A Hamburger Today
Missing the Point at Burger Joint
What you see before finding your way to the wood-paneled rec-room-vibey Burger Joint. Photograph from The Eaten Path
James, the man behind The Eaten Path, visits Burger Joint in the Parker Meridien and walks out with a scathing take on the place:
As I made my way through the burger, however, the illusion began to slip from my senses. I took another look around and noticed the details of the decor: a Heroes promotional poster was followed by Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull, posted alongside a stock second-era blowup of the Ramones. These tossed off splashes of popular culture continued their dance all the way around the dining room, ironically revealing in their placement just how carefully this "joint" had been planned. New York has a way of packaging "home" as a commodity and pricing it as a special occasion, and this meal, planted in the heart of Midtown Manhattan and shrouded by perfectly articulated mystique on the grounds of one of the neighborhood’s prominent luxury hotels, was, in fact, an illusion. It was a tasty illusion but an illusion all the same—after all, I don’t remember having ever paid $7 for a burger grilled in my backyard.
While James' postings on The Eaten Path are uniformly thoughtful and insightful—this one, too—I think he misses the point here. I'm not quite sure the place is really supposed to feel like "home." I've always thought Burger Joint has worn the trappings of a 1970s suburban rec room with a bit of a smirk.
How could Burger Joint, with a straight face, possibly try to convince you it's recreating "home" when it's inside the lux interior of the Meridien? I think the point exactly is that it is out of place there.
And it's not like the place feels any more comfortable for its homey atmosphere—not with the anxiety you feel about getting a table and the pressure you feel to eat and leave quickly as patrons hover for a seat.
Related: Review: Burger Joint