City Burger serves the Bentley of Beef

According to a review by Ryan Sutton, City Burger serves top notch meat.

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Fries, soda and a burger at Wendy’s, McDonald’s or Burger King make up the all-American meal. It’s the chef’s tasting, prix-fixe menu for the no-expense-account crowd, which these days is pretty much everyone.

Problem is, that fast-food is junk food.

Here’s the test: Ever ask for a medium-rare slider at White Castle? Not recommended.

Enter City Burger in midtown Manhattan. The combo is $9.55 and comes in a paper bag. The fries are crispy, the root beer is cold and the burger, charred on the outside and pink on the inside. This is reason to be excited.

It’s still fast-food. But it’s not junk food, at least not in the typical sense. It’s high-end junk food. That’s because the beef comes courtesy of Pat La Frieda, the ground-beef purveyor behind some of the city’s best burgers, including Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack (another high-end junk-food joint).

City Burger is like a stripped down, politically indifferent version of Shake Shack. There are no “stroller parking” signs, they don’t serve sundaes with dog biscuits, and as far as I know, they don’t offset their electric bill with wind-power credits. It’s about as pretty as a Jack in the Box, which is to say, not very.

Also, there’s no hour-long wait.

City Burger is the “only restaurant in America serving the La Frieda Black Label grade beef mixture,” says a sign in the venue, if you care about that sort of thing.

Car Burger

The dry-aged blend ($11.99) is described on the menu as the “Bentley of Beef.” A heavy six ounces, it’s more restaurant- size than fast-food size, but you can still eat it with one hand.

It has a gently gamy tang, bleeds juices, is rare and creamy on the inside, chewy and charred on the outside. When City Burger opened about a year ago, they grilled their meats. Now, they griddle it, giving it a nice greasy crust. It needs more salt, but the pickles and American cheese make up for that. A soft bun soaks everything up. Definitely one of the city’s better patties.

Pair it with an egg cream and you have yourself a proper New York lunch. The non-black-label burger is good too: a mix of chuck, brisket and short rib, though it’s not as intensely beefy. Hearty appetites can choose “Combo #4” ($13.95): a burger; five spicy Buffalo wings; fries or overcooked onion rings “for a supplement”; and a soda.

City Burger is at 1410 Broadway at 39th Street.
Information: 212-997-7770
http://www.cityburgerny.com

Serving NY one Platt at a time...

Our fave NY food critic interviews his famous bro, Oliver Platt (who knew?!?).

Stoned Crow: Mmmm, beef.

what we love: juicy, tasty, no-nonsense burgers, good meat quality, jalapeños included on the plate.

what we could live without: structural integrity of the buns left a bit to be desired. thick bacon could have been cooked a bit more.

burger scale: A-

price range: burgers were $12, fries (separate) were $6

payment method: cashish. Due to our large party (10) they added a 20% gratuity, which, while egregious, would have been paid regardless due to quality service.

This is a no frills west village neighborhood joint. This downstairs bar looks like the sort of basement joint frequented by locals avoiding the tacky NYU crowd. Movie posters adorn the wall, some au courant, some classic, along with a murder of crows on the wall above the pool table in the back.

The burgers are in keeping with the establishment. There aren't a wide variety of options on the menu. Regular or Crow are your choices; the Crow comes with your choice of regular or cheddar cheese and thick cut slab bacon. Preparation was good, meat was cooked properly for the most part, though the un-toasted sesame buns were not at all up to the task of containing a half pound of juicy beef. Fries are a separate affair and were cooked to near-perfect crispiness. We added on the cheese fries, made with real cheese, but they were a tad soggy and disappointing.

If you are in the neighborhood and looking to hide from the hipsters and the trustafarian NYU children, its a good place to grab a beer and a fine, no-frills burger.

For pictures, go here.

A Burger Off?

A Burger wha...?

A Burger Off!

Merchants is running a lunch time burger-off at two of their downtown restaurants, Southwest NY and Pound and Pence. For four weeks, Southwest and Pound and Pence will pit two featured burgers against each other and ask patrons to vote on their fave burger for that week. On the fifth week, they'll feature the two top scoring burgers.

Week 1, which we missed:
1. New York Farmer: Sharp NY cheddar, carmelized sweet onions and horseradish aioli
2. Italian Hero: w/ fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, grilled portabella mushroom and balsamic glazed onions

Week 2, which we also missed:
1. Drunken Dutchman: smoked gouda, brandied mushrooms, applewood bacon and pommery mustard
2. The Wild Blue: saga Blue Cheese, wild mushrooms and red wine shallot marmelade, sweet potato fries

Week 3, this week's burger off, ends on Sunday:
1. Smokey Vermont: vermont cheddar, smokey chipotle BBQ sauce, applewood smoked bacon, carmelized sweet onions and tobacco onion strings
2. A Cabernet in France: w/ brie, wild mushrooms and Cabernet glazed onions

Week 4, next week:
1. The Classic: American cheese, applewood smoked bacon, crispy onion strings, Hellman's mayo and French's mustard
2. Everything, Please: w/ pepperjack cheese, double smoked bacon, carmelized onions, sauteed mushrooms and Avocado

Week 5 - The final round of the burger-off where the top two contenders are featured.

gour·mand

Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English gourmaunt, from Middle French gourmant
Date: 15th century
1 : one who is excessively fond of eating and drinking
2 : one who is heartily interested in good food and drink

Burger Series 16: The Stoned Crow

Happy new year! We meet at The Stoned Crow this month.

