Smith and Wollensky Grill – 1 Adventure with 2 Ratings

Smith and Wollensky Grill
http://www.smithandwollenskysteakhouses.com/new_york.htm
797 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10022

THE STORY
Not to brag, but we have 2 blogs. We eat steak at www.steakclub7.com and we eat burgers at www.burgerconquest.com. Sometimes we do both in the same blog. Some call that gluttonous but we call it righteous.

I recently received a suggestion from loyal follower, Herman T., who was praising the burger at Smith and Wollensky Grill in Manhattan. Smith and Wollensky, a famous chain steak house, first opened at their New York City location in 1977. Since then they’ve expanded to Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and more. This location in particular received a spot of fame from a scene in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.

The Grill is located in the S&W building but the entrance is around the back on 49th St. No reservation needed but host extraordinaire, Tim Dufffy will set you up with a nice table, just like he did for my wife and I.

THE BURGER
We ordered the Smith and Wollensky burger, the same way we ordered our bone-in NY Strip: medium rare. They arrived together along with the french fries, creamed spinach and hash brown potatoes we ordered on the side. First bite of the burger had me intrigued. Something was different about this one. Although it looked like your traditional old-school burger, that I like to call “Dad style” but it had a secret I could not pinpoint.

The steak on the other hand, not so interesting. The cut was fatty and served just above room temperature which is a huge let down when you are spending that kind of money on an entree. Steak should be served hot and cooked just slightly under how you ordered it, sitting in a bath of it’s own juices. That way it stays hot, juicy and cooks up just right. No juice, no hot and lots of fat. The fries were delicious and the wife claimed to love the creamed spinach. The hash browns were pretty good but needed some oomf like grilled onions or some paprika, but overall good.

The burger was a winner and so was the service. Tim came over several times to check in with us. On one such visit, Tim solved the mystery of the tasty burger; they combine ground beef along with trimmings from the cuts of steak to make the Smith and Wollensky burger. You can definitely taste the Fillet cut in the burger and it is darn tootin’!

BURGER CONQUEST
7 out of 10 ounces

STEAK CLUB 7
2 out of 5 knives

-Rev

P.S. Thanks for the recommendation Herman.

Stax Burger Bistro - A Mix of Lamb, Foie Gras, Pineapples and Mediocrity

Stax Burger Bistro

http://phoenix.citysearch.com/profile/37045574/scottsdale_az/stax_burger_bistro.html

4400 N. Scottsdale Rd

Scottsdale, AZ 85251



THE STORY

Located in Old Town Scottsdale, this nuevo-lounge burger spot offers up sliders made from a multitude traditional ingredients like beef, veggies and turkey. For the more "developed" palette you can also choose from some not so regular options like salmon, lamb, veal, buffalo and Ostrich. Stax also gives the eater their choice from a couple dozen toppings. Everything from a selection of cheeses, to onions, and as strange / fancy as foie gras and pineapples. However, that's not exactly their shtick. Taking the words "mix and match" to a whole new level, they offer up unique combinations of meats and toppings called "grinds." There are many chef suggestions from the "Stax Style" menu but if you're feeling creative, you make the call, they make the burger! Beyond the burger, Stax also has regular and sweet potato fries as well as mac and cheese and my personal fave, tater tots! Accompanied by microbrews and owned by the same people who created the popular morning and brunch stop, The Breakfast Club, Stax certainly were stacked for success. So on a recently "bromantic" trip with my bros to Scottsdale, you could see why in the middle of some all-day drinking, Stax sounded like a must.



THE BURGER

I'm an old school kinda fella and appreciate tradition, my elders, institutions and modesty, especially in my burger adventures. But I realize burgers are for everyone so I tried to give the modern-lounge, new age vibe at Stax an earnest go. Truth is, I was pretty uncomfortable. I like burgers to feel special like home or a nice hug so after 10 minutes of beer goggling up the Stax "grinds" I decided to go old-school; a beef burger. After all, if you can't get that right, how can you get anything right? The Tots arrived first. They were crispy and served with ketchup as well as chipotle aioli. I had to stop myself from devouring all of them to save room for the burger. The Stax burgers are slightly larger than your tradional slider and upon first glance had my intrigued. However, by the 2nd bite, I thought this was one of the most over-worked and over-thought burgers I have ever had. The flavor was boring and bland at best, the bun and cheese were fine but wrap a penny in a dollar and it's still a penny. What a let down and let me remind you that I was drunk. Eating shoe laces tastes good after a dozen beers or so! The mac and cheese was pretty good but not even that or the tots, made me feel anything but BLAHHHHHHHHH about Stax.

