Best Burger in NYC Search: Burger & Barrel

Burger & Barrel

25 W. Houston St. (cross of Mercer St.)

(212) 334-7320
Burger: Mexico City Burger ($15)

UPDATE: *Sadly, the Mexico City Burger was retired from B&B in early 2013. Though, they still serve up fantastic burgers, including their famous and award-winning Bash Burger.

If you’re anything like us, reading about food – the latest trends, up-and-coming chefs, newest NYC hot spots – can become an obsession. Since we began our quest to find the best burger in NYC, we’ve encountered plenty of the aforementioned subject matter. That said, following our first review of a restaurant headed by Chef Josh Capon, the perpetual Soho hot spot Lure Fishbar, we’ve seen the rise of “burger madness” or “Burger Bedlam,” if you will. It appears that every big name chef is getting in on the burger game – and we can’t blame them. The trend of adding a burger to the menu seems now inherently embedded in the minds of restaurateurs when strategizing their kitchen offerings. Being no exception, since the ascension of Chef Capon’s stature among the burger world, pursuant to his 2009 Wine & Food Festival Burger Bash win (and maybe with some assistance from our praises?), it would seem he was destined to open a spin-off based on said success. Thus, Burger & Barrel was born this past October. While serving up his lauded Bash Burger was an obvious choice, Chef Capon expanded his repertoire to a veritable pantheon of burgers, often varying the selection with the seasons. Therefore, it was only natural for us to venture a stones throw from Lure on Mercer St. for a taste of one of the new burgers at Burger & Barrel.

Our Expectations: The Mexico City Burger. A six ounce patty of Pat LaFrieda blended chuck, short rib and brisket topped with mozzarella, avocado relish, pickled jalapenos, Bibb lettuce and tomato. Placed on a custom built roll deemed by Chef Capon as similar to a Parker House roll (generally buttery, soft, and slightly sweet with a crispy shell), then topped with the B&B and Lure signature staple, two big fat onion rings. Drooling yet?

The Burger

Meat: Pat LaFrieda can do no wrong. At this point along our search for NYC’s best burger it may be as obvious as calling the sky blue or the grass green, but every time we taste a LaFrieda blend, its killer. Still, the Chef has to do his part with the execution – LaFrieda can’t season and cook the meat himself. Though, Chef Capon does him justice. With just the right amount of seasoning and a successful by the book medium rare grilling, we loved the outcome. It’s juicy, tasty and texturally mouth-watering. Almost identical to the Bash Burger, if not exact, the meat isn’t overwhelmed by the toppings – it stands tall on its own. If anything, we wanted more.

Toppings: Variations on the classic cheeseburger are always easy to point to with skepticism and a Mexican style burger obviously is cause for some. Regardless, B&B put together a combination worthy of winning over any skeptics. It’s readily apparent that Chef Capon turns toppings into an art form when constructing his burgers, as this one was delicately balanced. The jalapenos provide the kick you’re looking for when Mexican comes to mind, while the avocado relish delectably counter-balances the bite from the peppers. Mozzarella was a pleasant choice as it added a touch of creaminess. Though, the cheese wasn’t as heavily cut as some other burgers we’ve had, and for that reason it didn’t pack the savory punch we so desire. Lastly, the Bibb lettuce was a good touch but next time we’d leave off the tomato, just unnecessary and we’d rather focus on the other toppings for taste.

Bun: The saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and once we heard the change in bun for the burgers at Burger & Barrel – from a Big Marty’s potato roll to a custom built Parker House style bun – admittedly, our eyes rolled a bit. Our affinity for potato rolls has been long documented, but we obviously need to trust the professionals – they do this for a living – because Chef Capon got this right. Light and buttery with a slight glaze, the bun added a harmonizing sweetness to each bite. Though, as compared to a potato roll and its soft texture, the bun did have a bit of chewiness to it. Not a terribly bad thing, but if we’re comparing apples to apples, we’d choose the Lure bun by a nose. Nevertheless, the beef to bun ratio is spot on and the customized bun remained intact throughout consumption.


Bedlam's Burger & Barrel Judgment

Meat (49): Tops marks on seasoning, temperature execution, freshness and texture. LaFrieda is a dominant force in the meat purveyor industry and The Mexico City Burger is a great example of why. A superb blend with excellent fat content made for a succulent patty – we just wanted more of it.

Toppings (23): We ended up drinking the Kool-aid with this one as the toppings came with the right amount of balance. Nice bite from the jalapenos was pleasantly countered by the rich and smooth texture of the avocado relish. The mozzarella also provided a bit of texture but didn’t do much else flavor-wise despite having a nice melt.

