4481 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90029 (map); 323-666-4242 Cooking Method: Griddled Short Order: Smaller is cuter, but not tastier Want Fries with That? No! These frozen fast food style spuds are straight from the grocery freezer and they taste it Prices: Mini cheeseburgers, $4.50 Notes: If you are throwing a kid's birthday party, you might be a hit if you show up with a bag full of Mini's
There is some external burger force guiding our reviews this week. Somehow, without out plan or pretext, Nick and I found ourselves eating small burgers at roughly the same time while being 3,000 miles apart from one another. I read his review while taking a break from writing mine and was delighted by the coincidence.
Perhaps it’s not so strange. In some respects, the small burger is why we are all here. That is to say, they're AHT founder Adam Kuban's second favorite food (pizza being the first) and the inspiration for him to start this blog. Of course, we all know semantics of the slider are fraught with slippage despite Mr. Kuban’s valiant efforts to apply a little rationality to the conversation.
Unfortunately, he’s fighting an uphill battle as the fascination with the little has blossomed into a proliferation of the small burger (or small sandwich) labeled as slider. I found the most recent offense just this morning in the form of Philly Cheesesteak Sliders. While we can’t control all of the semiotic sloppiness that has spread across our slider landscape, we can continue to sound the alarm. There is some evidence it’s working.
When it comes to burgers, size matters. But bigger isn't always better, especially at Taste, the urban-chic restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum.
A pair of minis is a portrait in sustainability. The special grind of organic beef comes from Skagit River Ranch and the Samish Bay farmstead gouda is produced 40-some miles north of the city at Rootabaga Country Farms. The wee buns come from nearby Columbia City Bakery. The only far-flung ingredient on the plate is the Dijon that is folded into the house aioli.
Taste is rightfully proud to point out on its menu the percentage of products sourced in Washington and Oregon. (It varies from season-to-season, currently standing at 46 percent at lunch, 53 percent at dinner.)
White Castle, what is this? I thought it was you and me against the world.
You invented the slider, basically defining it as a steam-griddled pickle-and-onion-slathered gutbomb when your founders opened in 1921.
I've gone to bat as a linguistic prescriptivist for your tiny hamburgers, seeking to eliminate the use of the term slider for anything not prepared in the manner of your iconic burgers.
And now you—YOU—apply the term to a tiny pulled pork sandwich?
When I have TO REMIND WHITE CASTLE WHAT A REAL SLIDER IS, I feel the foundations of my world crumbling.
Posted by Nick Solares, April 21, 2009 at 10:15 AM
"Unfortunately there is one major flaw in the design of the hamburger at Great Jones..."
Great Jones Cafe
54 Great Jones Street, New York NY 10013; (b/n Bowery and Lafayette; map); 212-674-9304; greatjones.com Cooking Method: Broiled Short Order: Outstanding beef, perfectly seasoned and cooked, hampered by sugary bun. Go for the mini burgers: same beef, better bread Want Fries with That? Absolutely. Both the regular and the spicy sweet potato varieties are great Price:Cheeseburger, $10.95; fries, $1.75; sweet potato fries, $2.75
The Great Jones Cafe opened just off the Bowery way back in 1983. The neighborhood was quite different back then—the cafes, restaurants, and boutiques that line the Bowery were but a developer's wet dream and the area was widely considered a rather seedy part of town with its flophouses, dive bars, and the legendary CBGB's. With the latter now shuttered Great Jones Cafe represents one of the few remaining links to a very different era, one that existed under dire economic circumstances but at the same time produced vibrant art, music, and fashion scenes. Thankfully, Great Jones remains unchanged, despite the gentrification that has gone on around it. It remains what it always was—a great neighborhood joint serving honest American food.
The decor is unpretentiously kitschy yet spartan, the jukebox still plays vinyl records (remember those?), and you have got to love a place that paints its hamburger menu on the walls.
Burger fiend Kenji Alt has shown you how to make other chefs' burgers—take the Blumenburger and the Radius Burger—but over at his blog, Good Eater, he's showing you how to make one of his creations: the hangover cure burger. What's in this beast? An egg fried in duck fat, two types of cheese, three types of pickles (including kimchi), mustard, garlic mayo, sambal oelek, and a bit of lettuce—aside from the patty and bun, of course.
A new product in Sur La Table's catalog is their 'Slider' Mini-Burger Tools. The line includes a burger press ($25), a burger grilling basket ($25), and a bun cutter ($5).
You could also just, like, form the patties with your hands and buy small, appropriately-sized buns. [via Kitchen Contraptions]
Metromix Baltimore has a gallery of sliders (or mini burgers, to be more accurate) from nine restaurants around the city, some recommended—such as the two-ounce burgers from Rocket to Venus—and some not so much—like the sliders from J. Pauls.
Posted by Nick Solares, November 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM
One of Adam's pet peeves is the way the term slider is bandied about with such reckless abandon that it encompasses almost any type of small sandwich, be it beef, pork or lobster, with no regard given to whether it was actually steamed.
Contestant Richard Sweeney took the misappropriation of the term to a new low last night on the season premier of Top Chef when he produced what he called lamb sliders for the elimination challenge. In fact, the two massive, grilled lamb burgers served on some very crunchy bread bore about as much relation to a slider as a gyro. Now I have nothing against riffs on traditional fare, even burgers, but don't call it a slider when it is grilled, made of lamb, and requires two hands to eat.
Now's the time to catch up on your knowledge of regional American fast food chains specializing in miniature burgers. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid gives a brief overview (accompanied by nice photos) of White Castle and Krystal, two chains that specialize in tiny square burgers/sliders with White Castle mostly dominating the Midwest and some of the Northeast of the U.S. and Krystal, the South.
That's either a very tiny burger or a giant woman. From Burger Club NY.
If you're tired of monstrously huge burgers, how about trying a one-bite burger? Burger Club NY posts about "the downsized burger" spotted at a catered party on Wall Street in New York City. The meatball-sized burger—topped with lettuce, plum or cherry tomato, and blue cheese—was fantastic, according to blogger Bex, and earned the rating of five out of five cows. She doesn't say how many you have to eat to feel full, but she downed at least ten of them.
Posted by Nick Solares, September 23, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Shopsin's General Store
Stall 16, Essex Street Market, 120 Essex Street, New York NY 10002 (b/n Delancey Street and Rivington Street; map); 212-924-5160; shopsins.com The Short Order: Amazingly authentic sliders that rival the nation's best, but Shopsin himself is the real star of the show Want Fries with That? Comes with chips, fries are extra and untested by the reviewer Price: sliders $9; burgers $7 Notes: Open Tues. through Sat., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"That's you?...You're wrong!" bellowed Kenny Shopsin when he discovered that I, occasional but passionate (and accepted, at least at the time of writing) patron of Shopsin's General Store, and the writer of Beef Aficionado who last year heaped lavish praise upon his sliders, were one and the same. It wasn't enough that I called his sliders the finest I have had in New York City and the closest one can get to White Manna, the appropriately named holy grail of sliderism in Hackensack, New Jersey, without actually leaving Manhattan.
"I see what they are doing," he said. referring to a video I had posted on White Manna. "They steam the onions; my sliders are better, I grill them," he stated definitively, as if that was the end of the discussion, which it actually turned out to be. "You'll see—try mine again and you'll eat your words."
I retorted that when it came to burgers I didn't mind eating my words one bit, and put in my order. I could have posited that the gooey, oozing onions on the sliders at White Manna add a particularly pleasing textural component—not to mention a sweetness that his onions lack by virtue of all the sugars being caramelized—but Shopsin had moved on, laying out a perfectly reasoned but expletive-filled diatribe against the city parking system. Of course, Shopsin's onions, like Shopsin himself, have their own particular charms. And while I still give the White Manna slider the slight edge, the ones at Shopsin's have one thing that Manna does not have: Shopsin himself.
Editor's Note: A few weeks ago, J. G. Wallace, a former food-service professional, avid cook, devout foodie, and newspaper food writer, contacted AHT about Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "Powers is an often overlooked player on the slider scene," he wrote. "They come very close to Hackensack's White Manna, and I am qualified to say that since I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. My wife is from Fort Wayne and we now live 20 miles outside of Fort Wayne. I went to Powers and got some great pics, and enjoyed what many locals call onion burgers with meat. Would you be interested in a write-up?" Of course we were, and here it is. Thank you, J. G.! Burgermeisters, have at it!
