Inventor Spot brings you what they call the "10 Best Hamburger Fantasies That Have Become a Reality." It's more like "10 Cool Things That Are Burger-Related But Not Actually Burgers," unless "burger coasters" or "cooking a burger with your car's exhaust fumes" is on your list of fantasies. If so, we hope they're low on the list.
Cheeseburger from Veselka. Photograph by Nick Solares.
Josh "Mister Cutlets" Ozersky shares his list of his top ten Hamburgers That Matter for New York City at Citysearch. It includes AHT faves The Little Owl, Shake Shack, City Burger, Shopsin's, Veselka, and Molly's.
Every few weeks, some joker comes along and proclaims he has just eaten "New York City's best new burger." This time it's Andrew Knowlton, of Bon Appétit magazine [emphasis, mine]:
[Bobo chef Patrick] Connolly takes D'Artagnan ground beef (80/20 ratio of lean to fat) mixes it with salt and pepper, minced shallots, and a bit of olive oil. The burger is first seared on the griddle and then finished in the oven. To the bottom half of a Balthazar bun, he layers leeks pickled in Champagne vinegar and simple syrup. Gruyere cheese is melted on the burger and fried leeks are piled on top.
AHT says: NO. No, this isn't NYC's best burger.
Call me cranky, but after a Rachael Ray Burger Bash full of gussied-up fancy-pants burgers that proved to be utterly disappointing, I just can't imagine that anything with Champagne vinegar and simple syrup pickling is going to be THE BEST IN NYC.
We will, of course, be trying it.
181 West 10th Street, New York NY 10014 (b/n Seventh Avenue South and West 4th Street; map)
212-488-2626
bobonyc.com
David Holloway of the Press Register lists Lower Alabama's 19 burgers to eat before you die. In no particular order, here's a list of all the places, after the jump.
The New York Observer posts its top 10 burger list, and it's nothing you haven't heard before. Molly's, Corner Bistro, the Shack. At No. 1 is Rare Bar & Grill, which is a bit of a curveball. And it's nice to see Zaitzeff getting some love. But what's surprising is Bonnie's at No. 5. Bonnie's?!? Puh-leeze.
And you gotta love Richman for some of his inspired wandering within his blurbs. On Big Nick's:
Thank goodness for the internet. For almost two decades I’ve been sitting in the same scarred booth at Big Nick’s, under a medley of obscure celebrity photos, secretly harboring a crush on Vicki Darnell, an impressively endowed starlet. I never knew anything about her until now—I just Googled her and learned that she played the role of Sugar in the 1990 classic Frankenhooker. (If you see this, Vicki, dinner at Big Nick’s is on me.) I love this place, New York City’s signature dive. The half-pound burger is surprisingly good: Well-seasoned beef is cooked on an indoor grill and served on a so-so bun. Order it with a milkshake, the real thing at Big Nick’s. If you’re used to the fake ones at fast-food joints, you might mistakenly complain that this one is too thin.
Google Vicki Darnell for yourself: http://www.google.com/search?q=Vicki+Darnell
"2 for 1 Burgers": Blue Smoke on the Cheap
AHT Shake Shack coverage
Shopsin's sliders are as good or better than many on Danyelle Freeman's list.
Danyelle "Restaurant Girl" Freeman comes correct with her list of the best sliders in the city.
Sliders are pretty much my favorite form of burger, so it's always great to read someone else's list. I like her choices of Burke Box, Rare, and Stand, but I'm not sure if the Little Owl is a slider slider. It's a meatball on a bun, not a burger. I'm also not that keen on Stanton Social's Kobe sliders, as they suffer from all the faults that Kobe burgers do. Meh.
The Blue Water Grill's mini lobster roll is not a slider in the least, and Swifty's, though it sounds intriguing, doesn't even place its patties on buns, so they don't even qualify as sandwiches, much less sliders.
