A Hamburger Today
Hamburger Habit (Culver City, CA)
Shit happens. You spend all week elipticizing your ass, stair mastering those calves, and squat-thrusting your pelvis, all so you can enjoy a greasy burger on a Sunday. Waking up and skipping a formal introduction to that cutie you met five hours ago, you bound outside with a hangover-crushing craving for your favorite beef 'n' special-sauce surprise.
What happens next pounds you with the weight of the world's injustices. It appears your No. 1 burger secret is not only low-key; it's actually closed on Sundays! Your preferred spot has gone Christian on you, needing a rest from six divine days of cow-slinging!
Minus the getting lucky and exercise parts, it was this very scenario that had us wandering the streets aimlessly for something to quench our burger lust once we found the doors of West L.A.'s Hearty Deli and Culver's Howard’s Famous closed. Fortunately, we spotted a glorious vision in red-lacquered tabletops and diner stools. Had we magically gone back to the 1950s, when burger joints were spotless and efficient temples for the neighborhood, with gumball machines, paper hats, and playing cards in place of order numbers"
"Best Hamburger in Southern California' —KABC AM 790," shouted the banner for Culver City's Hamburger Habit. We love nothing more than probing the claims of the so-called experts, so with a delectable smell hitting our noses from the parking lot, we stepped inside. Old-school strains of rockabilly shook the sound system, and a steady stream of clean-cut regulars flooded in while we salivated over images of a classic sesame-seed burger high above our heads.
Apparently, Hamburger Habit has a bit of a Coke habit, with its sock-hop decor bingeing heavily on Coca-Cola signs in languages ranging from Arabic to Chinese. Other signs read, "Come back soon, we need the money" and "Never trust a skinny cook."
Although we are deadly serious about hamburgers at this site, we don't mind if our cooks attempt to bring the funny while they serve us a good burger. José, the main man taking orders, is the closest thing to a comic genius we've met in the service industry. Order an ice-cold Coke and he'll probably yell to his boys to bring you a bottle of tequila. He even offered us a job (which we could have used, to tell the truth). Instead, our repartee was met with a free hazelnut lollipop.
Hamburger Habit serves a 1/4-pound, never-frozen, chuck-steak patty with a low fat content. Customers have four options, from a simple pickle-and-dressing dotted Naked Truth to a chili-infused Works, with a smattering of add-ons from avocado to bacon to free onions.
Hamburger Habit also offers delicious steak sandwiches, thick shakes, 100-percent-beef hot dogs, and pie. Owner and Polish brother Frank Pezeshki, friend to children and firefighters, even offers the Archie Bonker, a Polish-sausage sandwich with Mexican tomato and Spanish onion.
For our testing purposes (we overheard a PDA-heavy couple claiming to be there for "research." Hmm, potential competition?), we went with the Sassy Cheese burger, with Swiss, dressing, shredded lettuce, and tomato, forgetting the onions in a moment of Guinness flashbacks and skipping the option to replace the Swiss with cheddar.
The burger arrived large and as perfect as if it were straight from Jughead's plate in an Archie comic. Although its misnomered "toppings" were on the bottom—a trend we seek to address on a later date—it was excellent. Crispy on the outside and tenderly medium-rare on the inside, the burger in question was solid. Its flavors were not strong but lightly peppery with perhaps a little too much bun for the patty's size. It's similar to the In-N-Out burger but not quite as perfect, though quicker to arrive. Overall, it was quite delicious and done in six man-sized bites. The special sauce seems to be pretty close to Thousand Island and provides needed zing to the overall experience.
Fries are of the fat, pillowy variety, cooked in cholesterol-free canola oil and truly tasty, with just enough crisp to them. We'd be hard pressed to find a place with fixin's like green jalapeño Tabasco, pepperoncini, and mixed salt and pepper for all those silver fox fans. It all goes along great with the fun atmosphere and satisfying, entertaining fare.
Hamburger Habit, clean with character since opening in 1989, might not have the absolute best in Southern California as promised by the good folks at KABC, but we'll certainly be back. For nearly the same price as one would pay at McDonald's, it's the kind of value and atmosphere America used to be known for. Best yet, you'll only find Hamburger Habit closed three days a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Yom Kippur—and it's open at least 12 hours a day. Now that's freedom!
HAMBURGER HABIT
Location: 11223 National Blvd. at Sepulveda
Phone: 310-478-5000