Powers Hamburgers
1402 S Harrison Street, Fort Wayne IN 46802; (at West Brackenridge Street; map); 260-422-6620 The Short Order: The approximately 2-ounce sliders are generously topped with grilled onions and optional American cheese (nothing else), and served on a potato roll. Price: Hamburger, $0.85 (double, $1.60); cheeseburger, $0.95 (double, $1.80)
By J. G. Wallace | What I am about to write may seem like burger blasphemy to some of AHT's readers, but as a New Jersey native, burger fanatic, and obsessive "foodie," I'm prepared to say Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, Indiana compares very well to White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, both in terms of the actual slider, atmosphere, and overall experience. Is it possible, you ask, for there to be a Nirvana-like hamburger experience in a mid-sized Midwestern city best known to many Americans as the home of M*A*S*H's Major Frank Burns? To be fair, Fort Wayne also hosted the first night baseball game under lights, was the former home of the Detroit Pistons—then called the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons—and once had a mayor named Harry Baals (you can't make this stuff up).
More Than 60 Years of History
Before you say it's not possible for a Hoosier slider shack to be compared to one of America's best and most famous burgers, just talk a walk with me to 1402 South Harrison Street in downtown Fort Wayne. It's in the old downtown business district, across the street from the U.S. District Federal Courthouse. Over the years many businesses have moved away from the center city as the city expanded, but Powers Hamburgers has stood steadfast since 1940. The small white Art Deco style building with black trim and black and white awnings hasn't changed much since it opened. The Powers Hamburger story begins in that same period of burger history that spawned places like White Manna, along with White Mana in Jersey City, White Castle, and the slider in general.
Posted by Nick Solares, August 14, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Ah, this burger meme again. This photo made the rounds on the internet a couple years ago, but it has reared its head again. And since we didn't blog about it then, here you go now. The site Daily Cognition recently posted it but does not link back to the original source; indeed it seems Daily Cognition is trying to pass it off as its own creation. But we call burger BS on that. It originally appeared on Craftser on August 3, 2006.
I have a lot of them. And the New York Times just poked at one. Previewing tomorrow's food section coverage, the Diner's Journal blog foreshadows some "slider" coverage:
Meanwhile, back in the home of the burger, its most humble version, the slider, has been getting a makeover. Florence Fabricant writes about how it’s become trendy, high-end bar food, as likely to be made with seafood, chicken or cheese as with beef.
I'm guessing this is going to be another one of those "slider" roundups we see every few months in various guises and in sundry publications. My ire is piqued here by the notion that sliders can be made with seafood, chicken, or cheese.
For $1, you could own a burger joint like this. This one's in Dayton, Ohio, but there's an old White Tower for sale in Toledo.
There's a White Tower in Toledo, Ohio, for sale for $1, but the catch is that you have to move it. The YWCA next door wants to expand and is looking for a way to get rid of this location of the onetime White Castle competitor.
If there are no takers, the building might be torn down in fall. Come on! Some history-minded burger lover out there oughtta get on this. Could you imagine grabbing a cool little building like this to open a slider joint? And it's like $0.00016 a square foot (600 square feet total). [Tip o' the hat to T.J.]
If it's Tuesday, it must be time for another review from Nick Solares. Nick is also the publisher of Beef Aficionado, his blog that explores beef beyond burgerdom.
As the newest member of the AHT team, I thought it appropriate to follow in Adam's intrepid steps and venture across the Hudson on a pilgrimage to two of America's most historically significant Hamburger establishments. I speak, of course, of White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, and White Mana in Jersey City, New Jersey. Adam visited both three years ago to the month, and while he raved about the burgers he ate in Hackensack he was less enthused by the Jersey city location. While I have eaten at both places on previous occasions I did so as a civilian, without the responsibility of reviewing the joints and putting them in to the context of the modern burger landscape.
Both establishments are now operated independently of each other and indeed have different owners but they were both founded by Louis Bridges back in 1946. The story goes that the structure that houses the Jersey City location was originally situated at the 1939 World's Fair and was then moved to its current resting place on Tonnele Avenue.
White Mana opened its doors on June 2, 1946, and has been going ever since; it is open 24 hours a day. The only major change, aside from the fact that the burgers cost a little more than the 10¢ they did back then is that during the 1980s, is that the restaurant lost an n in its name as the result of an error at the sign makers. The missing n was never straightened out, and the reconfigured name stuck.
The diner proved such a success that Bridges open three more Mannas in north Jersey in the 1940s, although now only the original and the Hackensack locations remain.
In reverse order to Adam's trip I started in Jersey City and then went north to Hackensack. While I am in complete agreement that the latter is far superior, I am not sure that I would necessarily countenance against visiting the original location in favor of the White Castle nearby as Adam did. I recommend you visit both!
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]
Jesse Taylor, a mixed martial arts fighter competing on Spike TV's reality show The Ultimate Figher, was shown eating frozen cheeseburgers before a fight on this week's episode (TUF airs on Wednesday evenings on Spike TV). Burger King is the official sponsor of the show so all other branding is obscured, but the small burgers looked suspiciously like White Castle frozen cheeseburgers. While the rest of the competitors ate leafy greens and low-fat protein Taylor is quoted as saying, " I like Oreos and I like cheeseburgers." The other fighters on the show were aghast at his diet, but despite the incredulity of his rivals, Taylor went out and dominated his match, winning on all three of the judges' scorecards.
A six pack of burgers, that is. Not content with offering the more well-heeled denizens of tony Knightsbridge London an £85 sterling Kobe burger, Burger King is offering the rest of the nation a chance at overindulgence in the caloric rather than the financial department. The 6 Pack is actually one large patty sandwiched between six mini buns all attached to each other. Although the buns are joined together, BK has attempted to allay the concerns raised by health advocacy groups who balk at the 6 Pack's 917 calories by claiming that it's designed to "tear and share." Of course the fact that BK is offering a meal deal that comes packaged with a single drink and an order of fries indicates that the chain is at least anticipating some people will make the 6 Pack a single-user product.
Nick Solares, the guy who publishes Beef Aficionado, is on the same wavelength as I am: "Of all of the infinite varieties of hamburger I think that sliders are my favorite. There is just something about the little bombers that perfectly captures the happy confluence of beef, bun and cheese. The slider is reduction of the burger to its ideal form...."
I couldn't have said it better myself. Those words open a blog post in which Nick goes about trying to duplicate the sliders from White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, arguably one of the finest producers of these tiny, oniony hamburgers. Nick's recipe and technique can be found here.
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 14, 2008 at 1:45 PM
For those in love with tiny hamburgers and with each other, Valentine's Day is a win-win situation. Or a win-win-win-win-win one, if your standard order, like mine, involves at least five sliders.
Not to be outdone, Krystal, the reigning slider slinger of the South, is honoring three Georgia couples [second item] who have met-cute stories involving the tiny-burger chain.
I just tried the sliders at Shopsin’s in the Essex Street Market. It was really very good. Not quite White Manna quality but close. They don’t grill the potato roll à la Manna, but the cheese is from Saxelby Cheesemongers next door and is superb. The beef was juicy and moist despite being cooked through, and the patty was bigger than Manna or Sassy's Sliders. Three for $9 is probably a bit steep for sliders anywhere other than New York City.
But it wasn't all burnt grills and onion dust. One of the perks was eating sliders during our breaks. To mix things up, I'd invent off-menu items: double cheeseburgers with the middle bun removed, double fish, fish and chicken, triples and so on. After years of topping my burgers with onion rings such improvisation was the next logical step.
He may have gotten two stars from the New York Times for his cooking, but he gets a big goose egg from AHT for this attack, which appeared on Restaurant Girl:
What trend do you wish would die already? Sliders.
We just got a tip that this Friday, the Bouchon Bakery will be featuring wagyu sliders as a menu addition. They'll be slightly different from the ones that Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine blogged about earlier this month. The tomato marmalade from before will be replaced with oven-roasted roma tomatoes, and the cheese will be taleggio instead of ricotta.
We didn't get any word on what pricing will be, but the first time Ed had them, the meal was $15 for three sliders.
