A Full Belly

To Eat: Minetta's Black Label Burger

Secrets of Minetta Tavern's Black Label Burger | A Hamburger Today:

The finished burger looks so simple, completely belying the rigorous preparation involved in bringing it to table. Although the bun might appear too large, it is so light and airy that as it compresses and conforms around the plump patty the beef-to-bun ratio is actually spot on. The acridity of the onions balances the subtle sweetness of the bun, allowing the flavor of the beef to be fully realized. The Black Label is simply ethereal—tender, succulent, and brimming with the flavor of dry aging: that musky, Roquefort-like tang that is so intoxicating.

I'm skeptical of any $20+ burger, but Nick's DVD extras-esque post about Minetta's $26 Black Label Burger has swayed me. *Added to To Eat List*

The Shack is Back

Today is the first day of Spring and the official season opening of the Shake Shack. Things actually got going on Monday and we headed over for lunch. The line was reasonable and the burgers just as I remembered.

dash dogs does sliders

Dash Dogs on Rivington (between Norfolk and Essex) is one of my favorite cheap eats in the city, $5 for two hotdogs with your choice of toppings and a drink, plus the guys who run it are really nice. They recently added sliders to their menu, so I asked the proprietors why and they said it was basically because, after a year in business, none of them could eat hotdogs anymore. Ha!

$6 buys you three little hamburgers with any toppings (the same fancy things that go on their hotdogs; try the cilantro salsa and garlic aoili or the avocado salsa, cheese and bacon) and a drink. Pretty good deal, and the sliders are fairly tasty, although my current favorites are still the ones at Burke in the Box. Read about those and more in A Hamburger Today's tiny hamburgers archives.

Shake it to December

NYC This week is Shacktoberfest '05 at the Shake Shack. This means lots of bellies full of beer, sausuage, and bloats (beer + frozen custard). And I'm guessing a bellyache or two. Burger season has been extended until December 23rd, when the Shack will close for the winter.

burger joint vs shake shack

After reading this New Yorker piece on the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridian, our friends over at Eater maintain that the result of a Shake Shack/Burger Joint cage match would be "too close to call." I love both places very much (see: my Shake Shack review from just after they opened) but felt that wasn't true and  decided to rank them on certain things; here are the results:

Location, Location, Location
Everyone hates Midtown, even (especially?) the people that live and work there, although Burger Joint is one of the few reasons to ever visit voluntarily. The Shake Shack is in the Flatiron District, and easily reachable by subway.
Advantage: Shake Shack

Seating & Ambience
The Shake Shack has more seats and is in a pretty enough park, but the Burger Joint booths are cozily dingy, and I appreciate how weird it is to have such a place right off the extremely austere Parker Meridien lobby. I'd bring a date or tourists to Burger Joint; I'd bring a group of friends to Shake Shack.
Advantage: Tie

Capriciousness of Weather
There are days in the spring and the fall when it's too cold or too wet to go to Shake Shack, and many days in the summer when all you want to do in the extreme heat or humidity is eat in a really cold room. And then, you know, there's that whole thing of the Shake Shack not being around at all in the winter.
Advantage: Burger Joint

Alcohol
You can drink beer indoors at Burger Joint or outdoors at Shake Shack, depends on what sort of environment you prefer. It's easier to BYOB at Shake Shack or to stagger to a neighborhood bar for harder liquor when you're done eating.
Advantage: Shake Shack

Quality of Desserts
The Burger Joint's milkshakes are tasty enough but their brownies are nasty, whereas the Shake Shack has more than a dozen delicious custards and concretes so you can polish your meal off properly.
Advantage: Shake Shack

Quality of Fries
Shake Shack's fries are good (especially with cheese! but that's true of most everything), Burger Joint's are okay but clearly an afterthought.
Advantage: Shake Shack

Quality of Service
Burger Joint lines are much shorter, but Shake Shack service far more pleasant.
Advantage: Shake Shack

Quality of Burger
I like the Shake Shack burger a lot and I appreciate the customizability very much, but for my money, the Burger Joint burger is far juicier.
Advantage: Burger Joint

Conclusion
The Shake Shack has clearly got a lot going for it, I tend to eat there thrice as often, and is clearly the better restaurant overall, but when asked where the best burger in Manhattan* is, my reply will always be: Burger Joint. It's not a close call at all.

