Mini Comté Burgers
by Celia Cheng
June 30th, 2008
LE CIRQUE WINE LOUNGE
151 E 58th St
(Lexington & 3rd Ave)
212-644-0202
Le Cirque needs no introduction. Through two facelifts, it’s remained a New York classic since 1974. Originally Le Cirque on East 65th Street, it was then Le Cirque 2000 in the Palace Hotel, and now it’s back to Le Cirque but in the new Bloomberg building on East 58th Street. Over the years, it’s been a staple for bankers and tourists alike, a very formal dining affair.
Through its multiple iterations, it has transformed itself from old school classic to modern classic, and now with the wine lounge, the audience continues to broaden, reaching a more casual crowd who can watch TV at the bar, enjoy lite-bites and drinks but not have to dress too formally (no jackets required). There’s even music, live at times, in the bar area.
I find the TV to be rather inappropriate even for a more “causal” environment, but I understand that during the day, traders must follow MSNBC obsessively. But perhaps after hours is time to turn off the television and enjoy good company and the delicious food prepared by Chef Christophe Bellanca. He’s created an entirely new menu, including an all-day bar menu, in addition to prix-fixe for lunch and dinner respectively.
The bar menu is an approachable list of 20 plus dishes, including some outstanding items. The tuna tataki with carpaccio of daikon and avocado, sesame vinaigrette, yuzu cucumber granité and seaweed salad is a magnificently light starter for this time of year. The tuna, daikon and avocado are sliced so thin, and the yuzu cucumber granité is a surprisingly cool and refreshing touch that dissolves as soon as it hits your tongue. It took me about two seconds to finish this elegant plate.
Everyone at the bar was raving about the mini Comté burgers. There’s also regular mini cheeseburgers on the menu, but when I inquired which was better, there was no contest; the Comté burgers won unanimously. One order serves two mini burgers, so it’s a perfect share. The Comté is melted over the beef patty, and the chanterelle and oyster mushrooms are rich and creamy. I should have been burgered out by now since I’ve tasted so many lately, but these were irresistible. Fries accompanied, and I had too many of those as well.
Surprisingly, the tortelli amatriciana was not a hit for me. These little tortelli, about six to a plate, were stuffed with guanciale and tomato and dusted with shaved pecorino. The guanciale was too salty and the tomato too sweet, and the marriage of the two resulted more in bickering than union on my palate.
But the cheese plate for dessert saved the day. It’s a selection of three or five, but there actually aren’t that many cheeses to choose from. Still, it was a very amiable way to unwind and end a meal of delicious small plates.
The lounge has 30 wines by the glass available for “tastes” or “pours,” which is another great plus. The bar menu itself has many suggested beverage pairings. I love variety and this way I can try something different with every plate. How brilliant! For lunch, cocktails, or dinner, Le Cirque Wine Lounge is a great option in Midtown for stellar food, and no longer a too-stuffy atmosphere.
Posted in Burger , French , Midtown East
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Mini Burger
by Celia Cheng
March 7th, 2007
STAND
24 E 12th St
(5th Ave & University Pl)
212-488-5900
Do you ever go through phases when all you want to eat are burgers? Well, the past two weeks I’ve been on a burger binge, eating them more frequently than is advisable. It started with a late night run to Burger Joint — a classic favorite — after a movie. Since then, I’ve had five other burgers: Stand (twice), Employees Only, Rare and McDonald’s. (None of which satisfied me the way Burger Joint did.) I should be embarrassed because as you can see, it’s been a downward spiral. Not only is my waistline expanding and my cholesterol rising, but I really crossed the line ordering a Mickey D’s quarter-pounder with cheese. Hi, my name is Celia and I’m addicted to burgers.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in passing that I liked Stand but hadn’t found exactly what I liked on the menu yet. Since then, I’ve been back four times. Today I finally found something I wanted to talk about: the mini burger.
The burgers and food in general at Stand is very fresh. A glance at the menu shows interesting condiments like onion marmalade, hard-boiled egg mayo, porcini sauce and green peppercorn sauce. Clearly, this is another “fancy” burger joint. But I wouldn’t dismiss it on those grounds alone; after all, fancy or not, I like a burger as long as it tastes good.
For me, there’s something really carnal about eating burgers. When I’m done, I want to feel satisfied, like I just tore through an animal. But until the mini burger experience, none of the burgers I tried at Stand — the classic, house, hamburger and cheeseburger — had given me that kind of carnal satisfaction. For example, the hamburger with green peppercorn sauce is delicious, but it reminds me more of meatloaf with gravy on a bun than a real burger. So maybe it’s not that the food is too fancy, but that the pairings weren’t working for my taste buds.