Bouchon Bakery Address: 3rd floor of the Time-Warner Center Mall Phone: 212-823-9366
Tommi Tómasson is the burger baron of Iceland and has "made and lost two fortunes flipping burgers in Reykjavík." He currently owns Hamborgara Tómasar in the country's capital. "We have had many celebrities come, even our President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his wife Dorrit have come," Tómasar said. "Also Björk [right]. But mostly Tommi’s Burger Joint is a classless place where everyone can come and feel that he or she belongs."
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right: "McDonald’s best-kept secret may be that it offers free Wi-Fi with every meal.... Gamers using Nintendo DS systems currently account for 25% of the Wi-Fi traffic in its restaurants."
"White Castle is inferior." So says Beverly Scott, who is among 20 people inducted into the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame this year. I think her story, recounted here, is weak, but Krystal probably liked her stance on Whitey's. An even better story is the hall of famer who routinely flies 150 miles ten times a year to pick up a couple dozen Krystals.
BY ED LEVINE .::. I was wandering around the Time Warner Center in New York City recently and found myself at the Bouchon Bakery thinking I was going to order its terrific grilled cheese sandwich (that's the one served with a surprisingly mediocre tomato soup). That's what I was planning to order until my server said they had a Wagyu beef slider special that day.
In the name of research I had to order them. Ten minutes later, she deposited a long thin plate in front of me: three sliders on house-made brioche buns with a pinch of sea salt on top. The burgers' condiments included ricotta cheese, a schmear of garlic aïoli, and tomato marmalade. So, basically, these were fancy-pants cheeseburger sliders with ketchup.
Again, the egalitarian skeptic in me wanted to hate these burgerlike affectations, but damn these sliders were killer. Great salty caramelized crust, plenty of beefy, juicy flavor, and those brioche buns, topped by a few grains of fleur de sel, were soft and moist but stood up to the burger well. These sliders were $15 but were worth every penny (don't kill me for saying that, Adam).
I asked my server if they were planning to put the sliders on the everyday menu, and all she said was they hoped to. But when I got back to the office and called sous chef Jim McDuffee, he basically told me they were probably a one-time-only lucky culinary accident.
"I had some Wagyu beef trimmings from the Per Se kitchen and the pastry department had a little leftover fresh ricotta, so I decided why not go for it," McDuffee said. He told me they blew through all 45 orders in an hour.
I would like to start a movement to get these sliders on the everyday menu at all three Bouchons across the country. So write congress or call your local sous chef.
Last year the stadium served "The Grizzly Burger," a bacon cheeseburger served on a toasted Krispy Kreme doughnut.
This year, they're raising the bar with deep-fried White Castle sliders. Called "Baseball’s Best Sliders," they'll come two for $4. A side of cheese sauce is $1 extra.
Says Darren Rovell, the man who broke the Grizzly Burger story last year, "It’s pretty awesome when it has been sitting in the studio for an hour. I can only imagine how great it is hot out of the fryer sitting at the ballpark. I couldn’t eat too much being that I’m down a gallbladder, but it basically tastes like an onion ring burger."
On deck: Baseball road trip!
Further Reading
I'm not sure where to place this post, so read more about Megaburgers on AHT or about Tiny Hamburgers!
Jason Perlow: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=254962686&size=o Jason Perlow: thought you'd enjoy that Jason Perlow: had that last night at White Manna Jason Perlow: I had eaten there for over 10 years and not once was aware you could get lettuce and tomato on a burger. nycslice: crap! nycslice: awesome nycslice: thnx Jason Perlow: I saw them taking out lettuce and tomatoes and I was like "wait, what do you use those for?" Jason Perlow: and everyone else in the room was staring at them like "you have lettuce and tomato?" Jason Perlow: they apparently also make egg creams there Jason Perlow: and its not on the menu
WHITE MANNA AHT Review: White Man(n)a, a New Jersey Pilgrimage Address: 358 River Street, Hackensack NJ 07601 [map] Phone: 201-342-0914 Hours: Mon.-Sat., 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cost: Hamburgers, $0.95; cheeseburgers, $1.05
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 8, 2006 at 2:09 AM
From PRNewswire:
The winner of the 2006 White Castle Crave Time Cook Off has been crowned. Missy O'Malia of Columbus, Ohio, won the 15th annual White Castle recipe contest with her creative concoction, Enchiladas de White Castle Burgers y Queso.
Enchiladas de White Castle Burgers y Queso beat out nearly 350 entries received from across the country for this year's competition. The recipes were judged on the best use of ten White Castle hamburgers, originality, and taste. Missy will receive a Crave Case of 30 hamburgers every week for the next year for her creative use of the product.
Early last month, we blogged about a family whose trip to the nearest White Castle (400 miles away) was sponsored by Globat.com as part of a promotional stunt. Conditions of the sponsorship were that the family of three had to eat 100 Slyders before leaving the restaurant. Video is now up here.
This is the second of two belated Kansas posts from December 2005. The first can be found here: Bobo's Drive-In.
THE COZY INN Location: 108 North 7th Street, Salina KS 67401 [map] Phone: 785-825-2699 Website: cozyburger.com Cost: 75¢ each The Short Order: Sliders here are juicy, steamy, and mega-oniony. Don't act a fool and ask for cheese; Cozy don't play that. And, oooh, that smell — it will saturate your clothes. Bonus: Plenty of cool Cozy merch available You Want Fries With That? You can't always get what you want. Grab a bag of chips as a side; Cozy doesn't do fries
One hundred fifty miles east of Salina, Kansas, and the onion smell lingered on. Like the smoke from a dive bar in which cigarettes are still legal, the pungent fumes clung to my clothes and hair. Nearly three hours' road time behind me, the lights of my hometown on the horizon, and tears began to pool in my eyes: Did I already miss that cozy little burger joint out west or ... "J.B., CLOSE THAT DAMN BAG! I CAN'T TAKE THAT AROMA!"
My traveling companion, J.B., had just opened the gallon-size zip-top bag (right) containing a souvenir of our trip to The Cozy Inn. Despite being locked tight inside the sealed plastic, the commemorative T-shirt had nevertheless absorbed a concentrated dose of the Cozy's signature smell. (To re-create this odor at home: Go to your spice drawer, open the bottle of dried minced onions you never use, and snort the contents.)
While it may sound unappetizing, I think it's precisely that smell that beckons burger lovers both near and far to the Cozy Inn, filling their nostrils and noggins with a healthy dose of nostalgia. Need evidence? Look no further than the three-ring binder full of testimonials from devotees. It's kept on the counter, letters slipped into plastic sleeves for their own protection: Yeah, you read that right: 1929. This place has been a Salina institution since 1922. Check out the neon sign in the photo at right: 83 years (as of December 2005) and counting — the sign's neon gets reworked each year.
Despite an outsize sense of history, the burgers themselves are anything but large. The Cozy specializes in sliders. And though they come with a heaping throw of onions (no exceptions), they absolutely do not come with cheese. A word to those who are weak of stomach: This is not your restaurant. If nowhere else, Cozy's sliders have earned the right to be called belly bombers or gut busters.
While the strong onion dosage is a selling point, it can at times overwhelm these tiny hamburgers. And the water content of the aromatic slices can sometimes further mush-ify the small buns that are already moist with steam, having been placed atop the patties as they cook on the diminutive 18-by-36-inch cast-iron grill. About the grill: It was replaced at some point during the 1940s but the demanding clientele had a conniption and the owner quickly reinstalled the original.
As of publication, single burgers cost 75¢ but a patron with a good appetite should start with a half dozen. Or, if you're there with kids in tow, as were many of Salina's natives the evening AHT visited, you'd do well to order a sack of 30 for the family. It's never too early to start instilling a good measure of oniony nostalgia in today's youth.
We are three marketing coordinators working for the Krystal Company. Kenny works on the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame and the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship, our contribution to the world's fastest growing sport-competitive eating; Tiffany works with all things Internet (including this lovely blog); and Jennifer is our in-store POP goddess -- helping to make our mouths water with those product shots. This blog chronicles our adventures in the world of Fast Food.
Longtime Baltimore–D.C.-area residents may remember the White Castle–like Little Tavern.DCist.com reports that one of the few remaining stores of the onetime 50-strong chain is up for sale.
