Burger Bedlam Bites: 8/23/11

Our curated list of culinary news from the prior week. Think we missed a must-read or there's something you gotta share? Add a comment below or drop us a line at contact [at] bestburgernyc [dot] com.

• Peace out, King! Burger King plans on focusing on "fresh" and "healthy" ingredients. Hey, Mom - screw the Happy Meal, I want some guac! [USA Today]
• Much love for Hamburger America author George Motz as he earned his own show on the Travel Channel this Fall. "Made in America" will explore 39 factories nationwide and premieres October 4th. Congrats, sir. [TV By The Numbers]
• Pics of the new Veselka on Bowery (Yes, nine blocks south of the original) are out, but the space won't open for four to six weeks. Borscht martinis can't come soon enough. [The Local East Village]
• Want a food truck to crash your wedding? How bout a big weiner-shaped one? Bet those pictures would last a lifetime! Well, it happened this past weekend in upstate New York with the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile. Weiner whistles got us to chuckle. [The Consumerist]
• The Daily News features "the best" milkshakes in NYC. Gotta admit, Stand's Toasted Marshmallow shake it legit. That rhymed. [NYDN]

Burger Bedlam Bites: 8/15/11

Our curated list of culinary news from the prior week. Think we missed a must-read or there's something you gotta share? Add a comment below or drop us a line at contact [at] bestburgernyc [dot] com.

• Hipsters rejoice! Owners of solid East Village burger spot, Royale, are opening up a new restaurant in BillyBurg - Williams & Bailey - which will serve the same Black Angus burger as the Avenue C eatery. [GrubStreet]
• A sweet "anatomical" breakdown of some of the most iconic burgers across the nation, including some of our favorites. [NRN]
• Anthony Bourdain got a quick profile update via the Sunday Times and we're a bit bummed we didn't make his "following" rundown. Fellas can dream, can't they? [NYT]
• As much as we love burgers, nothing tends to go with one better than a hoppy-as-hell IPA. Stone Brewery, one of our favorites, put together an amazing 15th Anniversary brew - a delicious Black IPA. We're buying a sixer ASAP. [Stone Blog]
• Sticking with the beer theme, on top of a new Shake Shack, Grand Central just got a new beer store run by the good folks at Brooklyn's Beer Table. Now maybe self-respecting commuters will forgo the damn Foster's. [Zagat Buzz]

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Burger Bedlam Bites: 8/1/11

Our curated list of culinary news from the prior week. Think we missed a must-read or there's something you gotta share? Add a comment below or drop us a line at contact [at] bestburgernyc [dot] com.

• A little shameless self promotion, we made our second TV appearance to date (first with Richard Blais here), making it onto our buddy Rev's Cake Boss episode devoted to burgers. Check out his recap of the taping and viewing. We're the ridiculously good looking young men on the left and in the middle of this pic. [Burger Conquest Review]
• Our #5 ranked burger and overall tasty barbecue joint, R.U.B. is expanding to East Meadow, Long Island. No word on whether they'll continue their Burger Mondays out there, but if you haven't tried the RUB Burger on a Monday from 6-9pm, get on it. [Eater]
• In more expansion news, Corner Bistro is making moves as well, opening up a new location in Long Island City. We promise, we'll review the NYC staple soon. Well overdue. [Grub Street]
  
• Over 90% of the city's restaurants have been graded by the Dept of Health, a year after the letter grading system began [WSJ]. Check your favorite spots on the DOH website here. No worries, Lure and the rest of our top burger spots are safe!
• And in the "file under gross as hell" category, Upper West Side burger haven (?) Harriet's Kitchen got shut down last week...we won't mention why. You get the picture. [West Side Rag]
• The A Hamburger Today Burger Lab writes up an incredibly mouth-watering recipe for a burger mashup of White Manna, Telway & In-N-Out. We're making that at home, sooooon. [AHT]

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Burger Bedlam Bites: 6/20/11

Our curated list of culinary news from the prior week. Think we missed a must-read or there's something you gotta share? Add a comment below or drop us a line at contact [at] bestburgernyc [dot] com.

