A Hamburger Today- aht.seriouseats.com

The Retro Modern Comfort of the Lever House Burger

Posted by Tam Ngo, December 4, 2008 at 10:00 AM

A post-mortem examination.

In a platonic world, my burger has just come off the grill, tasting of smoke and cancer. Even if I'm not enjoying it off of a deck in July, my burger-hero invokes the pleasure and ease of crickets, sunsets, and whole afternoons of tall-boys. No burger is ever worth the indignity of a 45-minute wait. But like all things once enjoyed, New York turns the leisurely act of burger ingestion into a fiercely competitive activity.

Burgers are best served with minimal pomp or ceremony. Though you'll encounter a little bit of both at Lever House, these offenses are ultimately pardonable for the sweet luxuries they afford.

The Lever House: "Yesterday's Restaurant of Tomorrow"

The pomp comes from the burger's $22 price tag; the ceremony comes from the Lever decor. Described by some as "Yesterday's Restaurant of Tomorrow," the architecture is a cheeky reference to our notions of utopia circa 1952. Imagine it a time capsule of our naiveté. But the warmth and conviviality of the service at Lever House do well to ground the experience and keep the meal from devolving into kitsch.

And what of the burger? First off, the meat is a drippy bit of hedonism, best ordered medium-rare. (Rare, the meat's kind of a mash). The burger is a La Frieda mix of 25% deckle, 75% chuck, with a lean to fat ratio of 73/27. Crowned with stewed and caramelized onions, the burger tastes of the sweet char of the summer grill. (I inhaled the beast, so I hesitate to declare the burger independently delicious of its onions.)

The meat also comes with your choice of cheddar or Maytag-Burrata. As we reported earlier, the burger is not served with a fried egg by default. But the egg is free, so ask and the kitchen will happily oblige.

Vegetation.

Tandem to the burger is a side of hand-cut shoestring fries, just a smidgen thicker than those from McDonald's. The fries maintain their crisp, even at room temperature, and there is no chem-taste to hint at a life spent pre-frozen. You can also top your burger with Boston lettuce, house-pickled onions, and roasted Roma tomatoes. All well, all good.

Now for the bad news: the pugliese bun. The bun is a panino from Sullivan Street Bakery. Dry and cruddy, it's similar in texture to three-day-old brioche. The bun absorbs juices like a well-meaning meat diaper. Effective but uninspired. (The bread does change periodically, so for this, I'm hopeful.)

A nod to Nighthawks.

As for atmospherics? A friend and I dined at the bar for a gun deck-view of the restaurant that freed us from the business-besuited din. We were part of the excitement but not trapped by the noise. This gave us the leisure to really relax into the meal.

At $22 a burger, this enjoyment does come at a premium but the meal is comfortably split between two. To credit the service at Lever House, lunch seemed special, without seeming precious. Just like backyard barbecues and the comfort of crickets at night.

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