The lonely Laurel branch has real street cred, with original (read: decaying) barstools and floor tiles. Their motto remains the same: "Buy 'Em by the Bag." Oh, and this Little Tavern is for sale.
LITTLE TAVERN Location: 115 Washington Blvd S., Laurel MD 20707-4327 [map] Phone: 410-792-9364
In similar fashion to the movie, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," the participants, Terri Scott, a longtime eBay'er, daughter Kerri Gomez, and Kerri's boyfriend GW Whitfield, wanted to taste and experience the infamous sliders so badly that they created an auction on eBay to finance the trip. Each will be required to finish all 100 hamburgers without leaving the restaurant until they do so.
The trio will drive 400 miles from Schulenburg, Texas, to Saint Louis for the burgers.
An East Texas man has reached "Hall Of Fame" status for his allegiance to tiny hamburgers. 64 year old "Philip Tidwell" of Avinger was inducted today in the "Krystal Lovers Hall Of Fame." Tidwell wrote Krystal Hamburgers of Longview telling them how, in the past, he regularly made trips to Mississippi to get their burgers.
Tidwell had to make the five-hour, 237-mile drive to the nearest Krystal, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, before regional slider chain opened a Longview location.
Yeah? Good. Did you take your sweetheart there? Well, Jason Perlow, one of the founders of eGullet, did. Jason has recently launched a blog, Off the Broiler, and his recap can be found there: A White Castle Valentine.
The photo at right is from Jason and wife Rachel's night at Whitey's, but check his other WC-VD post on eGullet for absolutely priceless photos of the event: Valentine's Day at WHITE CASTLE! Wily yet endearing teenagers are involved.
And, Jason: No offense with the post title here. You gotta admit, it is kinda funny. But AHT thinks it's sweet and wishes we could have made the Castle part of our evening yesterday.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 16, 2005 at 1:32 AM
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky holds a David Burke slider. Side-on, you can see the crispness of the meat and the juices soaking into the mini English muffin. A presentation befitting these artful yet no-nonsense miniburgers; $8.95 for 3 "Cheeseburkers" and fries.
Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky raved earlier this week on Slashfood, and in an e-mail to me, about the "reinvented" sliders at David Burke's new café at Bloomingdale's in Midtown Manhattan. "You have to try them!" he said.
So try them we did. Yesterday at lunch, Matty and I met Josh at Burke in the Box, as the long, narrow, handsome space is called.
As is usually the case, Josh was right when he described these tiny hamburgers: "[this] sandwich approaches perfection on its own terms, and its outside deep crunch and rich inside softness are wildly dramatic, especially in a sandwich so small."
Burke, who stepped away from expediting orders at the take-out counter, took some time to tell us how he crafts these mini masterpieces (right).
First, he starts by cutting a mini English muffin about three-quarters from the bottom. The thick part of the muffin is then scooped out, and a hearty meatball of raw Creekstone Farms Black Angus beef is nestled snugly into this spongy bed.
Burke assembles a tray of these little guys and bakes them. As the fat renders out as juice (Burke uses 80% lean beef), it is absorbed by the muffin. You'd think this would make for a soggy "bun," but no: The muffin stands up to the juices, captures them for your pleasure, and actually becomes crisp on the bottom in the process. The meat is topped with a pickle slice and just the right amount of cheese. A cherry tomato half is speared atop the whole affair, but it's more garnish than an integral part of the burger.
Because they're baked in batches beforehand, you can't order them to your preferred doneness. We asked for ours medium-rare and were told they'd be more along the lines of medium. Still, looking at the cross section (left), you can see the soft, pink interior—and the copious amount of juice melted into the muffin bottom.
This slider is almost magical, packing all the taste, juice, and punch of a burger four times its size into a fun, tiny, two- or three-bite package. In fact, it's almost ludicrous to call it a slider, as that nickname derives from the way White Castle's original Slyder, all mushy and greasy, just seems to slip down your throat—and then out your other end a few hours later. Burke's "Cheeseburker," in contrast, is all crunch on the outside and smooth and molten inside, managing to avoid the pitfall of dryness that typically plague the beefed-up school of sliderdom.
From work, Matty has only a 10-block walk to Burke in the Box. I have a short train ride. I'm sure we'll be meeting there for lunch again soon.
BURKE IN THE BOX Location: 150 East 59th Street (b/n Lex. and Third aves.), Midtown, NYC Phone: 212-705-3800 Cost: $8.95 for 3 "Cheeseburkers" and fries
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 14, 2005 at 10:48 AM
Over on Slashfood, Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky writes about some exciting news in the world of tiny hamburgers. That news is the innovative approach that David Burke of Burke Bar brings to the grill. Here are the first mad, mad steps to Mr. Burke's method:
1) A miniature English muffin is sliced so that the bottom part is three times as thick as the top. This bottom part is then hollowed out.
2) The meat, of the finest Creekstone beef, is formed and placed inside the bottom bun. The bread now covers its whole upper hemisphere; the bottom hemisphere gets smashed into a hot griddle.
3) The meat juices cook into the bread. And there are a lot of meat juices: Creekstone produces some of the juiciest beef around, and I would be surprised if these burgers were more than 80% lean (Burke says they are.)
If that whets your appetite, click over to Slashfood for the details: The Slider Reinvented. If you're a belly-bomber fan, the read is well worth your time.
A Hamburger Today will be visiting Burke Bar tomorrow with none other than Mr. Cutlets. Look for a report (with juicy photos) soon.
BURKE BAR Location: At the original Bloomingdale's store, 59th Street and Lexington, NYC Getting There: 4/6 trains to 59th Street. Burke Bar has its own separate entrance on 59th Street.
Despite what Everclear says, Summerland is not just a name on the map, though it still seems like heaven to me. Nestled in a shady nook between Montecito and Carpinteria, for years Summerland slumbered away as a small artists' beach community of quaint houses and inspired decorations. Now, as the rich get richer, Summerland has experienced a boom as everyone else becomes too poor to live in Santa Barbara or anywhere within a 20-mile radius. Today, Summerland is a patchwork of yuppie antiques stores and slowly invading cafés, but many of the village’s treasures remain to this day, including the Sandpiper Liquor Store, the Wild West burgers of the Nugget, the Big Yellow House, and the town’s two tiny burger veterans, Tinker’s and Stacky’s Seaside.
I pulled into Summerland on a hot summer weekend in July, tempted by the sign on a newer restaurant promising Burger Madness Tuesdays. At $3.99 a pop, I had trouble understanding what great deal was afoot, so I turned my attention toward Tinker’s, unable to remember which had the better burgers between it and Stacky’s. Tinker’s is a thin hallway (top right) with a sandy 1950s beach obsession and an outdoor patio. Slinging all sorts of burgertime treats, Tinker’s has quite a few devotees.
Taking my place in line before a gang of pre-pubescent surf rats, the first things to catch my eye were the cute high school girls working the counter (left). Smiling with teeth full of glimmering braces, they were sweet and funny, even allowing me to snap a candid photo or two. I placed my order for a cheeseburger and ordered a plate of mini-burgers for myself and my friend Cody, visiting from Vero Beach, Florida. After a ten-minute wait outside baking in the sun and watching the weekend traffic saunter by, our burgers arrived in nostalgia-inducing red plastic baskets piled high with fries (below).
Unfortunately, the warm fuzzy feeling did not extend toward the burger. Despite a great-looking presentation of glimmering traditional-style burgers, mine was not only less-than-remarkable, and I was sad to discover more than a couple gristly bites that I’d rather not have taken. The grilled bun was a nice touch, but the patty did not hold up, it was noticeably inferior in quality. It also had grilled edges that tasted nicely charred, but the thinness of the meat was also somewhat shady. The sauce (Thousand Island?) and fixings—onion, tomato, lettuce—came correct (above right), but the burger rated about 5 out of 10. The mini burgers (above left) were a tad better, their diminutive size obscuring any inconsistencies in the patty. At more than $6 for a meal, however, it doesn't seem worth it. Upon realizing my follies, I figured that it must be Stacky’s that had the legendary Summerland burgers.