5 out of 10

-Rev

In-N-Out - Vaction Style

In-N-Out
http://www.in-n-out.com/

920 E. Playa Del Norte
Tempe, AZ 85281

THE STORY
Little did Harry and Esther Snyder know back in 1948 that when they opened the first In-N-Out location that it would grow to become the best fast food burger in the business. The original location only had walk-up and drive-thru service, but nowadays, most In-N-Outs have seating areas. You can only find them in CA, AZ, UT and NV but once there, you can find them everywhere.

For Memorial Day weekend, a few friends and I flew out to Arizona to meet up with some other friends in Scottsdale for a little Bromance. After a 4 hour and 30 minute flight, I was pretty damn hungry. When we passed an In-N-Out location on the way to our condo rental, I had to stop in.

THE BURGER
In-N-Out is an institution where looks are deceiving. Not including beverages, there are 4 items on the In-N-Out menu: Double double, cheeseburger, hamburger and french fries. But we're American, we want to feel special, we like it our way and we have secret code words to order our own way. You can go Animal, 3x3, 4x4, Protein and ofcourse, the veggie friendly grilled cheese. Me, I got 2 cheeseburgers, as is, no funny business. The In-N-Out sauce is so delicious sandwiched between the meet, cheese and toasted bun. However, for as great as the burger is, the fries are just pedestrian. There is nothing special about them whatsover. It's no wonder why people order them with sauce and grilled onions.

Whether you eat in or drive-thru, you'll agree, In-N-Out is the best burger in the fast food business.


7 out of 1o ounces
-Rev

Shake Shack - The Bloggers Gone Wild Games

Shake Shack
http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/
11 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10010

THE STORY

• October 5th, 2008 - a bunch of friends eat a burger so delicious, at Arthur's in Hoboken, NJ, they decided to start a blog about it called "Burger Conquest."
• December 30th, 2008 - 21 Burgers later, they eat at one of their favorites, NYC's Trailer Park. They discover that none of their fellow burger bloggers have had the same pleasure. They call them out in their blog.
• December 31st, 2008 - A Hamburger Today, the Rolling Stone of burger blogs, if you will, reaches out to Burger Conquest pleading forgiveness with the promise of "burger porn."
• May 5, 2009 - The NY Times reports a story about a group of men dedicated to the art of eating called, "Burger of the Month Club."

• May 20th, 2009 - Adam and Robyn from A Hamburger Today, Jason from Burger of the Month Club, Kenji GoodEater.org and myself (Rev), Jackie and Paul from Burger Conquest gather for what may be the most momentous occasion in the history of burger reporting. We all had a burger together! The planets aligned at NYC's famous burger stand in the park, Shake Shack, touted by many to be the best, or at least the closest location to all of our day jobs.

THE BURGER
So what do we call this? Meating of the Minds? The NYC Burger Con? The Burgermeister's Bash? Group Therapy? Burgers Anonymous? You could but I just call it..

DELICIOUS!!

You read the blog, you've eaten the burger and you know we gush like too much Shack sauce over the tasty treats available to you at the Shake Shack. So rather than spew drivel on about how out of this site the combo of 25% brisket + 25% chuck + 50% sirloin comes together to make the Shack burger so good, let's talk about what goes into a few paragraphs and photos for your enjoyment.

We all met up in line at the Shack in Madison Square Park and played a little game of "get to know my blog." We had more than enough time as the line was all the way around the back of the park, which on a day this nice, is no shocker. Once we were sat with our cardboard boxes full of happiness, the magic begun. Whereas most people would just chomp down on the vittles, us "foodies" bust out with cameras for a little game of "slap and pickle." Pain stakingly staving off our desires to go face first into the food, we maintain our journalistic oath to bring you good burgers.

We're such nerds. Not only is everyone else in the park laughing at the "tourists" taking pictures of their food, but Adam from AHT gets recognized. I was secretly jealous.

Some good food, some good talk, some good ideas and the promise of meeting up again and next time...destination, Trailer Park.

And now for a little game of "if you tag my blog, i'll tag yours."
A Hamburger Today
Burger of the Month Club
Good Eater

Not in attendance but invited. AKA sorry suckers, Maybe next time!
Hamburger America
The Feedbag
Beef Aficionado

Thanks burger buds, it was awesome. Until we meat again, Shake Shack it easy.


