We recently checked out Prime Meats, the meat-centric joint opened by the focused and ambitious Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo. Although the steaks needed a little bit of work, much of the cooking was terrific, such as the amazing spaetzle and pretzels. But hey, this is a burger site, so I'm here to talk about the burger ($13), which falls into the "Almost Amazing and Great" category. Autopsy shot after the jump.
Great burgers are all about balance and the right components, and the boys get just about every component right—except for one, and it ain't the meat. The patty here is a sensational eight ounces (I wish it were five, but maybe that's just me) of Creekstone Farms Black Angus, fresh ground every day from the dry-aged steak scraps and trimmings. Our burger was insanely juicy, even though it came medium and we ordered it medium rare towards rare. It exploded with beefy, funky, dry-aged flavor—so much flavor that it didn't need the Gruyère ($2) or thick-sliced Faicco's bacon ($2) we ordered as toppings.
The fries were very fine, and so was the malolactic fermented dill pickle. Then what was the problem? It's not the economy, stupid, though at $13 this is not a cheap burger. It's the housemade sesame roll, guys. Franks, listen up—the bun you're using is bready, dull, and too dense. Just swallow your pride, get a Martin's potato roll, and your burger will rocket up the burger charts.
Prime Meats
465 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (map)
718-254-0327 frankspm.com
Looks great, but you call that medium? Medium to me means "a fair bit of pink in the middle" -- that burger has some pretty good red going on, and definitely looks medium-rare at most.
I very much agree on the bun. That is what ruined the burger for me. How was the meat packed when you had it ED? When I was there i was packed too dense, cooked medium-well and then had that overly dense bun, which of course made it only a so-so burger. On the other hand, the strip steak was wonderful. Cooked properly, seasoned well and with great flavor. Also loved the Vesper Bret, Spaetzle and Pork Belly Terrine.
i ordered the burger for lunch a week ago. my only complaint was it was too large and unwiedly to eat so i cut it in half. bad move, it was incredibly unstable after that! otherwise i gobbled it up, despite my sloppiness.
wasn't a fan of the spaetzle. i'll admit i'm a bit of a purist, and thought it would have been better with less cheese. it wasn't even a mac-and-cheese consistency, more like a spaetzle soup. we didn't finish it (2 of us were sharing and it's not a large portion).
Agree that the burger in that photo does not look medium. And it would have been nice to have a photo or two of the bun, it being your biggest complaint, Ed.
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8 Comments:
Looks great, but you call that medium? Medium to me means "a fair bit of pink in the middle" -- that burger has some pretty good red going on, and definitely looks medium-rare at most.
JGordon at 11:21AM on 08/06/09
I very much agree on the bun. That is what ruined the burger for me. How was the meat packed when you had it ED? When I was there i was packed too dense, cooked medium-well and then had that overly dense bun, which of course made it only a so-so burger. On the other hand, the strip steak was wonderful. Cooked properly, seasoned well and with great flavor. Also loved the Vesper Bret, Spaetzle and Pork Belly Terrine.
http://always-eating.blogspot.com/2009/07/prime-meats-name-says-it-all.html
ginsbera at 11:35AM on 08/06/09
i ordered the burger for lunch a week ago. my only complaint was it was too large and unwiedly to eat so i cut it in half. bad move, it was incredibly unstable after that! otherwise i gobbled it up, despite my sloppiness.
wasn't a fan of the spaetzle. i'll admit i'm a bit of a purist, and thought it would have been better with less cheese. it wasn't even a mac-and-cheese consistency, more like a spaetzle soup. we didn't finish it (2 of us were sharing and it's not a large portion).
j at 11:54AM on 08/06/09
Agree that the burger in that photo does not look medium. And it would have been nice to have a photo or two of the bun, it being your biggest complaint, Ed.
millions at 1:57PM on 08/06/09
LOL, oops - there it is. No more posting before finishing my coffee. Sorry!
millions at 1:58PM on 08/06/09
Looks like you got what you asked for! Looks pretty rare to me!
jlewfoodie at 7:06PM on 08/06/09
Ed that is NOT medium, that is medium rare.
stewmeat at 9:37AM on 08/07/09
I stand corrected. It's medium-rare.
Ed Levine at 9:40AM on 08/07/09