• Owner of our very first Burger Bedlam review, Five Napkin Burger opened a new location in Miami. Ahh, memories. [Miami Herald]
• Lady Gaga's meat dress from the MTV Video Music Awards is headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Wonder if she used grass or grain fed Argentinian beef? But let's be honest, a real rocker would've eaten that dress post-show. [Huff Post]
• This year's NYC Wine & Food Festival runs from September 29 to October 2 and began selling tickets last week...the Burger Bash is sold out already. Oops. [NYCWFF]
• West Village hot spot Kin Shop and it's Chef, Harold Dieterle, added a burger to their lunch menu. It's a ground turkey patty with chili jam, yellow bean aioli, pickled red onions, crumbled fried taro root, on a Sriracha bun for $13. We're interested. [Eater NY]
• Grub Street asked NYC's top ten beer seller's for ten of their favorite summer beers. Ninety-nine beers in total after they decided to take one down, like the song. We chuckled. Also, should we be worried that we've collectively tried about 25% of these already? [Grub Street]

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Best Burger in NYC Search: Lure Fishbar

Lure Fishbar
142 Mercer St. (Cross Street: Prince St.)
(212) 431-7676
Burger: The Lure Bash Burger ($15) 

We know what you’re thinking, “A seafood spot, for burgers?" Yes, we can’t make this stuff up. Ever since Lure Fishbar chef Josh Capon won the Popular Vote at the Burger Bash in October (2009), we’ve pined for a taste of the Lure “Bash Burger” with the belief that a Pat La Frieda beef composed burger had all the makings of a contender in our search for the best burger in NYC. Heading to the restaurant’s subterranean location in SoHo at Mercer and Prince on a recent Saturday during the gorgeous weather Manhattan has enjoyed prior to the Spring Solstice, we were in for a treat. Not only did we anticipate an impressive burger, but we also prepared for a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. The Lure Fishbar boasts a unique yacht-style setting with the entire restaurant resembling the high-end design of a million dollar yacht. We can't help but reference this...we're on a boat!

Our Expectations: The Lure Bash Burger. As previously noted, the patty is made from premium blend Pat La Frieda beef, topped with – get this – caramelized onion and bacon jam (wow), American cheese, shaved pickles and secret sauce, all on a Big Marty’s potato bun. Hungry yet? The standout item is quite obviously the jam. We were taken aback by the initial reading of that description considering we had yet to come across such a distinctive topping in all our reviews. Clearly that combination of ingredients isn’t reinventing the wheel, but a concoction of such toppings had us a little giddy. To top it off, the burger is served with two fat onion rings on top. Heaven, no?

*Important to mention, this burger IS NOT on the menu and you must specifically ask for the “Bash Burger". Thus, sadly we have no menu picture to show.

*Update October 2010: The Bash Burger can now be found at Burger & Barrel on Mercer & Houston as well. 

The Burger

Meat: Pat La Frieda is notorious for producing some of the best beef blend to construct burgers with, and for good reason. The Bash Burger’s meat is exceptional. Precisely cooked to a medium rare temperature with seasoning that’s divine in every bite, it’s a glorious patty. The tender juiciness that comes with each bite is noticeable not only by taste but from the excess juice that falls to your plate. Though, our only gripe, if you can call it one, is the size of the patty. Six ounces was not enough, especially at twice the price and half the meat of veritable number one best NYC burger contender, Shake Shack.


Toppings: The combination of secret sauce, onion and bacon jam, American cheese and shaved pickles is superb. With every bite, you get a bit of everything – something not to be overlooked given that many burgers are all over the place and fail to provide a perfect bite. The Bash Burger had a certain perfectionist touch to it, as the delectable toppings were neatly placed and organized on top of the patty. A thing of beauty, both pleasing to the eye and our taste buds.

Bun: If you’ve been following us for long, you’ve caught on quickly to our love of potato rolls/buns. With that in mind, may we present the “Big Marty’s” roll. A sesame seed potato bun that felt, looked and tasted as if it were fresh out of the oven. Light, fluffy, toasted just enough and providing a sweet addition to each bite, we were in love. If we’re being picky, which we can be, we like the au naturale style of a dark potato roll (see Shake Shack) sans sesame seeds, slightly better. Still, we’ve got plenty of love for Big Marty.

