Best Designer Burger
A while back we were having an intense debate in the studio about the best burger in NYC. It became quite heated with questions like, can you really count the burgers at Peter Lugers? Because if you go to Peter Luger should you really be wasting your time with a burger? So let’s make this simple, I’m declaring POP Burger the best designer burger in NYC. What is a designer burger? It is a mixture of good eats, reasonably cheap prices while offering a unique twist, and delivered in a great atmosphere.
POP on 9th Avenue at 15th Street in the West Village serves amazing mini meat burgers (2 for $5) in a fabulous cool space with back-lit laser-cut stainless steel walls and original Basquiat paintings hanging on the walls. I actually don’t eat meat but, their giant, $7, “invisible burger” made with fried portabello mushrooms makes this veggie lover feel like there is no reason to ever have meat again. Meat lovers will also appreciate the fact that once, while eating a regular mini burger, Marc asked me “not to talk to him” as I was distracting him from his culinary joy.
POP just expanded and opened a new location in Midtown at 14 East 58th Street. They redid the entire building in the same style as the downtown location, but this time you have traditional eat-in/take out on the ground floor, dining in a lounge like setting on the 2nd floor, and a bar with a pool table on the top. You can have your burger on whatever floor and at whatever level of swank, you so choose.
Be forewarned, at both locations sitting in the lounge areas does mean that your $5 burgers jump in price to $12 for the extra atmosphere/table service. However, if you are looking for a great place to sit down and grab a reasonably priced, delicious burger, this is your spot.
The POP franchise in NY is rather amazing. Each location is consistent, unique, and utterly flawless in its execution. There was the one on Union square which was an exercise in minimalism, while this newest one seems to scream quite loudly.
My prediction is that designer hamburgers are going to be as big of a cultural phenomenon in ‘08 as cupcakes were in ‘07
Is it a coincidence that this boxy, standalone building is only a stone’s throw from the glass box of the flagship Apple store? There’s simply no question as to where Steve jobs would grab a burger. In fact, the Pop burger could easily be named “iBurger.”
By: Marc on January 6, 2008 at 7:58 pm
One of the best burgers in NYC is hands-down, the grass-fed beef burger at Diner in Williamsburg. It’s reasonably priced for high-quality beef, HUGE, and is just about the best tasting burger I have ever eaten. Ever.
Diner may not have original Basquiat paintings on the walls, but it’s super hip in a very minimal way. (i.e. I had a nice conversation about Andrea Zittel with my waiter last time I was there.)
That’s my two cents on good burgers…
-Rachel
PS–The big draw of the Peter Luger burger is that if you go for lunch it’s SO cheap and you don’t need a reservation. Totally different than eating dinner there.
By: Rachel on January 7, 2008 at 8:16 am
Diner’s burger IS amazing. I live across the street, and have enjoyed many a burger there. Dumont’s burger is also pretty awesome. You can order it at Dumont on Union Ave. or, for the burger purists, Dumont Burger on Bedford.
By: ellen on January 7, 2008 at 9:20 am