Today, I lucked out with the three-ounce mini burger. It was cooked perfectly medium-rare, and, severed on a brioche bun, with pickles and homemade ketchup — it was just right. Its simplicity worked.
Stand opened at the end of December 2006, so it’s still figuring things out. The staff is friendly and open to suggestions — I kept my mouth shut, I swear! I thought the cheeseburger would be my favorite: sesame bun, onion marmalade, lettuce, and a choice of blue cheese sauce or Cheddar cheese sauce and/or slices. About a month ago, when I first ordered it, the Cheddar was a sauce — which I didn’t realize. I was disappointed. When I want a cheeseburger, I want slices of cheese. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way since the waiter today told me that they now offer slices of white Vermont, with the Cheddar sauce still as an option. The blue cheese sauce is still available.
Part of my fear of going to “fancy” burger joints is that they are going to be pretentious. Stand is not. As with the cheese situation, it’s trying to figure out what works best.
When I go, I always sit at the bar, and I like the regional draughts on tap. I’ve tried most of them now and it just makes the whole burger experience more fun. It’s no Cedar Tavern, but for the next couple of years while Cedar’s under renovation, Stand may substitute as my neighborhood joint.
Posted in American , Burger , Greenwich Village
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Bacon Royale (Bacon Cheeseburger)
by Celia Cheng
October 7th, 2006
ROYALE
157 Ave C
(9th & 10th St)
212-254-6600
After reading Peter Meehan’s review on “the city’s best new hamburger” in The Times, I couldn’t get to Royale fast enough. I planned to try it that very evening but didn’t make it. Still, there was little else I dreamt of for the next three days.
Burgers are a hard one. Any time someone recommends a burger as the City’s best, it’s almost a sure setup for disillusionment. How can a single burger live up to that kind of expectation and pressure?
When it comes to burgers, I always go in hopeful because I LOVE burgers and am constantly looking for good ones. I’ve relinquished the search for the “best” burger because I’m not sure such a thing exists. Not that there aren’t amazing ones, but there’s always (hopefully) something better. That’s what makes the quest fun.
Well, there are many positive things to say about Royale’s burger. The meat is juicy and the buns are amazing, with both top and bottom fully encrusted in sesame. (If you’ve read my Grilled interview on A Hamburger Today you’ll recall that I love sesame buns.) Each burger is made with care and attention to detail. Medium rare comes out medium rare — hooray! But… ultimately, the burger is tasteless. :(
I ordered the bacon Royale, the bacon cheeseburger, because I can’t resist bacon (despite the fact that Peter’s review warns that the bacon there is “wafer-crisp diner-style”). My advice: Heed the warning. After I finished my burger I realized that I didn’t even taste the bacon, although I had seen the slices on the burger when it was first served to me. An ingredient that doesn’t add anything to a dish is a waste.
As for the rest of the burger, it was one of those cases where, because you don’t taste anything, you think that if you keep eating you’ll find the flavor. It did not occur to me until the very last bite that it just wasn’t going to happen. Flavor wasn’t miraculously going to grace my burger unless a burger fairy exists. I could have added more ketchup, but I didn’t want to just drown my burger in condiments.
I enjoyed the steak-cut fries, especially after sprinkling pepper and dipping them in mayo. My friend, Adria, and I shared one order but piggy me liked them so much we got another.
The bar itself has a strange feel. It’s new and clean but lacks any sense of personality. However, the open terrace in the back is truly charming! Unfortunately, it’s getting too cold to hang out in the back, but during the summertime, this joint is going to be bustling like you wouldn’t believe.
Royale is the new sister restaurant to the neighboring Cafecito, another fun hangout in Alphabet City with relatively good Cuban fare, though service is consistently slow. I’m a fan of Cafecito’s mini-burgers with chorizo, although those sliders also rely on a condiment for taste, the accompanying garlic sauce.
For the time being, given the choice, I would choose the sliders at Cafecito over the Royale if I wanted a burger in the vicinity. But I will give Royale another chance. There seems to be so much potential. With a little more time, since the restaurant only opened last month, perhaps it’ll find some personality, and maybe its burger will find some flavor, too.
Posted in Alphabet City , American , Burger
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Vanilla Cupcake w/ Chocolate Icing
by Celia Cheng
July 11th, 2006
458 9th Ave
(35th & 36th)
212-643-1200
When I first heard about Mitchel London opening a place that specializes in burgers and cupcakes, I was so excited. It’s hard to screw up these two American staples, especially if that’s pretty much all you are serving. Plus it’s Mitchel London, the gourmet prepared foods chef (formerly Ed Koch’s personal chef) who has two other stores around town.
