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Grilled: Frank Bruni

Posted by Adam Kuban, September 11, 2006 at 9:00 AM

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you yet another installment of Grilled. Today's interview is with Frank Bruni, restaurant critic for the New York Times and, as of early this year, proprietor of foodblog Diner's Journal. Prior to that, Mr. Bruni served as the newspaper's Rome bureau chief, which was in turn preceded by three and a half years as a reporter for the Times in the paper's D.C. bureau. As regular readers of Mr. Bruni's blog, it soon became clear to the editors of AHT that he'd make a perfect subject for this column. And so, without further ado, let's get Grillin' ... —Ed.

Name: Frank Bruni
Location: New York City
Occupation: New York Times restaurant critic; also blogs for the Times on Diner's Journal

How often do you eat burgers?
Not nearly as often as I'd like. I'm guessing I average two a week. It'd be more if I didn't have so much poussin, branzino, and braised short ribs in my sights.

Where did you eat your most recent one?
After watching an unbelievably thrilling match between Nadal and Youzhny, I had what was advertised as a half-pound Angus cheeseburger at the U.S. Open [last Wednesday]. It was overcooked, but I was hungry, and as we all know, hunger casts all food in a rosy light. I liked it better than the "waffle fries" I also ordered and ate. I don't believe fries should be waffled. Before that, at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. They have a duo of tiny burgers made with beef and foie gras. And, shock of shocks, they DON'T call them sliders! [Not even les sliders? —Ed.]

American, cheddar, or other?
I've never been able to commit to one. When it comes to burgers, I'm a fan of cheddar, anything like Swiss, and maybe especially, in certain moods, blue cheese. I'm more definite on cheeses I don't like on burgers, and American is one. Mozzarella is another.

Ketchup or mustard?
I'm a ketchup guy, all the way.

Sesame-seed or plain?
No strong feelings, though slightly partial to sesame. In the end, though, it's the fluffiness and size of the bun—present, but not overwhelming—that really matters to me.

Grilled, griddled, or broiled?
Grilled.

And how would you like that done, sir?
Somewhere between rare and medium-rare, though most servers look at me, understandably, like a troublemaker when I ask for that. So I usually choose one or the other, depending on my mood.

Would you do us the favor of describing your perfect burger? (Price and ingredients are no object.)
I like thicker, pub-style burgers, so I'm thinking about eight ounces—more gets too sloppy—of ground chuck. I want some fat content in the beef. Let's have that patty grilled, with stripes and a char on it. Not quite rare, but almost. Let's say Swiss cheese, but not too much of it. Ripe, quality tomatoes, sliced thin, and, again, not too many slices. A leaf or two of lettuce—any of several kinds are OK. No onions: They run away with the show. Ketchup. On a really, really soft bun that gives you enough to grab onto and to save yourself from getting too, too dirty.

What's your favorite fast-food burger?
The thing about burgers is that they're beautiful so many ways. So you'll see that my choice here violates just about everything I've said above. If I can count it as fast food, I'd choose one of the larger, thicker varieties of the "butter burgers" at Culver's, a chain mostly in the Midwest. The patty is flat and, if memory serves me, griddled, but it has real beef flavor and a great sear. If Culver's is too specialized and regional, I'll pick the Hardee's Thickburger.

What topping or condiment, in your opinion, should never grace a burger?
There are many. But I'll start with avocado. The avocado is a wondrous, gorgeous, sexy thing. And maybe that's why I don't want it crowding my wondrous, gorgeous, sexy burger. Two divas in too little space.

What's the most unusual burger you've ever eaten? (Or most unusual burger experience you've had?)
Wow. This tests my memory. I once dated someone who was constantly making turkey burgers with a center cavity combining some kind of cheese, I think Jack cheese, and crushed Doritos. Or was it Fritos? Either way, I should have ended the relationship much, much sooner than I did.

What's the most overrated burger you've tried? Most underrated?
Most overrated burger? I'm told I had a freak experience on an off day, but the Peter Luger burger, served only at lunch, didn't do it for me. I also had a very bad experience with the Better Burger chain in Manhattan, but then I hadn't heard all that many people sing its praises.

As for the most underrated burger, maybe Houston's. But it's not that it's exactly underrated: People who've had it like it. It's just that a lot of people don't think to go to Houston's. And the burger there is quite pricey, maybe too pricey for the environment.

You've written a fair number of burger stories for the Times in recent months and have published blog post after blog post about them on Diner's Journal. Seriously, Frank, what is your deal with burgers?
I don't think I've written many—or maybe any—burger stories in the actual paper, other than my fast-food trip across the country. [Sorry, my bad —Ed.] But you're right that I've done a lot of blog posts about burgers.

That's driven by two things: I like having an excuse to eat burgers, and I think burgers are good Internet/blog material—they're accessible; many people have experiences with and strong feelings about them; and so the subject of burgers often fosters an interesting, fun dialogue.

BURGER JOINTS REFERENCED
U.S. Open burger: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows (Queens) usopen.org
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon: 57 East 57th Street, New York NY 10022
Culver's: Various locations, mostly in the Midwest; culvers.com
Hardee's: Various locations; hardees.com
Peter Luger Steak House: 178 Broadway, Brooklyn NY 11211; peterluger.com
Better Burger: 1614 Second Ave. (at 84th Street, UES); 587 Ninth Ave. (at 42nd Street, Midtown West); 561 Third Ave. (at 37th Street, Murray Hill); 178 Eighth Ave. (at 19th Street, Chelsea); betterburgernyc.com
Houston's: Various locations nationwide; hillstone.com

FURTHER READING
Peter Luger's Burgers [Frank Bruni, New York Times]
Burger Bound [Diner's Journal]
My Darling, My Hamburger [Diner's Journal]
Fast Food, Slow Line [Diner's Journal]
The Fast and the Furious [Diner's Journal]
The Burger Bandwagon [Diner's Journal]
Another Burger, for Better or Worse [Diner's Journal]
Two Burgers, One Dip and a Happy Carnivore [Diner's Journal]
Tennis, Anyone? [Diner's Journal]
Other Grilled interviews [AHT Archives]

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