Agree? Disagree? As always, drop me an email or let me know in the comments!

Burger Joint
Le Parker Meridien
118 W. 57th St.
(212) 708-7414
Subway: F to 57th St.

Shake Shack
Madison Square Park
Madison Ave & 23rd Street
(212) 889-6600
Subway: N, R, W, 6, F & V to 23rd St

*Want the best burger in all of New York City? Well, you'll have to go to Peter Luger in Brooklyn for that. Well worth the trip!

red wine & burgers

Reach for a lively red. To pick the best match between wine and burger, the Good Eating panel ordered several Rosebud Steakhouse burgers, cooked medium-rare, topped with Cheddar cheese but no condiments. Tasters marveled at the 12-ounce beef patty's juiciness, the high dark dome of the pretzel bun and how the burger managed to survive the cab ride from the 192 E. Walton Pl. restaurant to Tribune Tower with all of its gustatory pleasure intact. Tasters used the skinny french fries served alongside as palate cleansers." [via The Morning News]

behind the scenes at shake shack

NYC Shake Attack: Behind the Scenes at Shake Shack. Andrea Strong of The Strong Buzz worked at Danny Meyer's Madison Square Park outpost for a day and kept a journal:

10 a.m. The staff arrives. Gary Burkhart, a soft-spoken guy with rosy cheeks, is setting up all the mix-ins for the concretes, warming the caramel sauce and hot fudge, filling whipped cream canisters with heavy cream and powdered sugar, and dumping quarts of milk in the milk machine. Just before 11 a.m., he puts on a neck-to-knee plastic apron that resembles a giant tarp. As I will learn later, the custard station is a merciless war zone of milk, hot fudge, and frozen custard. Protective gear is essential to survive.

I haven't been to the Shake Shack yet this year (a travesty I know, and one I'm working on fixing) but I did go shortly after it first opened in 2004, you can read my review (and see my photos!) from then.

My kind of eating

Last night after watching the Queen Mary 2 sail by, we headed over to Corner Bistro for cheeseburgers and fries. Not quite full, we walked across town to ChikaLicious for dessert. Together, a perfect meal.

Burgers

The Food Section reviews The Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel:

Is putting a burger place smack in the middle of an upscale midtown hotel the last gasp of trucker hat chic? Perhaps, but that's where the "irony" ends. For every Ashton signature there is also a Jerry Stiller autograph, and, thankfully, the "joint" stays true to its simple handwritten menu of burgers, fries, beer, and milkshakes without the high prices and wannabe hip vibe you would expect to find in a concept restaurant like this. You won't find any ironic "takes" on greasy spoon cuisine. No, the burger's the thing here.

Related: The eGullet Burger Club is on a quest to find the best burger in the city. Some of the contenders: Blue Smoke, Burger Joint, Cafe Luxemburg, Chumley's, Corner Bistro, Fairway, Landmark Tavern, McHale's, Molly's (a personal favorite), Old Town Bar, PJ Clarke's, Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky's, Tavern on Jane. See also: New York Citysearch's Best Burgers, NYMetro's Best Burgers

Quick Review: Better Burger

The idea behind Better Burger (178 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street and 565 Third Avenue at 37th Street) is burgers that are better for you and better tasting. Meat and poultry burgers are antibiotic, hormone, nitrate, and filler free; lower and fat than what they refer to as "the big boys."

On our visit we had a beef burger and a turkey burger. The beef burger was seemingly greasier than a "big boy" burger and otherwise a pretty average burger. The turkey burger was better than a typical turkey burger, which can sometimes have a not quite natural texture. We also sampled some of the organic condiments -- our favorites were the spicy wasabi sauce and karma ketchup. Better Burger's french fries have 2/3 less fat than regular fries thanks to air-baking -- if that's true, no complaints. We washed it all down with a very tasty and refreshing mango lemonade.

 

Reviews: Digital City, NYMetro.com, NYTimes