[Pigging by Wilfrid: August 4, 2014]
It's that time again. Time Out New York--TONY to its friends--has announced the finalists in the 2014 Battle of the Burger. I don't know how long TONY has been running its annual best burger contest, but the nature of the contest has certainly changed over the years.
There was a time--ten to fifteen years ago?--when honors were disputed among the few independent makers of credible, bar-style burgers: Corner Bistro, Molly's Shebeen, J.G. Melon. No longer: in fact, the excitement is generated by two opposed and contrary categories which are steadily putting the squeeze on an old-fashioned thick beef patty, with melted cheese in a bun.
Some consider any taxonomy of burgers with less then twenty or thirty categories a wasted opportunity for scholaticism, but for my purposes I am going to say there are haute, fancy, swankypants gourmet burgers, and there are cheap(ish) and cheerful chain-style burgers reinvented for the new age. And by "chain-style," I mean these creations tip the cap--ironically or not--to the In-and-Outs, Wendy's, and Dairy Queens of this world. How they do that--and remain worth eating--is a three pipe problem, and we won't solve it today.
I also learned from TONY's new list both that (1) I've tried most of the contenders, and (2) some the sandiwhces which thrilled just a year ago are no longer thought worth mentioning. Whither now the Blue Collar double cheeseburger, the Café Cluny patty with soy oil and chopped garlic, the marrow-packed burger at The Marrow. (Note, they're not excluded because they're not new; some burgers from last years best ten still make the list--and some of this year's hopefuls are far from new.)
Here's a list showing 15 of TONY's 2014 contenders, as shown on their website. It illustrates the big burger squeeze.
Gourmet Burgers
5 Napkin Burger*
Jeepney*
Minetta Tavern (Black Label?)*
Montmartre*
Spotted Pig
Regular, You Know, Burgers
Corner Bistro*
Donovan's Pub*
J.G. Melon*
Chain-Style Burgers
Bill's Bar & Burger*
Burger Joint*
Dram Shop*
Five Guys*
Petey's Burger
Pork Slope*
Shake Shack*
No shortage of familiar names there (okay, 5 Napkin is the gourmet section because it comes with rosemary aioli; I think the rest are self-explanatory). An asterisk means I've eaten it (multiple times, in some cases). So with the choice of filling in gaps in my knowledge at The Spotted Pig, Petey's, or Dram Shop, I made a pilgrimage to Park Slope, to eat at Wendy's.
No, no. I meant, to eat at Dram Shop. It's nothing like Wendy's. It's a busy, noisy, lively pub, with an above average selection of beer taps, sport on television, and one of those tweaked-up bar menus. The brat is from Wisconsin, the chili is made from grass fed chuck, the nachos are Irish (because they have bacon, I think). And the burger is in the running for the city's best.
Except the burger is kind of like a Wendy's old-fashioned double cheese. It's the square patties, of course.
But beyond the shape of the meat, what really distinguishes this sandwich from the chain burgers it references? The patties are thin, cooked medium-well without exception, the American cheese is bland (you can switch it up for a dollar more). The salad is fresh and piled high, and there's nothing wrong with the sandwich--except that it costs $12 (a lot more than Wendy's), and that it's in a best New York burger contest.
As for the squeeze, look how the mainstream bar cheeseburger category--once the pinnacle of the sandwich's ambitions--has shrunk. Corner Bistro, Donovan's, and J.G. Melon--any of which might have won this contest in 1995.
The message is clear, and it actually goes beyond burgers. People are in the hunt for something unique, exclusive, and perhaps over-priced or for something rootsy, blue-collar, and homey. This is why the Minetta Tavern burger (presumably the premium Black Label) at $28 is locked in a struggle with the Burger Joint's studiously low-key sandwich at around eight bucks.
It's also why bars increasingly offer a choice of seasonal, limited edition, extreme micro-brews, alongside PBR.
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