Coming back to Summerland is a treat. With the Nugget (where presidents Clinton and Reagan went for burgers), the place announcing Burger Madness Tuesday, and the expectation set by Stacky’s and a lackluster flavor at Tinker’s, it will be a pleasure to return soon and settle who is slinging the best burger. Until then, I’m recommending Stacky’s. Maybe they can hire these two cute cooks and have the best of both worlds!
TINKER'S BURGERS Location: 2275 Ortega Hill Road; Summerland CA 93067 Phone: 805-969-1970 Price: $5 burgers Short Order: Beachside 1950s grill could have better patties, but still high on ambiance and charm. Better burgers in neighborhood worth exploring.
Burgers might proliferate, but in New York, they're also shrinking. The trend toward small-plate dining has chefs trying to one-up each other in round after round of "Honey, I Shrunk the Food."
So the race to Lilliput is now toying with the hallowed burger - enter sliders.
The story highlights veteran Upper East Side slider outpost Sassy's (right) and the upscale Wagyu beef sliders at Stanton Social (top), both of which we were already familiar with, but comes through with some new recommendations ...
Michael Jordan's Steakhouse: Three prime-beef microburgers on brioche buns for $14.50. (West Balcony of Grand Central Terminal's main hall)
Metrazur: Two Wagyu-beef minis for $15. (Also in Grand Central, on the East Balcony)
P.S. 450: "The barbecued beef burgers and cheeseburgers (four for $10) were the juiciest of all the sliders we sampled; bigger-than-usual brioche buns, custom-made by Tom Cat Bakery, wrap around 2 ounces of succulent, preseasoned meat (ketchup not required)." (450 Park Avenue South, at 34th Street)
Other restaurants mentioned in the story were Punch and Judy's, Vig 27, and Dopey Benny's Steakhouse, but those were nonburger "sliders" (pastrami, roast-duck, and Philly cheesesteak versions), so AHT doesn't care.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 30, 2005 at 12:15 AM
A new expansion to tell you about. Schnäck has opened a branch inside the Brooklyn Lyceum.
The Brooklyn Lyceum is at Fourth Avenue and President Street, just outside the Union Street station on the R line, which happens to be my subway stop. I've been complaining to friends for a while now that my part of Park Slope is woefully devoid of places to get cheap and fast take-out, so this outpost of the Red Hook burger/dog/sausage joint is a welcome new neighbor.
The gentleman manning the grill said that the Lyceum Schnäck would be open seven days a week and that when there weren't events at the Lyceum (which hosts live music, theater performances, and film screenings), they'll probably just turn on the TVs to whatever game or what-not is showing.
The next thing that will be expanding in the neighborhood will be my waistline.
SCHNACK, BROOKLYN LYCEUM Location:
[Thanks to Youthlarge for the ticket to the Calla album release show, which was the impetus for the Schnäck discovery. Youthlarge, by the way, will be coming on board AHT as a contributor, giving us a much-needed infusion of new blood in this enterprise. We look forward to good things from this one.]
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so of course we were buttered up to no end by this blog entry on I♥Bacon.com.
I♥Bacon followed the Wite Kastle Klone recipe we posted last week. True to the blog's name, its proprietor, "Megwoo," topped her tiny hamburgers with bacon. She had never had a slider before. Did she like it? Click over there to find out.
While we were perusing I♥B, we noticed an entry about boar burgers. That's her boar burger above, in the bottom right photo; the other photos are of her slider experiment.
We get quite a few e-mails at A Hamburger Today, but we thought we'd highlight this one, first because it's from overseas (proving that burgerloving is a global phenomenon) and because it points out that during the last couple of weeks, we've talked about sliders without having defined the term:
First off, I have to say I LOVE AHT quite a lot. The writing makes me laugh and the burgers make me absolutely starving.
I'm a Brit living in the UK, however, which brings me to why I'm writing. We don't have a clue what sliders are, nor tiny burgers (although it doesn't take a great leap of intellect to work out that tiny burgers are, well, small burgers.)
But would it be possible for you guys to give us Brits a clue about what all these burger things are? Our experience of burgers is limited in this country, so we're not up to date with the cutting edge burgerology. Hell, its rare enough to actually find a pickle in a burger over here, let alone get a choice of burger buns.
Keep up the eating!
Rich
Well, Rich, a slider is just as you guessed: a miniature hamburger, the patties of which generally weighing in somewhere around 1 oz. (for metric-minded readers, roughly 28.35 grams). Why are they small? That's just the way White Castle started making them, probably to keep the cost down, even though customers would end up eating more than one burger and thus negate the perceived value.
Why sliders? We had always heard that the nickname came about because the burgers were so greasy and small that you could just swallow them whole and they'd just "slide" down your throat. Other folks claim that the moniker stems from the burgers' method of locomotion on the other end of your alimentary canal, cha-cha-cha.
No matter what the origin, the term, as spelled with a y, was eventually trademarked by White Castle. From the book Selling 'Em by the Sack:
Over the years, customers coined a multitude of derisive or sarcastic terms for the company and its hamburgers, including porcelain palace and sliders. (After successfully dodging the term slider since the 1930s, White Castle finally embraced it and featured it in its advertising but changed the spelling to Slyder for copyright reasons.) These commonly used nicknames in themselves are enough to keep many queasy diners at bay. Interestingly enough, White Castle aficionados use these slang terms with great affection, not deterred by the criticisms of the weak stomached.
So there you go, mate. Hope that clears things up for you. Now go have yourself some sliders and chips!
HACKENSACK and JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY We asked, and you delivered. Oh yes, you delivered, you dear, dear greasy-handed readers. Among your tips on finding good sliders was one that led us to tiny diner White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, which in turn led us to the similarly named White Mana (one n, mind you) in Jersey City.
And so this reporter worked all day yesterday as visions of tiny hamburgers danced in his head. Sliders were also doing a jig in the head of Honey P., who works with me. This trip was especially important to Honey P. because her friend has been badgering her for years to try White Manna and HP wanted to get it over with to put an end to the nagging. I was looking forward to her company on the trip, but she had to go to some art thing instead. (Hmmph: Warped priorities if I ever seen 'em.)
Well, she missed out, because White Manna in Hackensack was worth all the hassle I endured getting there. The pilgrimage involved the NYC subway and trips on two different commuter trains in Jersey before I met up with one-time Slice Garden State bureau chief Amanda G. and her dad; their help and generosity was greatly appreciated. We drove from the North Hackensack train stop to White Manna, at the intersection of River and Passaic Streets and were greeted by the cutest down-at-the-heels art deco diner I've seen in ages (see photo above).
Opening the door, we were hit with the unmistakable aroma of onion, and quickly plopped down on stools at the U-shaped counter. We ordered an assortment of hamburgers and cheeseburgers—with onions (unlike White Castle, whose burger stylings White Manna aped in the 1940s, you have the choice of forgoing the pungent topping). We also put in a couple orders of fries with the friendly cooks there (see photo at right).
As you may have noticed, A Hamburger Today looooves White Castle. Unfortunately, none of us lives close enough to a Castle to enjoy a sackful of Slyders on a regular basis. Heck, Hamburglar Hadley, based in Los Angeles, is 1,800 miles from the nearest "eating house." Seeing as how many of our readers live outside the chain's limited area of coverage, we thought we'd experiment with a copycat recipe that can be made at home. I like to call these homemade sliders "Wite Kastle Klones."
After Googling "White Castle" copycat recipe and perusing the results, I decided to go with this one, despite the fact that it calls for 3 oz. of strained-beef baby food. (Yuck!)
The first step was assembling the ingredients (right), the hardest part of which was choosing an appropriate pickle chip—some were too thick for such a tiny burger, but I finally found an acceptable product. The weirdest ingredient in this recipe is strained-beef baby food; I followed the recipe as-is but will probably omit this component in future versions. I can't imagine it makes that much of a difference, and it just seems nasty. While you'd think finding buns for the sliders would be difficult, I knew from my trip to The Burger Joint that Martin's Potato Rolls would work perfectly. If you can't find these, try cutting hot-dog buns in thirds.