Two obvious omissions are the sliders at Shopsin's and the O.G., the Original Gutbomb, the little lovlies at White Castle. [via Serious Eats New York]
Mr. Cutlets discloses his top ten burgers in New York City to the New York Daily News, and his No. 1 pick isn't even in the city. It's Hildebrandt's in Williston Park, out on Long Island. The rest of his list, however (with the exception of White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey), is within easy ranging for straphangers. AHT asked Mr. Cutlets about his top ten oh so long ago, and it's interesting to note how his list has changed in that time. (As it should; no top burger list should be static.) The head-to-head, after the jump.
My friend Jeff Ruby just had his Top 10 U.S. Burger List published in Playboy. No word on whether he dined with any of the Bunnies while researching this piece. Here's some of the ground he covered:
Click through and check out the rest—if the porn filters on your machine aren't too sensitive. This is that rare occasion where you really are reading it for the article.
Time Out New York runs down its top 10 burgers of 2008, and, interestingly, the herd is full of a bunch of new joints. Not a tired old standby on the list at all: Market Table, Telepan, Prune, Back Forty, Shorty's 32, 67 Burger, BLT Burger, Primehouse, Resto, Stand.
Bon Appétit magazine's three finalists for the best burgers in America are:
When I asked Bon Appétit's Andrew Knowlton about the criteria and methodology the magazine's editors used in selecting the three finalists, he gave a Solomonic answer.
"Of course our selections are subjective and open to debate. But I can tell you that anybody who eats at any of the three finalists in any category will not be disappointed with the food itself or the people and the stories behind the food."
Photograph from iStockPhoto.com
Craig LaBan, food critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer, did a great roundup of the City of Brotherly Love's most lovingly awesome burgers last week.
The burgers are not ranked, but each is an exemplar of its own uniquely named genre, like the sandwich from Rouge, which LaBan dubs "The Show-Off" for its ostentatious proportions: "The enormous 13-ounce patties, topped with Gruyere, hydroponic Boston bibb, and butter-toasted brioche buns, are tailor-made for turning heads at a cafe that's all about being seen."
The list also includes, but is not limited to: Charlie's Hamburgers, Snow White, Barclay Prime, and Good Dog Bar & Restaurant, whose blue-cheese-stuffed burgers inspired LaBan to write a brilliant little song, "Cheeseburger, I Hold," the lyrics of which appear after the jump. (Here's the video for "Cheeseburger, I Hold.")
Related: Philly is well represented on Alan Richman's seminal top-twenty burger list ("The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die"), with Rouge placing No. 4 and the Kobe sliders at Barclay Prime at No. 5.
The Wall Street Journal's Raymond Sokolov goes all Alan Richman on us and comes up with a list of the country's best burgers. Tasty indeed.
Says Sokolov:
Patties of ground beef weighing from 1 ounce to 15 pounds, often not seasoned and cooked until gray, then served as a sandwich, usually between two halves of a compressible, flavorless untoasted bun, are this nation's leading contribution to world cuisine. In their fast-food form, burgers provide quantitative evidence for the charge, more widespread than ever, that Americans are a bunch of insensitive louts.
But all across the country there are places, almost all of them locally owned operations, that cook and sell my idea of a first-rate burger. And I've been on a hunt to find the best of them. ...
His list includes but is not limited to the following:
Primanti Bros.
Address: 46 18th Street, Pittsburgh PA 15222
Phone: 412-263-2142
URL: primantibros.com
The Skinny: They put fries on the burger here.
Rosebud Steakhouse
Address: 192 East Walton Street, Chicago IL 60611
Phone: 312-397-1000
URL: http://www.rosebudrestaurants.com/rest4.php
The Skinny: Thick 12-ounce burger served on a grilled-pretzel roll. Sokolov finds the bun an "eccentric distraction."
Louis' Lunch
Address: 261-263 Crown Street, New Haven CT 06510
Phone: 203-562-5507
URL: louislunch.com
The Skinny: Claims to be the birthplace of the burger. The fact that its sandwich is served between two slices of toasted bread provokes endless debate among hamburger semanticists. Don't ask for ketchup here!
Dirty Martin's Kum-Bak Place
Address: 2808 Guadalupe Street, Austin TX 78705
Phone: 512-477-3173
URL: dirtymartins.com
The Skinny: Didn't rate high from Mr. Sokolov (he called it "thin and lackluster"), but friend of AHT and New York magazine online food editor Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky says "The burger, broader and thinner than the Shake Shack's, gives you more salty surface area and just as much juicy beef goodness."