Bedlam's Lure Fishbar Judgment

Meat (49): Without a doubt the best meat we’ve tasted at this point. Fresh, juicy, tender and seasoned well. Temperature was even throughout, containing the juiciness and providing a melt in your mouth texture (Pat La Frieda deserves some kudos as well). Although we could easily give this a perfect 50, the size could be a tad larger as we wished there was more to eat. The patty wasn’t necessarily filling. Still, we considered ordering a second round of burgers...it was that good!

Toppings (25): The genius of the jam overwhelmingly won us over and the sculpted toppings were impressive. Particular attention was given to the toppings and the calculated ratios of topping in every bite were distinctly apparent as we ate. The American cheese was melted full, but not messy, while the pickles provided a pleasant crunch and sweetness to contrast the beef’s seasoning.

Bun (24): We couldn’t ask for more but reserve to right to be picky and deduct for the sesame seeds on our potato roll bun. It was sweet, fluffy, fresh and the perfect size for the patty and all it’s fix-ins.

Ranking: 98 out of 100

Best Burger NYC: Burger Bedlam Giving Thanks & Making Updates

We are quickly approaching the one year anniversary of Burger Bedlam’s search for New York City’s best burger. Before we continue our quest, we wanted to take time to thank all of our readers, supporters, and friends. While Burger Bedlam has slowly grown from a fun hobby for us to a reference for all you burger lovers, we realize how essential it is to improve our site as we are very much still a work in progress. Therefore, over the next few weeks, we will be making a few adjustments:

• Discontinuing preview posts – After some time, we felt these didn’t add value to our readers. Acting as a tease to the actual review, we realize most of our readers just want the reviews. The meat and potatoes, if you will.

• Scoring system modification – Our new scoring system will be based on a 100 point scale. Meat will account for 50, as it’s most important to our taste determinations. Bun and toppings will account for 25 each. Hopefully this revision will provide clarity to the notion of a “best burger in NYC.” For example, both Shake Shack and The Spotted Pig received a 4.5 on our previous scale, yet we have Shake Shack ranked #1. What’s the big difference? Why is Shake Shack better? Hopefully the new scoring system will allow readers to specifically compare the components of each burger and truly see why we ranked the burgers the way we did. All our previous reviews will be re-tabulated and updated to reflect the new scale.

• New web layout – In the coming months, in order to provide a cleaner, more professional look and a better reading experience, we will make drastic changes to our layout. Whether that consists of a revision to the current Blogger template or a switch to Wordpress, we anticipate an easier to “digest” layout and more juicy best NYC burger content to peruse. On that note, we are also searching for graphic designers or anyone who's better than us at photoshop to help develop a Burger Bedlam logo/banner. If you think you can assist us, please shoot us an email!

Again, we thank all of you for making the site what it is today and look forward to providing future burger judgments while trekking to and from new burger venues in NYC. We welcome your thoughts (positive or negative) critiques or suggestions for content or any new burger reviews in the comment section and can’t wait for what lies ahead.

Best Burger NYC Glimpse: Waterfront Ale House

Sometimes in life you get lucky, and quite often we at Burger Bedlam consider ourselves particularly lucky to have one of the “premier beer bars in New York City” right around the corner from our apartments. Everyone can agree that a trip to the local watering hole is an essential need after a long week of stress-filled employment. And in contrast, if you’re unemployed, drowning your sorrows in a fantastic craft beer is something to savor. Yet, many local saloons end up preparing nothing more than your average bar food fare. Our next best burger in NYC review in our neighborhood of Murray Hill, Waterfront Ale House, is hopefully where we’ll find an aberration. An argument can be made that beers and burgers go together like spaghetti and meatballs, or maybe you prefer peanut butter and jelly…but either way, we do enjoy a pint or two (or three?) when reviewing a new burger. Providing a “warm and cozy” atmosphere and serving up what Zagat proclaims as “sublime burgers,” we’re anticipating a possible contender for the best NYC burger. This bovine might not be as hyped of a burger as the rest of our reviews to date, but it’s surely a welcome addition to our burger adventures…and forgive us if we’re relishing the idea of traveling less than a city block to mark one off our list. Once the 8% alcohol beers wear off the review will follow…