Alright, let's cut to the chase. Making hamburgers is pretty straightforward, and these just have a few added twists, namely mixing the beef with beef stock and the, ahem, baby food. Do this in a large bowl. It makes a sort of mushy mixture, but that's OK; it helps when you spread the beef out in a thin slab (above and right; click images to enlarge). I used a 10-by-14-inch rimmed baking sheet, which seemed to be the perfect size. Line the sheet with plastic wrap before transferring the beef mixture to it; this will help prevent sticking and aid in the spreading process. Use a spatula initially to flatten the meat (above left); then cover it with an additional sheet of plastic wrap, and use a rolling pin (above center) or your hands to spread the beef across the entire sheet (above right). Remove the top layer of plastic wrap, and use the spatula to make squares (right).
Tiny hamburgers are just be too big to be confined to one week's worth of special coverage. This entry begins our second week of Tiny Hamburger Week on A Hamburger Today. — Ed.
Much more meaty than a White Castle burger could ever hope to be, Selling 'Em by the Sack is the history of the original tiny-hamburger chain and the history of the hamburger as well.
Shortly after mentioning this book last week, A Hamburger Today received a copy for review in the mail. We devoured it almost as quickly as a sack of Whitey's. While a tad more academic than entertaining, David Gerard Hogan's book is nonetheless fascinating and worth picking up for anyone interested in hamburger history. It is a must-read for White Castle fanatics.
Selling 'Em by the Sack details the rise of the hamburger as the defining "ethnic cuisine" of the American people in the 1920s. Before the Castle's rise, the burger was viewed as an icky, inferior food made from all the parts of a cow no one would eat. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, published in 1906, 15 years before the first Castle opened, wasn't the greatest endorsement of our favorite sandwich, either, what with its brutal look at the meatpacking industry in the early-twentieth-century United States. Mr. Hogan's book shows us how the Castle's founders, Edgar W. "Billy" Ingram and J. Walter "Walt" Anderson, used clever marketing, attention to detail, and novel business practices to elevate the burger in the eye of the American public. In so doing, they created the market for fast-food hamburgers and then dominated that market until the 1950s.
We learned some surprising facts about The White Castle System of Eating Houses, as the chain was officially called. Walt Anderson (at left in photo at left), for example, was an avid pilot who bought a fleet of biplanes to make impromptu quality checks at the far-flung garrisons of his empire. Mr. Ingram invented paper napkins and the paper hat that has long been associated with burger-joint employees. He then founded the Paperlynen Company as a subsidiary of the Castle; it supplied the chain with napkins, hats, and paper aprons and also made a tidy profit selling the same items to other foodmakers.
The book goes on to recount the Castle's near undoing during and after World War II (a labor shortage and changing wartime consumption habits cause the chain to falter) and then its resurrection thanks to a singleminded return to the founding principles of quality, cleanliness, and value.
I could go on and on about what a fascinating story this is, but I'm starting to bore myself here. If you're "one of us," that is, a Castle fan, put this book in your sack.
Schnäck brings back fond memories. My first tiny burger experience occurred here only two years ago. From that point on, I was changed. I could no longer live in a regular-sized burger world; I needed diversity. I'll always love a full-sized burger, but the combination of cuteness and burger is too much to pass up. But I digress.
Schnäck sits on a quiet block in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, surrounded mostly by residences. When you get inside, the decor is kitschy, but not over the top—silly enough to be entertaining while still feeling quite homey. Unlike the other tiny-burger restaurants we've reviewed this week, Schnäck is a sit-down restaurant (if you're in a hurry, you can do delivery or take-out, though). Once you find your table, the staff, especially co-owner and manager Harry, are quick to crack jokes and make you feel at ease.
Aside from Harry, the other two owners are Alan and Jim. This duo is responsible for a number of other popular Brooklyn eateries, including Patois, Uncle Pho, the Red Rail, and the Gowanus Yacht Club. They seem to have found a couple hits in there, but Schnäck will always be my favorite.
The tiny burgers, Schnäckies, are a dollar a piece, with cheese costing an extra $0.50 (kraut or onions are free). All Schnäckies are served with Schnäck Sauce, which is a version of thousand island, like most secret sauces. Although I recommend the singles, you can get doubles, triples, or quads, which are just more patties on one bun. My one complaint about this place is that the double costs $2.50 while a single is a dollar. That just doesn't make sense.
Unlike Sassy's Sliders, Schnäck prefers to serve its burgers without too much in the way. The buns are simple, and the sauce is complimentary. This works because the meat is actually quite tasty. If you look at the photos above, you'll see that they cook the burgers pretty thoroughly, which seems to add flavor. It doesn't seem that Schnäck adds anything special to the beef, but I wouldn't be surprised if the place used some salt and pepper. Bottom line, the burgers are flavorful considering how tiny they are.
Like Shake Shack or Blue 9, I highly recommend you grab some fries and a shake to compliment your burger. I would come for the shakes, fries, or burgers alone, which is what makes this place so dangerous. On top of the typical burger and hot dog fare, Schnäck's menu features quite a few options that would satisfy your non-burger-loving friends. Although, if your friends don't love burgers, you should really question your relationship.
As an aside, Schnäck is holding its inaugural hot dog eating contest on Memorial Day. Unlike other food-eating competitions, this one is for amateurs and it's about speed, not quantity. The first to finish a 30-inch-long custom-made Stahl-Meyer hot dog wins. The contest will take place at 1 p.m., and, if you arrive between 11a.m. and 1p.m., you'll get a free hot dog. Because of the potential hilarity and free food, I'll most likely be in attendance. If you can't make it, feel free to follow along on Schnäck's blog.
SCHNÄCK Location: 122 Union St. (between Columbia and Hicks), Brooklyn, NY Phone: 718-855-2879 Cost: $1 for a single Short Order: These tiny burgers are heaven sent. Great with anything.
There are few benefits to working on the Upper East Side. Obviously, we've got some rockin' museums and Central Park, but take those away and all you have is about a million strollers. Thankfully, there are a few above-average burger joints in the hood. We'll discuss the others in the future, but since it's tiny hamburger week we've set our sights on Sassy's Sliders.
Sassy's, along with Schnäck, are the two big shots in the tiny hamburger scene of NYC (which is why we'll be putting these two head-to-head tomorrow, after the full Schnäck review). The styles of each restaurant are quite different, in terms of both burger and decor. Sassy's, as their website explains, is shooting for a 50's aesthetic and focuses on freshly prepared food. They are set up for counter service and the dining area is quite small, which means you aren't likely to get a seat during a busy lunch hour. That being said, I've always managed to grab one of the seats while there.
Although we only came for the burger, Sassy's also offers sliders in veggie, turkey, chicken parm and bbq chicken varieties. The burger is made with 100% freshly ground sirloin and served with browned onions, pickles & ketchup. The buns are steamed. If you don't want anything on top be sure to tell your server, but I would recommend sticking with their setup as it adds significantly to the burger.
While ordering, we realized that Sassy's is a pretty good deal. For $5.79 you get four sliders of any combination you like, a regular-sized soda and an order of fries. It's $0.12 extra for cheese or $0.30 extra for cajun, garlic or sweet potato fries. It's not dirt cheap, but compared to Stanton Social or my other options on the UES, I'm not complaining.
The burgers themselves aren't terribly flavorful, but the quality of the meat is good. Eaten alone, the burger is nothing particularly special. Tasty, but not memorable. When you add the toppings, the sandwich comes to life. Michael Ronis and Herb Goldberg, the cofounders of Sassy's, seem to have found a winning combination. The steamed bun is an interesting touch, as it gives it a working-class feel, but it aids in blending the flavors together. Maybe it's a bad thing that I remember the flavors of the bun, pickles, ketchup and onion the most, but that doesn't mean it's a bad sandwich. Sassy's has put the focus on the flavor of the condiments, which actually makes sense for a mini-burger as the amount of meat usually isn't enough to get it sufficiently juicy.
While tasting, I also tried out a cheeseburger -- it was just as good, so add the american cheese if you're in the mood -- and a veggie burger, which had an atrocious honey mustard sauce on top. I could only eat a couple bites. The fries at Sassy's are quite good too, if you're in need of fried carbs.
Sassy's did not disappoint. It's far from froufrou and that's how I like it. The ingredients are fresh and the flavors are right, which is why I grab lunch here about once a month. If you decide to have your own mini-burger week, day, month or whatever, Sassy's Sliders is worth a visit. It's also a worthy stop for the NYC burger lover.