The Shake Shack
Address: Located in New York City's Madison Square Park, 23rd Street and Madison Avenue
Phone: N/A
URL: shakeshacknyc.com
The Skinny: Open from the first day of spring to the last day of fall, the Shake Shack has become a beloved burger institution in New York in the handful of years it's been open. Unpretentious and delicious burgers with a crunchy, salty outer crust and superb blend of meats. (More on the Shack from A Hamburger Today.)
In-N-Out Burger
Address: Various locations throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona
Phone: N/A
URL: in-n-out.com
The Skinny: Arguably the nation's best chain hamburger, albeit a chain whose reach is cruelly limited to three Western states. High-quality meat that's fresh, never-frozen along with hand-cut fries. The chain is deservedly famous for its cleanliness, efficiency, and friendly customer service. Mr. Sokolov, however, does not particularly like In-N-Out: "unspectacular — fairly thin, cautiously seasoned"
Miller's Bar
Address: 23700 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn MI 48124
Phone: 313-565-2577
URL: millersbar.com
The Skinny: Serving one of Sokolov's choice burgers, Miller's sandwiches are hefty, no-nonsense affairs.
Ann's Snack Bar
Address: 1615 Memorial Drive, Atlanta GA 30317
Phone: 404-687-9207
URL: N/A
The Skinny: A tiny diner on a grim stretch of highway, go for the Ghetto Burger, Sokolov says.
There are more tasty burgers in Mr. Sokolov's article: The Best Burger, along with a PDF map of his cross-country adventure.
New York magazine just dumped its "Best of New York 2007" issue, and in it the weekly's food critics name their favorite high-, mid-, and low-end burgers in the Big Apple.
Here are their picks, in descending order from high to low. Oh, and Gael Greene just managed to shoot up even more in our estimation with her low-end fave.
Adam Platt
Waverly Inn: 16 Bank Street, New York NY 10014.
BLT Burger: 470 Sixth Avenue, New York NY 10011. Here's A Hamburger Today's take on BLT Burger.
Shake Shack: Southwest corner of Madison Square Park. Here's all AHT's posts on the Shake Shack.
Rob Patronite
Blue Smoke: 16 East 27th Street, New York NY 10016. Psst: Wanna know a super cool secret about Blue Smoke's burger?
Stoned Crow: 85 Washington Place, New York NY 10011.
Shake Shack: Southwest corner of Madison Square Park. Here's all AHT's posts on the Shake Shack.
Robin Raisfeld
Nicole's: 10 East 60th Street, New York NY 10022.
Prune: 54 East 1st Street, New York NY 10003. OMG: Prune's lamburger is insane.
P. J. Clarke's: 915 Third Avenue, New York NY 10022.
Gael Greene
Brooklyn Diner: 212 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019.
Fairway Café: 2127 Broadway, New York NY 10023.
White Castle: Various locations citywide. We love you, Gael Greene—almost as much as we love White Castle.
Best Burgers - Best of New York Food 2007 [New York magazine]
It's time for another trip to Listburg, a magical meaty town whose residents are obsessed with the best of the best. Our most recent dispatch comes to us from AHT reader Thomas H....
I've lived in central Texas most of my 36 years and 11 years as an Austin area resident. I like burgers a lot, too -- can't eat barbecue EVERY day.Casino is OK. Huts is OK but always crowded. Dirty's is a good cheap greasy burger. Dan's is a good cheap greasy burger on the same level as Dirty's, and I like them a bit better. Artz Ribhouse is quite good for a higher-brow burger. I particularly like their South Austin cheeseburger with jalapenos and bacon as well as the Swiss burger. Poodie's Hilltop Bar and Grill is likely my favorite, though. Another personal favorite that got no mention is Ross's Old Austin Cafe. I ate there three times a week when I was working nearby. Nutty Brown Cafe in Dripping Springs also does a fine job.