Bun (23): Sweet, buttery and fresh, the custom bun made us fans of the unique Parker House style. We’d prefer a touch less chewiness but still felt satisfied with the taste. Holding form as we ate and adding ample coverage of the patty as well, custom was a nice touch.

Ranking: 95 out of 100

Burger Bedlam Bites: 7/11/11

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.

• Shake Shack opened up in Dubai and Danny Meyer tweeted a pic of the grill from Day 1, then tweeted at yours truly! [Burger Bedlam Facebook Page]
• It's Restaurant Week here in NYC, meals can be hit or miss but you can't always eat at Telepan or Barbuto for such value. [NYC Go]
• Foodies be warned, VH1's new reality show "Famous Food" isn't just a train wreck, it's a train wreck of EPIC proportions. Still, we'd watch Ashley Dupre on mute. Are we right, Spitz? [Zagat Buzz]
• McDonald's is testing out a new "English Pub Burger" which comes with, wait for it... AMERICAN cheese. Uh huh, not a typo. [Burger Business]
• The Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest saw Joey Chestnut take the title, again. Competitive eating outcast and rouge Takeru Kobayashi claims he's the real winner in his unsanctioned takedown of 69 dogs. With so much tension we say take it to the Octagon kitchen table, dudes. [NY Daily News]

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Best Burger in NYC Search: Station Identification

We know what you're thinking, "It's been too damn long since Burger Bedlam's last review!" Yes, we agree. You may have grown despondent about that, so we're gonna hit you with a handful of new reviews over the next few weeks. Even better, we're working on some cool partnerships with local business and restaurants to get you, our awesome readers, some savings on our favorite destinations...and those won't be limited to just burgers.

So, while you're waiting for our latest review (coming soon, we promise), you might as well make sure you're following us socially, in all ways possible. Hence, a little bit of shameless social media self promotion a.k.a. Station Identification:

Burger Bedlam on Facebook (like us!)
Burger Bedlam on Foursquare (stalk us!)
Burger Bedlam on Twitter (tweet at us!)
Burger Bedlam E-Mail Subscription

As always, feel free to drop us a line using old fashioned e-mail at contact [at] bestburgernyc [dot] com with any comments (good or bad!) questions or suggestions.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Best Burger in NYC Search: Burger Bedlam's TV Debut!

Just over a year ago we at Burger Bedlam innocently started this website to document our search for the best burger in NYC. Fast forward to today, after substantial time spent blogging, countless adventures consuming burgers (good AND bad) and with your unwavering support, we have finally created a product which has allowed us to earn a reputation as...ahem...burger experts. Due to said reputation, we were contacted not too long ago by producers at the Discovery Channel's sister station, the Science Channel to take part in a show they were producing about burgers, hosted by Mr. Top Chef himself, Richard Blais. *He was runner-up, but don't sweat the important details!

So, it's with great excitement that we write today to ask you to tune in (or set your DVRs) this Friday, December 17th @ 10:30pm ET to the Science Channel HD for the 2nd episode (1st episode on pizza precedes it at 10pm) of the brand new show Blais Off with Richard Blais. We are featured quite a bit throughout the show and hopefully they didn't edit out some of our glorious commentary - the word juxtaposition was used once - or our artful bites into each burger with bacon hanging out of our mouths. Plus, we'd love to have you share in the first (and likely most non-camera ready/awkward) of our TV appearances.

For those of you in the NYC area that would like to come hang for a viewing party hosted at Royale (where filming was done) with us, below are the details. The producers have warned that it may get quite crowded, so come early. We plan on getting there by 9pm.

Friday, December 17th
Royale (our review is linked)
10th Street & Avenue C
(212) 254-6600

Thanks for all your support!

Cheers,
Brett & Kyle

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Attention: The Ridiculously Good Looking Burger Bedlam Logo

As some of you may have noticed, Burger Bedlam has a fancy new logo and banner adorned on the site, our Facebook profile and Twitter account. Thanks to our good buddy Stefan Lawrence whom we found after admiring his work on the awesome men’s style blog, Put This On, our site has taken on a more complete look. As such, we felt it necessary to dedicate a blog post to him for all his hard work. Finally able to shed a bit of the “blog” feel and turn the corner to a cleaner, more composed theme, we’re grateful to Stefan and his talents. Best of all, aside from his creative ingenuity, he’s blessed with the same love of burgers as yours truly…how fitting. So, thank you Stefan, searching for the best burger in NYC just got that much more really really ridiculously good looking!

Follow Stefan on his Twitter account here and check his other creations and contact him via his website here.

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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.