8 out of 10 ounces
-Rev

9th Avenue Food Festival / Lucky's Famous / Mitchell London Foods - How to put on 8 LBS in 2 days

9th Avenue International Festival
http://nycgo.com/?event=view.eventdetails&id=148220
9th Avenue from 42nd St - 57th St
Hell's Kitchen
New York, NY

Lucky's Famous
http://www.luckysfamousburgers.com/
370 West 52nd St
New York, NY

Mitchell London Foods
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/7150759/new_york_ny/mitchel_london_foods.html
22A E. 65th St
New York, NY 10021

THE STORY
Every 3rd weekend of May, 9th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, is shut down to vehicle traffic and for a mile and a half of food and drinks. It beckons the start of summer as the first real outdoor weekend event of the summer. American, Moroccan, Greek, Spanish, Cuban, Japanese, Thai, Italian, German, Argentina and all kinds of other international cuisines are present. It is a veritable cornucopia of self-indulgent gluttony. Strap on your feedbags and get ready for some food porn.

For all the great burgers located on 9th Avenue, only Lucky's Famous sets up a stand to actively participate in the Festival. Lucky's serves 100% USDA prime beef and is known for their special sauce which is a slightly spicier version of your every day burger sauce. You can read our review of the restaurant it's self here.

THE BURGER
Lucky's roll a regular old grill up onto the street and from underneath their tent serve up burgers and hot dogs. $4 won't buy you a lot on 9th Ave during the festival but it will get you a Lucky's Famous with cheese. Once you order from the front of the tent, you move around to the side where they assemble your burger with your choice of toppings. Lettuce, onions, cheese and Lucky's sauce is what I ordered. I've had the Lucky burger before and wasn't too impressed but this one was pretty good. Nothing fancy, just a juicy little burger. The star of the show is the Lucky's Sauce with it's unique spicy, buttery, thousand island taste.


7 out of 10 ounces
-Rev





THE STORY
Mitchell's restaurants are known for gourmet salads, sandwiches, baked goods, pizza as well as their burgers and cupcakes. They set up a tent at 9th Avenue Food festival serving assorted pastries, quiches, and sliders including fresh veggies sliders, buttermilk biscuits with ham and regular beef burger sliders.

THE BURGER
The 2nd day of the festival presented another opportunity to scour for burgers. Enter the Mitchell London Foods both. The ham slider on a butter milk biscuit was out of this world so I thought the regular slider was worth checking out. Being a ketchup hater (only good for fries or egg sandwiches), I was a little bummed out to see that the slider came with it on already. Although a little small, even for a slider, it tasted pretty good. Unfortunately it was cold which definitely robbed the little sandwich of some flavor. The saving grace was the roll which had a buttery sweet taste.


6 out of 7 ounces
-Rev



OTHER DIGESTIONS

• LEMONADE - 5 out of 10 (too watered down)
• CHORIPAN from CHIMICHURRI GRILL (grilled Chorizo sausage with chimichurri sauce, roasted and red peppers on a Portugese roll) - 7 out of 10
• PINCHITO from CHIMICHURRI GRILL (small pieces of grilled Argentinian skirt steak with Chimichurri) - 7 out of 10
• KATAIFE from POSEIDON BAKERY - 8 out of 10
• BUTTERMILK BISCUIT HAM SLIDER'S from MITCHELL LONDON FOODS - 9 out of 10
• CHEESE AND POTATO PIEROGIES from MILLIE'S - 8 out of 10
• CUBAN EMPANADA from EMPANADA MAMA - 8 out of 10
• GRILLED CORN ON THE COB - 9 out of 10 (my fave item at the fest!!)
• FRIED OREOS - 7 out of 10
• GRILLED ITALIAN SAUSAGE WITH PEPPERS, ONIONS and CHEESE WHIZ - 7 out of 10
• QUICHE from MITCHELL LONDON FOODS - 7 out of 10
• CHICKEN CURRY PUFF - 8 out of 10
• LAMB GYRO - 7 out of 10
• SMOKED FLANK STEAK, FRIED PLANTAIN and FRIED RED SKIN POTATO from MATEO'S GRILL - 8 out of 10
• CANNOLI from FORTUNATO BROTHERS - 8 out of 10
• CURLY FRIES with CHEESE WHIZ - 6 out of 10