movie. Even at the awkwardly early dinner hour of 5 p.m. the joint was jammed with tourists waiting for burgers.

The menu is short: burgers, fries, drinks, and shakes. Choose from toppings including lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mustard, mayo, and ketchup, or you can get them all as "the works." A cheeseburger ($8.04) comes with two slices, a mixture of White American and Colby cheese. Since ketchup only belongs on fries or a McDonald's Quarter Pounder (leave your hate in the comments), I went with the works minus one.

Ordered medium rare, the burger arrived after about a 15 minute wait. The texture of the five-ounce patty itself was the best part of the burger. Well-ground, pleasantly chewy and meaty without being mushy, it helped that it was cooked correctly. In a 2006 Diner's Journal article, Frank Bruni pinned the beef as ground top sirloin and shoulder, but I'm told it's 80/20 chuck, ground in-house daily. The most powerful element came from the grill, which added distinct char marks and a smoky, grilled flavor not often found within Manhattan. Sadly, the burger was unseasoned. It was fine, but unremarkable, tasting like one of the better backyard burgers cooked up on a distant summer Saturday when you went crazy at the toppings bar (but with slightly better beef).

Fries ($3.90) were better. Once we added salt, they were exactly what we craved: effectively crisp and almost exactly like a McDonald's fry. But at the price, I was disappointed (it's always difficult to meet high expectations).

Burger Joint

33 West 8th Street, New York NY 10011 (map); 212-432-1400; burgerjointny.com
Cooking method: Grilled
Short Order: Lack of salt undermines what is otherwise a solid burger
Want Fries With That? A little soggier than at the original location, but better seasoned
Price: Hamburger, $5.50; cheeseburger, $6; fries, $2.75; milkshake, $4.75

We now rested our hopes on the new downtown location, where the vibe couldn't have been more different. When we arrived at 6 p.m., Robyn and I were the only two people in the vast (at least compared to the original) wooden space. Prices here are about $2 cheaper across the board, and, unlike the original, Greenwich Village takes credit cards. Most importantly, the music was much better, with Gipsy Kings and Harry Belafonte underscoring the meal before Herb Alpert blasted "Zorba the Greek" as we finished our shakes.

Sadly, the burgers could not compare. While the components were the same and were ordered and delivered medium rare, the burgers tasted even less seasoned than before (even though the other burgers were similarly unseasoned). They also lacked the distinctive grill flavor that I'd honed in on earlier. I can only assume this is from the extra mileage on the grill uptown.

Fries ($2.75) were better seasoned, but not as crisp. Our strawberry and vanilla shakes ($4.75) were good, but didn't leave a lasting impression, especially when compared to similar shakes around town. Either way, despite the relaxed atmosphere, the burger was ultimately a disappointment.

If I placed Burger Joint head-to-head, Burger Week-style against its most obvious competitor, Shake Shack, I can't see myself recommending Burger Joint. While I'll likely return to the Greenwich Village location once the bar area is finished, the original location is best left as a novelty.