So there's Thomas's recs for good Austin burgers. We'll track down contact info on these places later. In the meantime, if you wanna send AHT a list of your city's best burgers, we're all ears: adam [at] ahamburgertoday [dot] com
NY Magazine's Cheap Eats issue is out this week and they've included their top five burger joints in the city. Can't really argue, although I haven't made it to Donovan's Pub yet. Here's the list for your perusal.
SHAKE SHACK A stinging slap in the face of the Great Gourmet Burger Movement from a few years back, the Shack Burger is a thing of simple beauty, made from a freshly ground mix of sirloin and brisket, loosely packed and served on a squishy bun that quickly becomes one with the crisp-edged meat.
BLUE SMOKE
This is the second-best burger in town, and it’s no surprise that, like the Shack Burger above (to say nothing of the great burger at Union Square Cafe), it comes from a Danny Meyer kitchen. Meyer is known as a groundbreaking restaurateur, but his greatest legacy might be his contribution to the burger pantheon.BURGER JOINT
A no-frills char-grilled burger, well proportioned and modestly accoutred, that never fails to hit the spot.DONOVAN’S PUB
The city’s premier bar burger. Order it with grilled onions and American cheese, and have it at the bar, a room thick with history and the occasional impenetrable brogue.SCHNÄCK
You can order up to four 1-ounce Schnäckie patties stuffed into a single house-made mini-bun. But it’s more fun to order a whole pile of singles as if you were training for a competitive-eating contest.
New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni drives across the country, sampling fast food along the way in an attempt to find the best of the lot.
Until I hit an In-N-Out Burger in Torrance, Calif., on the eighth day of my trek, all of my fast food was consumed, as fast food often is, in the car, which smelled worse and worse as the trip went on and on. Like an obtuse houseguest or a Supreme Court justice, the scent of a White Castle slider lingers.My sample period ultimately spanned 9 days, 15 states, 3,650 miles and 42 visits to 35 different restaurants (I hit some more than once). It bequeathed crucial knowledge and invaluable lessons.
Mr. Bruni offers a 10 Favorites list, but, among hot dogs, onion rings, tater tots, and other foods for other blogs, there is only one burger:
Cheddar burger from Culver’s (Rockwall, Tex.): The thin patty had real beef taste, a delectable char and an expansive circumference, draping over the buttered and toasted bun. The Wisconsin cheese was sharp and properly melted.
Mr. Bruni also discovers a few things most burger lovers take as a rule: flame-cooking matters, buns matter, produce matters.
He likes In-N-Out, but only so much, saying the produce on the Animal-Style "obscured the thin patty."
He's not into Tommy's because of its "pasty, forgettable chili," which the joint pours over its famous burgers.
Life in the Fast-Food Lane [New York Times]
Forget the gravy train, you've booked a ticket on the Burger Express. Next stop: Listburg, where the populace is obsessed with notations and rank. The latest resident to settle in our sleepy hamlet is Jason Perlow (left), founder of eGullet.com and publisher of Off the Broiler, where this list is also available. Mr. Perlow's list, he tells us, is in no particular order. Beefy thanks to Jason! —The Management
MY TOP BURGER LIST | Words and Photos by Jason Perlow
White Manna, Hackensack, New Jersey
Got to have it as a double with grilled onions and cheese with extra pickle. Your stomach is going to rumble big time after eating four or five of these, but the indigestion and heartburn is well worth it. They look unattractive, lopsided and smooshed up. But they'll kick the crap out of you if you disrespect them. Kind of like most people from Jersey.
Louis Lunch, New Haven, Connecticut
They got weird rules, the burger is bizarre, both in preparation and in presentation. It doesn't matter, it makes sense, in an almost proto-evolutionary way. Its like eating the missing link in burger anthropology.
O'Rourke's Diner Steamed Cheeseburger, Middletown, Connecticut
Connecticut is home to the strange burgers. While Ted's in Meriden is the steamed cheeseburger everyone has heard about, O'Rourke's really is the original. Make this place part of your lifetime burger pilgrimage.
NationWide Meats, Sacramento, California
Sacramento is hot as hell, but its also got one of the best burgers anywhere. The beef they use here is top quality, there's plenty of it, their burger dressing is outstanding and their super thick-cut fries are magnificent.
