Burger and Barrel
http://www.burgerandbarrel.com
25 W. Houston
New York, NY 10012
THE CONQUEST
Josh Capon is a lucky man. He has two very successful New York restaurants, the ever popular seafooderie, Lure and the Winepub, Burger & Barrel. His Burgers have twice been named “best Burger” at the New York Food & Wine Blue Moon Burger Bash. But more importantly to me, and this blog, both of his restaurants are less than a block from my office. When I get together with folks for lunch and I ask if they can meet me in SoHo, the response is often “Let’s eat at Burger & Barrel!” So I end up there quite often as a result.
But, lucky for me, Chef Capon serves up one of the best Burgers in NYC. When my good buddies Seth Unger & George Motz from the New York Food Film Festival and I got together for lunch, that’s exactly what happened.
THE BURGER
If you want to read more about Chef Capon’s award winning “Bash Burger” at Lure, click here. If you want to read more about how the Puebla Burger at Burger & Barrel made it into my Top Burgers in NYC list or more about Burger & Barrel itself, you can click here. Today however, we are going to get right to the point. On today’s visit to this palace of Burger happiness, I needed to switch it up. I’d had a couple Beef Burgers this weekend and was just in need of some different. Enter Chef Capon’s Lamb Burger with Sauteed Ramps, Mozzarella & Ramp Aioli.
If I graded a Burger on appearance alone, this one, much like all of Josh’s Burgers, would get a 9 out of 10 (I’ll never give a 10 out of 10). I love that he cuts them in half before serving them as it allows a perfect view (and picture!) of the treasure inside. All of the Burgers at Burger & Barrel come on a large Bun that while it maintains its soft texture, holds up with sheer force under the weight of a hefty packed Sandwich.
The Patty, as always is cooked to a photographically perfect medium rare, when ordered as such and yet, looks only reveal part of the magic. This Burger came crunchy and seared on the outside yet extremely soft and juicy on the inside. It’s a secret to cooking a Burger; raise the plancha to a really high heat and then literally sear each side as much as you can as quickly as you can. That’s how you get the two textures in one bite but more importantly, you get all the juice locked on the inside. The Lamb meat is peppery and ha s more intense flavor than Beef but still savory and meaty. The soft and fluffy Mozzarella only really just accents the flavor of the Burger while the ramps (wild Leeks) taste of a combination of Onions and slightly Garlic.
Chef Capon might have a second career as a wizard because only something magical could create The Lamb Burger at Burger & Barrel.
9 out of 10 ounces
-Rev
Oct 20, 2011 – 12:29 pm
THE BURGER COUNTQUEST
456 Burgers
The Rev Meter for Social Community
“The Rev Meter” is a social community meter for assessing how optimized a bar or restaurant is with social networking. By taking what he considers to be the 10 most important social networks and creating a point system, The Rev can accurately asses how well the business is using social networking as a tool. His goal here is to educate and assist great business to better effectively use these tools.
Burger and Barrel scores a 3 on The Rev Meter.
SCORING:
1 – 4 points: You’ve missed the 5 basics and are less than optimized
5 points: You’ve covered the basics, which is better than most but far from optimized.
6 – 9 points: You’re doing better than most and on your way to becoming a well respected social community whiz.
10 points: Congrats on a perfect score!