I tried a burger and two cupcakes for lunch. It was beyond disappointing. I felt like I was at Johnny Rockets. The food certainly didn’t taste any better than Johnny Rockets, and the service was slow and unattentive. The one thing it had going for it was that it smelled and felt cleaner than Johnny Rockets.
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with avocado, medium rare. My burger came out well-done, and the beef was completely tasteless. That’s pretty hard to do, because even unseasoned beef straight from the butcher should have a distinctive taste to it. The cheese was a half-inch thick clump stuck to just the top half of the bun — a little uneven, I’d say. I also ordered large fresh cut fries and a green salad. I’ve tasted better fresh cut fries at In-N-Out on the West Coast. Even the salad, which was supposed to have cherry tomatoes but arrived with slices of regular tomato instead, was a display of the lack of effort to create something more interesting and tasty than straight meslcun and tomatoes in a bowl.
The cupcakes aren’t much of a treat either, especially considering that Cupcake Café is just five blocks away. The fresh blueberry with buttercream icing cupcake sounded promising, but alas it wasn’t particularly moist, and the icing was kind of icky. I also got a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing to try a different combination. I normally don’t like chocolate icing, but its richness was a winner in contrast to the disgusting buttercream icing.
Saddened by this first excursion, and thinking I might have caught them on an off day, I decided to give Burgers & Cupcakes another try. So I went back for breakfast. I guess you could say that the breakfast here is more pleasant than at a diner — less greasy and more refined. But do you really want to set your benchmark as your local diner?! I tried the scrambled eggs with chorizo, jalapenos and roasted tomato, and I had a bite of my companion’s bottomless stack of Elaine’s pancakes. Both good but not amazing. Service was as lacking and slow as on my first visit.
My two trips to Burgers & Cupcakes were not validated, and I am a bit confused. How is it that people can be so checked out? The waitresses at the joint are checked out and could not care less. Those cooking the food clearly seem to be checked out too, since they’re making the food so lopsided and tasteless. Mitchel London was there both times and seems to spend a lot of time there, but there’s a clear lack of attention to detail. Or more befitting, it’s just lacking.
Posted in American , Burger , Hell’s Kitchen , Sweets
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Bacon Cheeseburger
by Celia Cheng
February 15th, 2006
SPARKY’S ALL AMERICAN FOOD
333 Lafayette St
(Bleecker & Houston St)
212-334-3035
The original Sparky’s All American Food is in Williamsburg. It’s the space that is shared with Egg, so before noon, it serves breakfast goods as Egg, and in the afternoon it turns into Sparky’s All American Food, focusing on hamburgers and hot dogs. I haven’t tried the original Sparky’s, but the other day while on my way to Bianca, I noticed that the sliver of a space between Bleecker and Houston streets on Lafayette was occupied by the Manhattan location of Sparky’s. This outlet has been open for four months, but it’s in one of those spaces that’s easy to miss.
Curious to see if Sparky’s is good, I stopped by the next day. It’s a very simple space with no décor except for a black and white photo hanging of whom I presume is Sparky — a loveable-looking dog. The mission of Sparky’s is plainly stated on the backside of the menu: “Sparky’s Mission is to provide the purest and best-tasting food at the lowest possible price. It’s not easy, but we believe it is important to try.” It goes on to talk about the establishment’s support of local, family farms and sustainability.
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger with jalapeños, Cheddar cheese fries and a soda, which in total cost me close to $15. I think they are pushing it when they tell me that this is considered low-priced organic food. Zaitzeff also boasts using organic and fresh ingredients and the prices are also not low, but I can taste and see the freshness of the ingredients. I don’t at Sparky’s. Other than the two kids working behind the counter telling me in a friendly but clueless manner that everything is organic, I couldn’t tell much except that I felt a bit ripped off. My burger was overcooked. Though it seemed to taste fresh, I ate most of it because of the jalapeños I had added — adding spices is always the best way to open one’s appetite.
The cheese fries seemed promising. Instead of just having cheese drizzled over the fries they actually fry the cheese with the fries so that you get them all intertwined like a ball of yarn. But they were so overly greasy that after eating a third of them I was feeling rather disgusted and had to stop.
On my way out, I was curious about the bun that the burger is served on and decided to ask the two kids behind the counter what it was. Their answer was: “It comes from some bakery around here. I don’t know which or what it is but it’s ORGANIC.” Feeling disappointed and frustrated, I left with this thought: Overkill on the organic theme and pinning up your mission on the walls is meaningless when the staff has no clue and can only regurgitate lines that I am perfectly capable of reading myself. I wonder if the original Sparky’s in Williamsburg is different, because our Manhattan version is in need of a lot of help.
Posted in American , Burger , East Village
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