Burger Joint, San Francisco
The menu is minimalist. The neighborhood is weird. Don't miss this place.
Blue Smoke Jazz Standard Burger, New York City
Before there was Shake Shack, there was the Blue Smoke Burger. Can't think of a better burger to have when listening to Jazz and having a cold beer.
Shake Shack, Madison Square Park, New York City
Yes, the place is hyped beyond belief and the lines are infuriating. Doesn't matter. Go, go, go. Even if you have to camp outside overnight to get a place in line the next day.
McSorley's Burger, Greenwich Village, New York City
It's cheap, but its beefy, topped with raw onion, and it's the perfect accompaniment to some of the best beers in town, in the oldest, surliest Irish Bar in the city.
Johnny Rocket's #12 Burger, various locations
Something about the Red sauce they put on this thing, combined with the thin-style burger with crispy edges makes this one unique and worthy of mention, edging out the other Micro-chains.
White Castle Double Cheeseburger, various locations
Perhaps I have saved my favorite for last. Before there was Harold and Kumar, college students have been making late night inebriated treks to the Castle for over six decades. Its the ultimate working class burger, which proudly features grease as an ingredient. Don't forget the extra pickle, it brings everything into Zen-like balance.
Well, there's Mr. Perlow's list. Dig it? Got a beef with it? Leave a comment. Better yet, submit your own list and take up residency in Listburg.
Time for another trip to Listburg, boys and girls. All aboard the beef train! —The Management
Ed Levine, aka "The Missionary of the Delicious," known for such books as New York Eats, New York Eats (More) and for his various best-of pieces for the New York Times (best pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, etc.), offers up his own Top of the Pops New York burger list on his blog. They are:
1. Peter Luger: "But only when they can figure out how to serve a burger medium-rare."
2. Shake Shack: "I know it's a cliche, but nobody gets the bun to meat ratio right except these guys, and that salty crust is so damned fine.... "
3. Telepan: "Where Bill Telepan is now serving that great burger he perfected at The Judson Grill...."
4. Prime Burger: "Tell them to make it from scratch, and don't waste any calories on the french fries...."
5. The Good Fork: "Great burger in Red Hook, but alas, only fair onion rings."
Be sure to click through for Mr. Levine's honorable mentions....
Where are your five favorite burgers? [Ed Levine Eats]
At the beginning of the Meaty Month of May, A Hamburger Today asked some noted eaters for lists of their favorite burgers.
Famous Fat Dave (above) of The Hungry Cabbie delegated his Top 3 list to his fares. I'll let him explain:
Here's a killer list we've mentioned on AHT but have never elaborated on. It's Alan Richman's top 20 from his July 2005 story "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die" in GQ. Do click through to read the entire piece; it quickly made its way onto the Required Reading list at AHT HQ. Bon appétit! ...
Good morning, ladies and gents. Time to take another trip to Listburg. Today's guide will be Mr. Cutlets. Mr. Cutlets (aka Josh Ozersky) is the man you turn to when you're in Manhattan and you need to know where the beef is. Why? Well, he's written the book on it. Meat Me in Manhattan, a tome whose slimness belies its weighty contents, is the consummate guide to carnivory in New York City's most hustlin' of boroughs. Here, he gives his Top 10 in the Big Apple and his Top 7 nationwide. Sink your teeth in. —The Management
NEW YORK CITY
Our kick-off Best Burger List comes from George Motz, director of burger documentary Hamburger America. For his film, George crisscrossed the country looking for the perfect patty, the best buns, etc. You can order a DVD of the flick here. You can view George's list below. — The Management
In No Particular Order
(These are all places that I drool just listing them, and I can't wait to visit again)
Well, there's George Motz's picks. Love 'em? Got a beef with 'em? Send us a list of your own or discuss in the Comments section below. — The Management
AOL Cityguide has done it again. In late March, the good folks there brought you the best burgers in New York. Now they've compiled the "15 Burgers to Try Before You Die" (hmm ... strange echo of Alan Richman's piece in GQ last year, "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die.") Without further ado, they are ...
15 Burgers to Try Before You Die [AOL Cityguide]
The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die [GQ]
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