SASSY'S SLIDERS Location: 1530 3rd Ave. (at 86th St.), New York, NY 10028 Phone: 212-828-6900 Cost: $0.99 a slider Short Order: The sliders are tasty and worth a visit, especially if you're in the neighborhood.
NEW YORK CITY
How can you go wrong with tiny hamburgers? How can you go wrong with Kobe-style beef? Two great tastes that go good together? Yes and no.
Shortly after announcing on Monday that this week was Tiny Hamburger Week on AHT, we received a couple e-mails telling us to try the Kobe-style sliders at recently opened restaurant and lounge The Stanton Social on New York City's Lower East Side. AHT senior editor Matty and I made it down there post-haste that night.
We had read about the place on New York real-estate blog Curbed, so we knew about the place's fancy digs (see photo below). White Castle this is not. And the price tag on just one of these tiny treats ($5 a pop) would get you about seven of that establishment's Slyders. But it's Kobe beef (well, Kobe-style—a.k.a. "wagyu"—we're sure, as real Kobe beef is illegal to import), and we were prepared to pay.
We arrived shortly after work hours and were able to get a table with no problem, but if you're going at dinnertime, you'll probably need a reservation. The Stanton Social's schtick is that its fare is meant to be shared, hence the name, we guess. Dishes are therefore small and the idea is that you order many different things over the course of your meal-drinking-conversation session. That philosophy demands an attentive wait staff, and our server was nothing but. Friendly, too. As we ordered, he informed us that the chef recommends the burgers medium-rare. We took that recommendation.
Our sliders arrived at table shortly thereafter, four small and juicy looking sandwiches on small golden-brown rolls. The burgers come with a ripe plum tomato slice between the bottom bun and patty, which is topped with a diced onion mixture, a sharp cheese that we couldn't quite place, and a special sauce that tasted ketchup-based. The burgers were as juicy as they looked and were the some of the beefiest tasting burgers I've had while writing for AHT. No complaints there.
The special sauce, while not overpowering, diverted attention from the wagyu beef, though, and the burgers were almost too juicy, if that's possible. Our take on it, as is the case with most wagyu-beef concoctions be they burgers, hot dogs, or what have you, is that, sure they're tasty, but why not just savor this fancy-pants beef on its own in steak form? We liked our sliders but felt that once you'd tried them, there's nothing outstanding there that would draw you back to them. They're more a novelty item that you can safely skip unless you're curious.
THE STANTON SOCIAL Location: 99 Stanton St. (at Orchard St.; Lower East Side), New York City NY 10002 Phone: 212-995-0099 Cost: $5 a slider Short Order: These Kobe-beef sliders are tasty but more a novelty than a necessity
NEW YORK CITY A throwback to the one of our most cherished decades, Pop Burger, in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, takes "I love the '80s" to a whole new atmospheric level. Last Monday, AHT editor and publisher Adam K. and I turned the corner on 14th Street and laid eyes upon this inviting, clean, and crisp-looking burger joint that plays prelude to the overpriced lounge that lies behind. Truth be told, I've been before, but never sober (Pop is open 'til 2 a.m. on weekdays, 5 a.m. on weekends), so this seemed like a first visit for me. And, as it turns out, drunk munchies or not, there's "little" to complain about here.
The soundtrack is every girl's dream, from Madonna to Cyndi Lauper to a very apropos "Manic Monday." The burgers seem to have hit the Jane Fonda workout and dropped three sizes. And for anyone who actually is watching the waistline, the two minis in a pack provide premium satisfaction and zero guilt.
Here, the food is quick. Three-inch rounds are cooked several at a time sparking high orange flames and the beautiful inviting smell of grilled meat pouring out of the open kitchen. A titanium-esque wall with backlit words (see photo at top) in what looks to be the Courier typeface scream out to you in a drunken haze but also provide quite the visual experience during traditonal dinner time. The multitude of uniform simple white boxes slapped with "Pop" stickers and symmetrical rows of red Coca-Cola cans behind the counter are a perfect pop-art installation and complement the Basquiat prints lining the walls. And we loved the blue-and-white minimalist setting; it's no doubt a seriously scrubbed-up version of the dingy confines of Blue 9, across the island.
But let's get to the actual meat. My friend Chris complains that the burgers are too charred, and that's unfortunately the case. This seems almost inevitable with mini meats. A quarter pounder takes great grilling finesse, so, just like little people (not "little people" little people, but babies rather), petite patties probably could use a little love and attention from their grill meister. However, I say, get over it and relish that smoky, charred taste that somehow melds well enough with the other flavors aside from one off-kilter bite here or there.
This is snacking fare, and it earns its marks in all other categories. The soft and shiny buns cushion the meat and toppings for maximum no-mess munching and the small puff of shredded lettuce, vibrant red plum tomato slice, and special sauce (kinda like a Russian dressing) all come together to form one juicy bite. And I know, you're probably saying $5 for two minis is pricey compared to Schnäck, which is less than half of that, but, there are a few things to remember. You've got good ambience, accommodating late-night hours, it's still a hefty patty when you combine the two, and, from the completely open store front to the fact that you have to pass through the fast-food area to get to the club, there's always the possibility of a celeb sighting (for those of you who care).
Pop Burger wins in the sides category as well. They do all the accoutrements right. Mud-thick milkshakes, fries so crunchy they seem coated in batter and crisp golden rings just slightly smaller than the circumference of each burger filled with fresh chopped white onion. Impress your date by ending with two sweet cupcakes that also come in a pack and now we're talking romance. And, the other great thing about this food is that it travels well. A friend of mine ordered a bunch to show up during her birthday party and not only were they a total hit but they tasted fresh-from-the-counter.
Upon leaving, Adam K. and I without a doubt agreed that having consumed 4 burgers and two orders of onion rings total, we felt satiated but just to that perfect point where we knew we wouldn't regret this meal later. Perhaps that's the joy of mini burgers: just as Tattoo the Midget proved to us back in the 80s, less really is more.
POP BURGER Location: 58-60 Ninth Ave., New York City NY (b/n 14th & 15th) Phone: 212-414-8686 Short Order: Small burgers with hefty, but charred, patties. Good place to spot celebs. Cost: $5 for two sliders
Bonjour, mes amis! When A Hamburger Today signed off Friday, we mentioned bringing you a special week of coverage, a "hugely tiny" week, we hinted. Well, welcome to "Tiny Hamburger Week."
Without tiny hamburgers, AHT likely would not exist. That's because "sliders," as they're sometimes called, are my second favorite food (pizza being my favorite) and seemed a natural topic for a niche foodblog. On second thought, though, that's probably a little too niche, so the scope of AHT was widened to burgers in general. Anyway, what you don't care about that, do you?
You might care about White Castle, though. White Castle, or château blanc if you will, is the ur-miniburger and the progenitor of all fast-food chains as we know them. In a wonderful New York Times article [via the paper's pay archives] from last August, Paul Lukas details the history of the "system," as it was dubbed by its founders, Edgar Ingram and J. Walter Anderson:
Despite its significance in the nation's culinary history, not to mention several noteworthy marketing innovations, White Castle gets little respect, even by fast-food standards. Its little square burgers and turreted restaurants have become something of a pop-culture punch line, stuck somewhere between white-trash chic and ironic kitsch. Even the title premise of "Harold & Kumar" carries a wink-wink undercurrent of absurdity.
"Part of that is because White Castle began marketing to the urban working class," said David Gerard Hogan, author of "Selling 'Em by the Sack" (New York University Press, 1997), which details the chain's history. "And their restaurants were located in areas that eventually became the urban underclass, which leads to a lowbrow profile. People don't realize they pulled off one of the greatest marketing feats of the century — up there with Bill Gates and Microsoft."
The credit for that goes to Mr. Ingram, a former real-estate and insurance agent who entered the burger business in 1921 after arranging a lease deal for a Wichita [Kansas] restaurateur named J. Walter Anderson. It was Mr. Anderson who had come up with the thin, onion-smothered patty that would eventually become White Castle's signature product. But with "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair still fresh in the public mind, and many health authorities likening ground beef to toxic waste, Mr. Anderson faced a credibility gap.
That's where Mr. Ingram came in. He essentially created a public relations campaign for the hamburger, beginning with the White Castle name — "White" to connote purity, "Castle" to signify strength. He was fanatical about cleanliness and hygiene, and his masterstroke was to have White Castle operators grind their own meat from high-grade cuts of beef in public view, to demonstrate that it was fresh.