Burger Bedlam Takes a West Coast Break: In-N-Out Burger

So, lets get one thing straight...we are NOT traitors. We love NYC. We love the best burgers in NYC and we otherwise wouldn't have dubbed our site link after what we seek to do here at Burger Bedlam, find the best NYC burger. Still, we hold a special place in our hearts for In-N-Out Burger. If you've had it before, you'd appreciate our affinity for this west coast burger staple. Moreover, you might be hard pressed to argue the presumption that their burger is a drug...because they can cause a serious twitch at the very thought of biting into a Double Double Animal Style. Reminiscing back to our days on Junior year Spring Break in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, you might even call us addicts based on the amount of Double Doubles we consumed in a 7 day period. We ate 6, yes 6...in 7 days. Each of us, not combined. One day, we had 2. Good G-d. Thankfully we had a pre-med doctor with us, 'cause we needed cholesterol blood work done on a daily basis. That soon to be doctor, our good buddy Jeff, along with his LA companions from our college had talked up In-N-Out 'til we were blue in the face prior to the trip. They certainly knew their stuff. Following that trip, we couldn't get enough.

Anyway, Kyle got the opportunity to hit up an In-N-Out on his recent venture west- and in the valley no less! Porter Ranch to be exact. Once again, In-N-Out didn't disappoint. For those of you who have no clue what In-N-Out Burger is (how dare you!), check this link for some background straight from Wikipedia: In-N-Out Burger. Additionally, definitely check out their site here. What we love about In-N-Out Burger is the always fresh and never frozen ingredients, the culture, the "secret" (not so secret to a repeat customer) menu, the thousand island based special sauce, and the overall quality of the eating experience. Although the meat might not rival the best burgers in NYC that we rate, the toppings take the cake when it comes to taste and combined flavor of every bite. We highly recommend ordering a Double Double Animal Style. Think Double Shack Burger from Shake Shack, but west coast style. Sound good? Yeah, it is. Check out the pics below for some closer details of why we love In-N-Out so much. A full review would come...if our URL were bestburgerla.com, but it isn't. Just know, we love us some In-N-Out.

Double Double Animal Style (special sauce & grilled onions)

A few bites in, we wish it was Medium Rare, but it's still fast food.

The aftermath...greasy goodness.

Best Burger in NYC Search: Royale

Royale
157 Avenue C (cross street: 10th St.)
212-254-6600
Burger: The Bacon Royale ($8.50) 

Hipsters and Hamburgers? Sound like a match made in heaven? It would appear so. Consider this, you'd need two hands to count the amount of East Village NYC burger joints on our hyped (to be visited), ranked, and potential contender lists. Most notably, Royale. Home of the Bacon Royale, the burger de choix for neighborhood locals. Man, how the heck do they fit into their skinny jeans?!? If the two of us at Burger Bedlam lived closer, we might end up looking like this. Yes, ill-tempered and fluffy. Regardless, we hopped down to Alphabet City with the notion that we had a contender in our midst. On to the dance...

Our Expectations: The Bacon Royale. A mouth-watering combination of beef, pork and dairy. With bacon, lettuce, tomato and onion, it's as American as one can get. Our personal favorite type of burger to consume, bacon cheeseburgers make their way to our hearts, either in the form of cholesterol or love, but who's keeping track? Such things are inconsequential in our burger blogging lives. We just know the patty comes from 75 pecent Black Angus, it's bun from Tom Cat Bakery and the cheese is Boar's Head.

The Burger

Meat: To date, chalk this one up as the champ, 'cause this beef delivered a powerful punch. Obviously, we got back up to finish off our burgers, but the first bite landed a strong blow. Fresh as can be, perfectly seasoned, and tenderly delicious. The patty, consisting of 75 perfect Black Angus, combined superb taste with a perfectly broiled and glazed outer coating. Even better, it was cooked to temperature just as we specified. A medium rare burger like the one at Royale is exactly what we expect from all of the best burger establishments in NYC.