According to the UG, Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite, the Stoned Crow's burger simply "rocks." And, it ought to. The Stoned Crow's cook, "Jaime Saucedo...was a ten-year veteran of the Corner Bistro"! The good news for us is "while crowds pack the Bistro, the Crow remains under the burger radar, known only to the inner sanctum of pool players and NYU barflies."

We will also be announcing your fave top three burger places from last year, so if you haven't done so yet, be sure to make your vote count by taking the Burger Series Survey. If the link doesn't work, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7b6PXuCyQ2t8Ht_2bJ61gB4w_3d_3d

We can't wait to kick off Burger Series 2009 with you!

- The Burger Series

Yet another WV pub (sigh)

But this one comes with a pedigree, so we'd like to give it a try.

Joaquin Baca (of Momofuku and Rusty Knot fame) has put together an interesting menu for Wilfie & Nell as a favor to his friend Mark Gibson, co-owner of the WV pub:

Here were shepherd’s pies and meat pies. Here were fries with malt vinegar. And here were Scotch eggs, which in case you didn’t know are hard-boiled eggs wrapped in sausage, then breaded and deep-fried...In short, here was standard-issue pub grub.

Closer inspection revealed things like chicken-liver pâté with onion jam (delicious), Berkshire-pork sliders (delectable), and corned-beef sandwiches with Swiss Gruyère (drool-inducing). Furthermore, Wilfie & Nell, the fine print read, would like to thank the following purveyors: Blue Ribbon Bakery, Murray’s Cheese Shop, Piccinini Brothers (meats), and Bob McClure (pickles).

Ultimate Recipe Showdown Announces the Winning Burger Recipe

Watch the video and get the recipe.

Harold Cohen, 74, a retired plastic surgeon from Hollywood, Fla. has traveled the world and now spends his time developing the perfect burger. Although legally blind, Harold has created a travel-inspired Iberian Burger.

Where to Eat 2009

Hooray, Adam Platt releases his Where to Eat 2009 list! Not surprisingly, chefs have replaced haute cuisine with comfort food made with fresh and local ingredients. These are recessionary times, after all...

http://nymag.com/restaurants/wheretoeat/2009/

2007-2008 Burger Series Survey

It's time to vote on our favorite Burger Series experiences for 2007-2008!

Click Here to take survey

A Travel Channel Show dedicated to our favorite food topic!

The Travel Channel aired a Food Paradise episode on Hamburgers tonight and lists several famous and historic must-visit burger joints across the country. For the show's list of burger restaurants, read more. The hour long episode airs again at various times all next week.

Cheap, Sharp, Lasts Forever

Which is more than we can say for our relationships. (Well, the sharp and lasts forever part, at least.)

Tom Mylan, butcher-in-chief at Marlow & Sons Diner in Williamsburg recommends the best chef's knife for your money:

My favorite for the money is the eight-inch Forschner with rosewood handle ($44.95, from Broadway Panhandler, 65 E. 8th St, nr. Broadway; 212-966-3434). The blade is tall, thin, and tough, perfect for chopping onions and celery for Thanksgiving stuffing. The weight balance between the blade and the handle is nearly 50/50, which is ideal for carving up a turkey. And if properly maintained, the knife should last you a decade or more.

read more

(Photo: Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine)

Our personal faves for cooking and food prep are the Wusthof Classics. The handles are just right for our small female hand. When it comes to bread knives, however, the Wustof is a little too spendy for our tastes. We chose functionality over looks with the Pure Homachi, the lower end sibling to Shun knives. While it's as ugly as sin, it's got the same blade design as its more expensive Shun counterpart. Plus, it has pictures of loaves of bread in the handle should we ever forget what bread knives ought to be used for.

Rare Bar & Grill: Burgers the size of our heads

What we love: Burgers the size of our heads (only when we're hungry, though), ginormous baskets of fries with dipping sauces, the friendly and accomodating waitstaff.

What we could live without: We're not sure. It's the holiday season, for goodness sake!

Burger scale: A-

Price range: $$ out of $$$$

Payment method: cash, major credit card



In our minds, there are two types of burger establishments. The first is a restaurant where the burger is part of the entire experience -- the beers, the appetizers, the fries, the milkshakes, etc. The second is one where the burger is the experience. Rare falls into the second category, where the burgers take centerstage (although the basket of fries are quite excellent).



For more pictures, go here.

This made me hungry

So I felt I ought you might want to take a look too. Thanksgiving recipes from some of the best greenmarket chefs in Manhattan.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Burger Series 15: Rare Bar & Grill

Happy Turkey month!

Yes, it's short notice, and no, we normally don't do a burger round the month of November. But, we'd like to meet at Rare Bar & Grill this month anyway, because it's an excuse to spread a little pre-holiday cheer.

Can't wait to see you there!

Rare is located at 228 Bleecker Street, New York, NY.

Photo courtesy of Joshua G on Yelp.