It worked. By 1930, White Castle outlets were scattered across the Midwest, inspiring a legion of imitators, and the hamburger was being described by the president of the National Restaurant Association as "America's food."
It was around that time that Mr. Ingram pioneered the promotion of takeout service, leading to White Castle's iconic slogan, "Buy 'em by the sack." He also turned White Castle into the first vertically integrated restaurant operation, creating one subsidiary to build the restaurants and another to make the company's paper products. Innovations like those laid the groundwork for the suburban fast-food explosion of the 1950's.
For all that Whitey's has done for burgerkind, its signature product remains largely an acquired taste. It seems most folks who have tried them either love Slyders (the "y" spelling is trademarked by the Castle) or detest them with every fiber of their being. Fans of the belly bombers usually grew up eating them; trying to turn adult Whitey's virgins on to Slyders is a tricky proposition at best.
Still, for better or worse, the salty, steamy, pickle-and-onion-heavy burgerettes remain the standard by which this reporter judges all tiny hamburgers. And so it's for the better that I turn over the upcoming reviews this week to Matty and Honey P., who might better judge these restaurants on their own merit, without the Castle laying siege to the senses. Stay tuned ...
TINY HAMBURGER ROUND-UP
We've got some reviews from New York City coming, and our West Coast editor, Hamburglar Hadley, is searching for sliders in L.A. (so far to no avail), but we need help for other mini-burger places of note around the country. If you know of a good place to procure this delicacy, let us know in the Comments section, with or without a brief description. Or, if you prefer, e-mail us at wimpy (at) ahamburgertoday (dot) com. Tell us what's so good about Krystal Burger. Recount your visits to Cozy Inn. We'll post a round-up of these places later in the week.
NEW YORK CITY I wanted so much to like The Burger Joint, on Third Avenue at 20th Street in Manhattan's Gramercy neighborhood. This purveyor of tiny hamburgers was hoppin', with Police Academy cadets rubbing elbows with doctors, rubbing elbows with what appeared to be college students. It has, as our friend Tien reported on his site, an amazing soda fountain, with RC, Bosco Chocolate Soda, and Stewart's Root Beer on tap. Its manager, constantly refilling patrons' soda cups at no extra charge, is straight from the New York school of friendly but feisty, gruff but gracious. Feeling welcome in the joint from the start, I ordered two burgers plain and two with cheese and fought my way onto a stool at the counter once some of our future Finest exited.
As Tien pointed out on Gothamist, one should not confuse The Burger Joint with Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridien hotel in Midtown. To do so is to ignore cartography, burger size, and quality. When my mini burgers arrived, I was ready to make quick work of them, and I plunged into one of the cheeseless sandwiches first, for a better assessment of taste. The meat was fresh and tasty and cooked nicely to about medium doneness. It was juicy, with seemingly more fat in it than most burgers, and I speculated that this might be necessary because smaller burgers cook faster and have a tendency to dry out easily.
Had I stopped with just that one, this review would be different. But as I tore into the second sandwich and the first of my cheeseburgers, I noticed a considerable amount of gristle present. Well, these things happen, I thought, and how much different is it from a juicy strip of fat on a delicious steak? As long as it's isolated in this burger...
Third burger? Uh oh. More gristle. I would have stopped eating at this point but, sitting at the counter and clearly visible to the manager, I didn't want to appear rude (I was taught to finish everything on my plate). So, fourth burger? First bite, and I've got a mouthful of gristle and something that was either very hard gristle or, more likely, a bone chip. At this point, what remained of my appetite vanished for good. I paid my bill and left, wondering how long it would be before I'd be able to go back to burgers.
I could go on about their little grill and the fact that they quickly turn out so many burgers at once on so small a surface. I could talk about their grilling technique. I could list the prices ($1 hamburgers, $1.25 cheeseburgers). But all that pales in light of the gristly meat. I'd like to go back just to see if this was a fluke, a once-in-a-blue-moon case of inattentive meat trimming before grinding. But I don't know if I could bring myself to do so. We at AHT would be curious to hear from other readers regarding The Burger Joint.
THE BURGER JOINT Location: 241 Third Ave. (at 20th St.), New York City 10003 Phone: 212-228-1219 Extras: Check out this photo of the place below. See the doctor? Do you think he's a cardiologist? Heh. To top it off, when he left, he picked up a cigarette off the sidewalk that he must have left there while he ordered inside! This would be one doctor who would never bug you about your bad habits.
NEW YORK CITY The recent snap of nice-for-a-change spring weather had me jazzed to do some al fresco dining. What better place for open-air eating (and drinking) than the Bohemian Beer Hall & Garden? Unfortunately, when I arrived at the restaurant, only a portion of the garden was open—and it was packed.
Fortunately, I found another nearby option, one that served burgers. French restaurant 718, on the corner of Ditmars Boulevard and 35th Street in Astoria, Queens, seems an unexpected choice for hamburgers, but the tasty sandwiches can indeed be found on the menu there.
Listed under the tapas section (is there not a French word for tapas?), you'll find the 718 Burger ($8). Don't let the singular noun fool you: You'll actually receive two small (3-inch or so) cheeseburgers on rolls with a slice of tomato. Think White Castle gone upscale, Chateau Blanc, if you will. The 718 Burger is served with fries and a salad of mixed greens.
Juicyness registered low on the scale, perhaps because of the patties' diminutive size, but their mildly pungent spices added interest, lending the tiny hamburgers an almost Middle Eastern or Mediterranean air—I swear I was tasting chickpea in there somewhere, too. The fries and salad are nice additions and provide balance if you're worried about your consumption of meat. I wasn't so worried and would rather have lost the sides in exchange for a couple more miniburgers.
The bottom line: For a full-on burger experience, it might be wise to dial around. 718's baby burgers definitely belong on the tapas menu, more a snack than a meal.
718 Location: 35-01 Ditmars Blvd.; Astoria, NY Phone: 718-204-5333 Getting there: Take the N/W trains to the end of the line; exit station, walk north to Ditmars. Right on Ditmars; walk a few blocks east. Short Order: The 718 Burger—actually two mini hamburgers. Served with fries and salad. $8.
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Yo, burger cheapskates: Starting at 2 p.m. today—cheap White Castle burgers. As in 27¢ each.
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Well, she missed out, because White Manna in Hackensack was worth all the hassle I endured getting there. The pilgrimage involved the NYC subway and trips on two different commuter trains in Jersey before I met up with one-time 
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is the history of the original tiny-hamburger chain and the history of the hamburger as well.
Unlike 
The burgers themselves aren't terribly flavorful, but the quality of the meat is good. Eaten alone, the burger is nothing particularly special. Tasty, but not memorable. When you add the toppings, the sandwich comes to life. Michael Ronis and Herb Goldberg, the cofounders of Sassy's, seem to have found a winning combination. The steamed bun is an interesting touch, as it gives it a working-class feel, but it aids in blending the flavors together. Maybe it's a bad thing that I remember the flavors of the bun, pickles, ketchup and onion the most, but that doesn't mean it's a bad sandwich. Sassy's has put the focus on the flavor of the condiments, which actually makes sense for a mini-burger as the amount of meat usually isn't enough to get it sufficiently juicy.
Here, the food is quick. Three-inch rounds are cooked several at a time sparking high orange flames and the beautiful inviting smell of grilled meat pouring out of the open kitchen. A titanium-esque wall with backlit words (see photo at top) in what looks to be the Courier typeface scream out to you in a drunken haze but also provide quite the visual experience during traditonal dinner time. The multitude of uniform simple white boxes slapped with "Pop" stickers and symmetrical rows of red Coca-Cola cans behind the counter are a perfect pop-art installation and complement the Basquiat prints lining the walls. And we loved the blue-and-white minimalist setting; it's no doubt a seriously scrubbed-up version of the dingy confines of 
It was around that time that Mr. Ingram pioneered the promotion of takeout service, leading to White Castle's iconic slogan, "Buy 'em by the sack." He also turned White Castle into the first vertically integrated restaurant operation, creating one subsidiary to build the restaurants and another to make the company's paper products. Innovations like those laid the groundwork for the suburban fast-food explosion of the 1950's.
