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It's not that I don't value the dry-aged beef bohemoths served in the city's finest restaurants. No one admires them more. But the hamburger began as a small, cheap, delicate snack, and that old vision still persists, a dream on a squishy bun.
Exquisitely simple, supple, and soft old-time hamburgers nestle on squishy buns in this throwback NJ diner.
Timeless art-deco diner design and a friendly proletarian vibe are great draws to this small-town diner, but the star attraction is a hamburger of surpassing simplicity and perfection.
A national landmark, this tiny NJ restaurant makes only one thing -- salty-sweet, not-so-juicy sliders -- but the real product is the steamy, expectant atmosphere and unique, timeless look and feel. A true classic.
The doughnuts are good, don't get me wrong. But this vintage midcentury operation is also a full-service diner, and makes a textbook midcentury coffee shop burger.
A slavish imitation of In-and-Out, Blue 9 at its best outdoes the original, thanks to the much smaller volume. At it's worst, it's worse than In-and-Out even on an off day.
A humble, old-school outer bourough burger joint, Joe's goes in for white buns, american cheese, and suprisingly flavorful and fresh fast-food style burgers. A nice find in Flushing.
The question of whether Schnipper's is as good as Shake Shack is a moot one: the two are a block apart and cook almost identical salty, crusty, flattened patties of Pat LaFrieda beef. You can't lose either way; but Schnippers rarely has a big line, so there is that.
Do you have a problem with White Castle? Yeah? Well, remember this. They invented the hamburger (look it up in my book.) And their hamburgers, while a little gnarly no doubt, have hardly changed in almost 100 years. And I am glad of it.
Bill's has adopted the salty, flattened, traditional burger style that the Shake Shack brought back into fashion, and combined it with full bar service and a major-league shake program to create midtown's best family eating experience.
Typically, Brooklyn burgers are roccoco affairs, covered with globby farmhouse cheeses and the like. Blue Collar is true to its name, a tribute to the great proletarian burgers of midcentury, when bread was white, cheese was orange, and burgers were thin, salty, and understood who they were.
Happily for NYC burger lovers, the 21 century brought a recrudescnece of flat, juicy, crusty, salty burgers served on traditional squishy buns. Petey's is one such burger joint, and while it doesn't get much buzz is one of the better ones.
Many people will tell you that In-and-Out Burger is the great American hamburger chain. Many people are wrong. Steak 'n Shake doesn't have the code words or the crazy toppings, but that's not what matters. Perfect, thin, soft burgers on white buns are what matters. And theirs are the best.
