FEATURES
Burger Bar
The humble hamburger becomes the star attraction.
By Rob Benes
Epicurious.com’s editor-in-chief Tanya
Steel includes hamburgers in her 2010 list
of food trends moving to the back burner.
She writes, “With as many haute burger
stands flooding the country as there are
McD’s, we’ve reached meat saturation . . . .”
That message doesn’t ring true with lots
of people. Just take a look at what a few
well-known restaurateurs have been up
to lately: Bobby Flay has four Bobby’s
Burger Palace venues on the East
Coast, Danny Meyer has captured New
Yorker’s attention with three Shake Shack
locations, Emeril Lagasse opened Burgers
and More by Emeril in Bethlehem, Pa.,
and Hubert Keller’s Burger Bar is in Las
Vegas, St. Louis and San Francisco.
What guests are finding are two kinds of
burger restaurants. First, there are those
dedicating a portion of the menu to a
slew of burgers, so they really can’t be
considered true burger bars. For example,
Stack’d Burger Bar in Milwaukee offers
several gourmet burgers, but it also menus
up to 11 appetizers, four salads and a
full cocktail menu. Luxe Burger Bar in
Providence, R.I., lets guests build their own
burgers through a nine-step process, but it
also offers specialty sandwiches, starters,
soups, salads and more.
Then there are those restaurants that
only serve burgers. All of them serve a
cheeseburger, but they all call it something
different. Each one might have a signature
burger. And they all offer at least one
vegetarian burger. These joints truly can
call themselves burger bars. And who
owns them? Often, it’s successful chefs.
The Larkburger is ¹⁄
3 pound of 100%
chuck black angus cooked to order and
served with sliced tomatoes, leaf lettuce,
sliced onions and housemade sauce on
a fresh-baked bun.
Brent Bingham, Photo Effects