Toppings: Lets give the bacon a B+, not the best we've had, but its well ahead of the curve. The cheese, well that left something to be desired. We both chose American, our favorite on a cheeseburger, but maybe Cheddar would've been a wiser choice. Blue cheese is also an option, but keep in mind that can overpower the patty. As burger traditionalists we couldn't succumb to that option. Swiss is available too, but we moved right past it. Maybe we're being finicky, but our cheese came off in globs and wasn't smothered delicately over the patty. Remember Mom's grilled cheeses? Sometimes you need those reminiscent characteristics on a burger, expertly organized and well thought out...obviously hold the tomato soup. The rest, fresh lettuce, tomato and onion. Even a few pickles thrown in there which always add a zesty crunch, if you dare.

Bun: Utter disappointment...plain and simple. Royale captured our hearts up to this point, but the dry, tough texture of the sesame seed bun really did this burger wrong. Though they're skillfully created by Tom Cat Bakery, which is a wondrous place, the bun came hard as a rock and lacking substantially fluffiness. It just may have been old and stale, or perhaps we caught Royale on an off day. Regardless, bearing full disclosure, this was the first burger joint where we decided to remove the top portion of the bun halfway through eating in order to enjoy the goodness of the beef and toppings.

Bedlam's Royale Judgment

Meat (48): A true knockout. Killer taste, tenderness and temperature. To date, our favorite beef of the bunch we've reviewed.

Toppings (21): Above average. Success on the bacon, slight reduction for the cheese, but no flair after that. Definite room for improvement..

Bun (17): If the owner's of Royale are reading this, we loved your burger, but please (!!!) change that bun. A potato bun would do wonders for the Bacon Royale. Possibly vaulting it higher up on our rankings. Still, we saw the idea behind the bun, from a strong bakery. Perhaps we just caught you at your worst.

Rating: 86 out of 100

Best Burger NYC Glimpse: Royale

Nestled among hipster hangouts and around the corner from some serious horticulture (there are over 40 gardens in the East Village with an especially awesome one on 9th and Avenue C) sits Royale, a kick back and relax type venue serving what many call the best burger in NYC. Located in the Alphabet City section of the East Village, Royale provides its patrons with a Tarantino sized pop culture reference, conjuring memories of that vivaciously cool and brilliant dialogue from Pulp Fiction:

Vincent: Know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?

Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

Vincent: Naw, man, they got the metric system, they wouldn't know what the f**k a Quarter Pounder is.

Jules: What do they call it?

Vincent: They call it a "Royale with Cheese".

Jules: "Royale with Cheese".

Vincent: That's right.

Jules: What do they call a Big Mac?

Vincent: A Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it "Le Big Mac".

Jules: [in mock French accent] "Le Big Mac." [laughs] What do they call a Whopper?

Vincent: I don't know, I didn't go in a Burger King.

Granted, we don’t anticipate running into Travolta or Sam Jackson on this trip (Samuel L. Jackson Beer anyone?!?), we eagerly await a chance to try the Bacon Royale. Or, as we say in NYC, "Le Bacon Cheeseburger." Obviously we "dig swine" as much as the next burger enthusiast, so hopefully the bacon satisfies as much as the meat and American do. Plus, even though we aren’t on the metric system here in the city, a 7-8 ounce bacon cheeseburger for $8.50 sounds about right. Stay tuned you badass motherf**kers, the review is forthcoming...

Best Burger in NYC Search: Rare Bar & Grill

Rare Bar & Grill

303 Lexington Ave. (cross street: 37th St.)
(212) 481-1999
Burger: The M&M Burger ($15) 

Ahh the lavish Shelburne Hotel, filled with modern opulence and serious clientele. We've come to find that burger spots around the city can sneak next to such high-end locales, while also occupying some of the dingiest spots around. Still, we raise no eyebrows, we just came for the beef. Rare Bar and Grill is located around the bend from what some may call the single greatest Mexican happy hour spot in Murray Hill, Rio Grande (margaritas anyone???). There we come to find what we at Burger Bedlam determine to be an oh-so-close to top 5 best NYC burger. Away we go...


