A Hamburger Today
A Burger That Falls Short of Greatness at Maxie's Bar & Grill
Maxies Grill
233 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003 (enter on 19th St., b/n. Irving Place & Park Ave. S.; map); 212-979-7800; angelo-maxies.com
Cooking Method: Grilled
Short Order: Big flame grilled steakhouse-style burger served on ill suited brioche type bun achieves a certain synergy but fall short of greatness
Want Fries with That? Comes with superb cottage fries; shoe string fries available for $1 more are also good
Price: Cheeseburger with cottage fries, $11.95; Kobe Burger with truffle butter and cottage fries, $14.95
I had an Apple iPhone for about a week. I loved the slick interface, the brilliant screen, the Safari browser, and the industrial design of the device, not to mention all the great software available through the app store. But as a telephone I found it dropped an inordinate number of calls, and as an email/SMS device its lack of both copy and paste and a physical keyboard made it a less than optimum choice for my needs. I soon returned the phone and went back to Windows Mobile, a platform that is far more customizable and, despite its flaws, I've been using for almost eight years. Since I was so impressed with the iPhone's non-telephonic functions, I picked up the iPod Touch. Most of the apps that I enjoyed on the iPhone work with it and when I travel away from home I can use it with a nifty little program that runs on my Windows phone and turns it in to a Wi-Fi router.
One of my favorite program from the app store is Urban Spoon. The application resembles a slot machine with three wheels representing neighborhood, cuisine, and price (indicated by a varying number of $ signs). Since you can lock each of the wheels to narrow down your choice, I naturally locked burgers in the "cuisine" setting while leaving "neighborhood" and "price" open. The app works off the location services feature of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform so even if you leave "neighborhood" unlocked it will find you restaurants within close proximity to your location.
You can either hit the shake button or, by using the iPod Touch's built-in accelerometer, just shake the device to set the wheels spinning. I shook my iPod with more vigor than was probably required, but once the dials stopped spinning they came up with Blue 9, which was indeed a nearby burger spot but one I had already reviewed. I shook again—Shake Shack. A great burger but again, one I had already reviewed. Another shake and Molly's Pub came up, also reviewed here by Adam. While the application works as advertised, it doesn't factor in the needs of burger bloggers. On my fourth try I hit the jackpot—well, not exactly, but I did come up with a place I had not reviewed: Maxie's Bar & Grill.
I am not a big fan of Angelo and Maxie's Steakhouse. Their steaks are not dry aged and are most assuredly not prime—not when they cost on average under $30. But on the other hand, since not everyone can afford or cares to spend the $40 to $50 that dry aged prime steaks cost, Angelo & Maxie's fills a niche in the marketplace between the high-end chophouse and the local bistro. There, one can get most of the steakhouse experience for a fraction of the cost.
If the main restaurant is less ambitious than the average steakhouse, the adjacent Maxie's Bar & Grill is more so than the average chophouse's grills, at least in terms of hamburgers. They serve both a Maxie's Standard Burger made of black Angus sirloin with a myriad of topping options—but sadly no American cheese—as well as a Kobe beef burger sourced from Snake River Farms. All burgers come on a brioche bun that, in addition to being a little stale, was rather stiff and uncompliant with a leathery exterior. This burger deserves a better bun. The rabbit food is very fresh and excellent cottage fries come standard on all burgers.
Maxie's Standard Burger
The burgers are served inside shallow paper-lined baskets that make eating difficult. There is nowhere to put ketchup on your fries and it is hard to grab the burger as it is wedged in with the fries and rabbit food. I don't understand why there is a need for the baskets—one is eating in a restaurant with tables and chairs, not a drive-through. I asked for a plate—I suggest you do the same if you eat here (not that I would necessarily recommend doing that).
Kobe Burger, a bit too rare.
There was some problems with my order: a medium rare Angus burger with cheddar and a rare Kobe burger. Both came out much cooler than ordered: The Angus burger was rare and the Kobe was black and blue—the middle of the exterior of the patty was still pink! I like my steaks black and blue, but not my burgers. Both went back to the kitchen with profuse apologies from my bubbly waitress.
The re-fires both came out better, at least in terms of temperature. The Maxie burger had some impressive grill marks, but the inner flesh was a bit mushy. This is a problem with 100 percent sirloin burgers: The flavor might be good, but the addition of chuck to the mix adds a superior textural component. This was not the only problem. While the beef appeared quite juicy it had clearly received a seasoning beyond salty and pepper. It was not overly apparent when eaten with the bun and perfectly melted cheese, but when sampled alone the beef seemed to have some kind of flavor enhancer, a seemingly unnecessary addition if one is using juicy Angus sirloin.
Kobe Burger take 2
The Kobe burger lacked the impressive hash marks of the regular burger, but was even juicier and had a hearty, deep flavor evocative of au jus from a prime rib. The flesh was also firmer and the taste more honest, making it worth the extra few dollars. I requested the truffle butter that comes served with the Kobe burger on the side and was glad I did. It tasted nothing like truffles, more like the prepackaged foil-wrapped garlic bread that is sold in super markets.
Although there was some inconsistency in the preparation of the burgers, everything that was fried was excellent. Before you are even presented with menus a bowl of assorted chips—sweet potato, potato, and parsnip—are deposited on your table. They are light and flavorful, and difficult to stop eating. The cottage fries that come with the burgers are excellent—thick-cut with a crispy exterior and a fluffy inner flesh. While the crispy and golden shoestrings are also very good, there is no need to spend the extra $1 for them—the cottage fries are that good.
A vanilla milkshake was thick enough, but was rather sweet, and the whipped cream and drizzle of chocolate syrup on top were putrid (if I wanted chocolate I would have order a chocolate shake).
Maxie's Bar & Grill offers a potentially decent hamburger that is hampered by the bun choice. The regular Angus beef burger should not need the spurious seasoning that is applied to it and thus the Kobe burger (sans truffle butter) with its heartier and more honest flavor would be my recommendation if you find yourself at Maxie's. I'm not sure I'd recommend going to Maxie's, at least not for the burgers—the other options presented by the Urban Spoon were preferable. Having said that, I'm not sure I will blindly let the Urban Spoon app determine another hamburger review. While I appreciate the technology behind it, the end result left something to be desired, kind of like the iPhone.