I went to Five Napkin Burger on Tuesday night with Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine and his son, Will. This is our story.
More like our initial impression, since it's too early to really get into it about this burger.
Five Napkin Burger is a spin-off the Upper West Side's Nice Matin, where the "Five Napkin Burger" originated as a menu item. Apparently, Simon Oren and Andy D'Amico, the folks behind Nice Matin, thought the Five Napkin Burger was strong enough to carry its own restaurant.
Despairing at the thought of shelling out five bucks for yet another bad bag of hamburger buns, Vanessa of What Geeks Eat had the brilliant idea to make her own. Humanity may now be one step closer to achieving the perfect burger.
In a recent London Times interview, House star Hugh Laurie mentioned one perk of his celebrity status was his Burger King gold card, granting him a limitless supply of free burgers.
The card was originally made available to the public back in 2006, but in reality is no more than a glorified gift card; only the famous people get the gold card perk. Celebrities who are "good friends" of the brand and have "long-standing relationships" have been presented with the card. Jennifer Hudson, for example, was a former employee at Burger King before making it big, and George Lucas always partners with the fast food chain for movie release tie-ins. Robert Downey, Jr. received a card after mentioning Burger King in interviews when he was promoting Iron Man (after all, his character Tony Stark was fiendin' for a BK cheeseburger). Jay Leno describes the reaction upon flashing his Crown Card:
"So I order my food, and the guy says, 'That's $11.' So I say: 'Fine, here you go,' and hand him the card. His reaction was amazing: 'Whoa... where'd you get this?' He was not impressed that I was on 'The Tonight Show' or even that I was driving a Porsche Carrera GT. He was more impressed with this piece of plastic."
You too can earn the admiration of your peers and say you're a proud BK Crown Card holder (because, you know, "prepaid gift card" sounds a little boring and unoriginal) by getting one from bkcrowncard.com.
Wilbur Hardee "died Friday ... in Greenville, N.C., the same town where he opened his first Hardee's location, giving birth to a hamburger franchise that is now a division of St. Louis-based CKE Restaurants Inc. Hardee's has grown to include 1,900 locations across the Midwest and Southeast and 200 international locations."
If it's Tuesday, it must be time for another review from Nick Solares. Nick is also the publisher of Beef Aficionado, his blog that explores beef beyond burgerdom.
The Shake Shack
Southeast corner of Madison Square Park (corner of 23rd Street and Madison Avenue; map); shakeshacknyc.com The Short Order: One of the best burgers in the Big Apple. Inspired by West Coast-style burgers but with a unique New York spin. These days there's almost always a long, long line. The signature Shackburger is very good, but the plain cheeseburger is even better, as it allows the great flavor and texture of the sirloin-brisket beef mixture to stand alone Want Fries with That? No. They blow. They're frozen, pre-fab, and OreIda-like. Get a tasty shake or frozen custard instead Price: Shackburger, $4.75; cheeseburger, $4; double cheeseburger, $6.50
I was sitting in Los Angeles's famous Apple Pan restaurant a few weeks back talking with a lady who was curious as to why someone might be taking pictures of hamburgers. We got to talking about burgers, blogging, and A Hamburger Today, and when she found out that I lived in New York, she immediately asked about the Shake Shack. As I finished expounding my thoughts on the place, I heard a polite "excuse me, did you just mention Shake Shack?"
It turns out the gentleman asking the question was a friend of none other than George Motz, author and director of Hamburger America, the book and the film. It's a small world, and Shake Shack has managed to become virtually synonymous with hamburgers in New York. Even if they can't quite put their finger on the name, out-of-towners will often effuse about the great burgers they had in the park.
Upon returning home to New York after an extensive education in L.A. burgers (many, many reviews to come) I needed two things. The first was a bit of exercise, and the second was a frame of reference. Something to put into context what I had sampled on the West Coast and relate it to my hamburger experiences in and around New York.
The Today show featured 12-year old Joey Yarwick and his gourmet burger, the Au Brie Burger a la Francais, which won the grand prize for Red Robin's The Next Gourmet Burger Kids' Recipe Contest. Cubes of Brie are sandwiched between two sirloin patties, then topped with a generous dollop of potatoes au gratin, all on a croissant. As Joey himself says: "It's a burger like no other and each bite is a trip to France." The kid outshines the burger, though: little Joey manages to disarm Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb with his, er, precocious mock-French accent (I'm not sure if "endearing" is quite the right word for it...). Maybe his cheekiness could help him land him a plum cooking reality show gig in the future. Watch the video after the jump.
Oh, before I forget (I've already forgotten to mention it here before), I just wanted to say that there's a Five Guys opening in Park Slope. George Motz tipped me to this a while ago, but I just got an admittedly unexciting picture of the under-construction front this weekend. It's in the former D'Agostino's on Seventh Avenue and 6th Street.
This is great news, as Park Slope has a dearth of good burgers. And even though Five Guys has that wrongheaded thing going on with using lean beef and cooking it to well-done, the joint somehow manages to turn out a good, juicy burger nonetheless. A welcome addition to the neighborhood.
Five Guys, Park Slope
284 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (map)
718-499-9380 fiveguys.com
In a recent London Times interview, House star Hugh Laurie mentioned one perk of his celebrity status was his Burger King gold card, granting him a limitless supply of free burgers.
