The Truth About Every Restaurant Is Revealed in its Burger

It's not the omelette or the bathrooms or the green salad. It's the burger that tells all.

Welcome to The Supersonic, Blackbird’s newsletter for the restaurant-obsessed. If this is your first time with us, please enjoy a subscription on the house.

James Beard, the pioneering chef, invented the modern restaurant burger, or so argues Beard-winner John Birdsall, author of “The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Biography of James Beard.” According to Birdsall, Beard offered steakburgers in the early '50s, an era when only hamburger stands served the fast-food staple. His burgers were made from four simple ingredients: “beef you grind yourself, a bun you probably have to make yourself, thin-sliced onion, and butter.”

“Any restaurant can load on bacon, and some weird sauce and a fried egg and red onion jam and god knows what,” says Birdsall. “A good burger must be reducible to fine parts, and by this, you judge a restaurant's kitchen.”

The humble omelette is the most famous barometer of a kitchen’s skill, the likes of Bourdain, Boulud, and Chang all famously on the record here. Other insiders say, actually, if you’re looking for a one-off signal of a restaurant’s quality look no further than the cleanliness of its bathrooms. A third famous test: the simple green salad. But, let us explore this notion a bit, that the burger, considered by most restaurant chefs to be a necessary evil—the ‘no burger on this menu’ hill not one worth dying on—is, in fact, the ultimate show of culinary horsepower.

“A burger is not masked by big flavors and fancy ingredients," says Alexandra Shapiro, owner of Hoexters, the Upper East Side’s buzziest new brasserie, which serves a double smashburger with “new school” American cheese and special sauce on a steamed sesame bun, all of which is meant to evoke the nostalgia of the classics we grew up with. "Burgers are pared down to only the basics, so they have to shine on their own. I firmly believe that you can judge the quality of a restaurant by its burger." 

It’s a philosophy that Matt Hyland, co-founder of EMILY, agrees with, which is why a dry-aged Pat LaFrieda cheeseburger sits firmly on their menu, right next to their acclaimed Neapolitan pies. 

“Like a pizza, a good burger is simple and all about proper preparation. Throwing oddball or expensive ingredients on it doesn’t make it better,” Hyland says.

“Pay careful attention to the burger patty – chances are if they’re using high quality ground beef, or have their own blend, a steak will also be great there. Also, note the quality of the bun. Like pizza dough, this vehicle is an element that can have a lot of flavor when done right. And if they are making a delicious in-house topping for their burger, you know they’re taking an extra step.”

So, what makes a good burger if one of those beef bombs reveals your character?

Eli Sussman, co-owner and chef at Brooklyn’s Gertrude’s, a bistro that arguably has no business even offering a burger, mostly agrees with Beard's essential four-ingredient list: “a flavorful sauce, a crunchy element from a vegetable (lettuce, tomato, or onion), the right cheese choice, and a perfect bun."

"After the meat, the bun is the most important part," he adds. Gertrude's uses a buttered challah roll and piles Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce, and special sauces.

There is now a burger on the menu at Rock Center’s flagship, Le Rock (lunch only; let the guys ease into it). One signature element? A bun that’s not brioche or potato or Parker House but, whisper this in your loved one’s ear, proprietary.

“For me, a great burger is all about balance,” says Mary Attea, executive chef at Raf's in Nolita (a spot that makes its Blackbird debut next month). A good burger “should be simple and hit all the right notes,” she says. “You want to feel satisfied after eating a great burger, not gluttonous and regretful.” In fact, this is exactly how one might describe the feeling of eating at Raf’s.

This all tracks. At Minetta Tavern, a 100-year-old treasure in lower Manhattan, it is their Black Label burger with its four Beard-approved ingredients that one must order to fully grok their program. Red Hook Tavern, JG Melon, Lord’s, Le Rock, Joe’s Junior, in their burgers is the truth. The decline of Corner Bistro and the chain-ification of P.J. Clarke’s? Easily tracked in their burgers. (Maybe it’s a New York thing? Maybe not, Houston’s.)

When asked “what makes a good burger,” Vish Wesley, general manager at Fairfax, the all-day cafe in the West Village, says a truly great burger should prompt the following questions: "Do you crave it? Will you miss it when you're gone? Does it honor a gravity?" 

Honor a gravity, Vish?

“A great burger tells the eater that they are in the presence of gravity: does your version evoke a feeling that this exact version of this thing only exists here?” Fairfax's burger is topped with cheddar, onion, crispy potatoes, and a tangy BBQ mayo. Fun fact about this burger: it was actually imported from the late Bar Sardine, Fairfax’s one-time sister restaurant across the street. A burger that outlives its host restaurant? Gravity, indeed.

In the mood for burgers? We’re bringing Cowy Burger—a smashburger pop-up outfit from Miami that recently won the South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash—to NYC for their big city debut. Join us at The Standard Biergarten in Meatpacking for a three-day pop-up, this July 19-21. For entry, you need a Blackbird x Cowy Burger access pass and a card on file in the Blackbird app. Simply check in when you arrive and see if you don’t agree that this burger is worth the hunt.