Our Expectations:                The M & M Burger. Eight ounces of Grade "A" ground American Chuck. Flambéed in whiskey, topped with caramelized shallots, cheddar cheese and apple smoked bacon. It's making us drool just typing...(wiping our mouths). Excuse us. Anyway, some may question why we choose the M&M Burger as our review choice, but speaking from experience, this baby tops them all at Rare. It's a serious contender and the "Steakhouse Burgers" that Rare serves up are a serious $21 haul. Even so, from past eating experiences, we at Burger Bedlam know the M&M Burger is the sucka born to mess with. Those Steakhouse Burgers are nice, but they can't step into our ring, they're amateurs.


The Burger

Meat: Holy crap, it's a juicy beef volcano! Run for your lives! Nah, it's not Dante's Peak, but the M&M Burger has some great juiciness, cooked to order with perfection. As you may come to know, we're a bit picky about that temperature gauge. As we all should be. With the juiciness and temperature done well, we found the flavor to lack the luster we hope for in our best NYC burgers. Many can argue that the toppings should aid in the overall flavor of the burger, this is true. Yet, if we took off all the lovely toppings that come with the burger and get it...naked...we hope to find that the burger can stand up for itself. The M&M didn't. Still, the beef was juicy and cooked well, with some great melting tenderness while chewing. In regard to the whiskey, we know it shouldn't literally taste like whiskey, duh, but if its flambéed in that stuff, we'd hope it could give the meat some kick. Not as much as we had hoped for.

Toppings: This is where the burger as a whole shines. The caramelized shallots throw in that sweet punch that onions should and the cheddar cheese rocks the house with some great gooey run over the sides of the burger...like lava, if we may? Its just done right, no doubt. The bacon, well, its bacon. Who doesn't love bacon? Kosher, not kosher, who cares? We should really point out, our favorite spot, JG Melon does this the best. Rare tries valiantly, but its more like your average diner fare bacon than a seriously grilled and fatty strip should be. Overall, the toppings make us happy and we truly appreciate them.

Bun: As goes the theme of most of the burger palaces we have ventured to, a soft white roll was the choice at Rare. Toasted to perfection, awesomeness defined. Though, we really wished this baby held up with the entire burger eating experience. Much could be blamed on the intense juiciness of the beef, but the bun fell apart as we ate. Too much "Rare" one could say. The bun did cover the burger and the size was just right.

Bedlam's Rare Bar & Grill Judgment

Meat (42): Juicy for sure, cooked just right, but lacking the "oomph" we like from the overall flavor. The texture hit us well, melting like an M&M should. In your mouth and not in your hand!

Toppings (22): One of our favorite burgers in terms of the toppings. You cant go wrong grilled onions, bacon and cheddar. Its subjective, sure, but we like 'em. Don't you?

Bun (16): Toasted well, covered the beef nicely, but fell apart too soon.

Rating: 80 out of 100

Best Burger NYC Glimpse: Rare Bar & Grill

Amongst the many questions we at Burger Bedlam get asked on a daily basis is: Does price matter when naming the best NYC burger? In short, yes. Who wants to dole out their hard earned cash for something that could barely satisfy your average burger lover? I mean, c’mon brother, you ever hear of a recession?!? Yet, sating our taste buds with the finer things in life can often require a bit more coin. Yeah, we consider beef a “finer thing” once in a while…we’re burger bloggers! Still, we’d like to exit a burger establishment with our shirt, so we often take offense to a burger priced north of $15. We do, however, take into account the quality of ingredients, location of the restaurant/bar/pub and clientele.

Thus, that argument leads us to our next best burger review, Rare Bar & Grill. Nestled next to the hip, modern and expensive Shelburne Hotel in the northwest portion of the post-college, bar-littered neighborhood we know and love, Murray Hill. According to their website, Rare promises to be “unlike any other restaurant in New York.” Past eating experiences tell us that the M&M Burger is the definitive reason to make the pilgrimage to 37th St. and Lexington Ave. Eight ounces of Grade “A” American chuck beef, flambéed in whiskey, topped with caramelized shallots, cheddar cheese and apple smoked bacon...are you hungry yet?!? Our anticipated review eating weekend can’t come fast enough. Stayed tuned…