Shake Shack – BPC

We begin our burger journey right here in our hood with the newest outpost of Shake Shack on Murray Street by World Financial Center.  I’ve discovered a ‘slow time’ before 6pm, so decided to score some burgers on the way home from work.  This was a great place to begin.  The shake shack burger is a critically acclaimed burger we’ve always wanted to try but refused to do the line.  It’s kinda like the club scene…just cannot wait in a huge line for a burger!  It’s been a long time coming and they are worth the acclaim.

I ordered two burgers, one double Shack Burger and one Double Cheeseburger.  They were served in the same cardboard box presentation we got at the Ed’s Lobster Bar Kiosk the day prior but had a tad more box appeal.

The Shack Burger is a cheeseburger with special sauce and it comes with lettuce and tomato. The special sauce is a mayo based sauce with a bit more pizzaz than Russian Dressing (and less of the ketchup part).  This is the way to go if you are not opposed to mayo on your burger.  It is quite flavorful.  There is a hint of pickle flavor in there as well, thus no pickles on the sandwich itself.  However, the double cheeseburger was pretty fantastic as well.  I got it with the works, which was green leaf lettuce, plum tomatoes, onion and pickles.  We added the ketchup at home – just a touch although it is great without.  Perhaps the doubles were a bit overkill, but the singles looked a little small.

The burger itself is cooked on the griddle and they serve them cooked through.  Normally I would prefer medium-rare, but this is not that kind of burger.  It’s more on the thin burger side.  And the beef was tasty.  The roll is soft and dense, almost like a potato roll, but definitely white bread.  It gets soft with the juices.

This will be hard to top in its category.  Next time we are trying the dogs and tagging them onto our Dog Day Afternoon hot dog  tasting.

http://www.shakeshack.com/
215 Murray St. – Battery Park City

 BLT Bar & Grill

Since Battery Park seems to now be a mecca of chains and outposts for dogs, lobster rolls and burgers, we decided to hit all of them first.  The Hospitality group opened BLT Bar & Grill sans its namesake Laurent Tourondel in the W Hotel at the WTC site well over a year ago.  We’ve been VIP cardholders ever since.  It was the first of the rash of new openings in anticipation of the opening of the 9/11 Memorial and the coming of Goldman Sachs, responsible for the Danny Meyer empire entrance.

This burger does beat Shake Shack, but it is of a different class.  This falls under gourmet vs. fast food.  It’s the prime beef, thick and juicy kind vs. the thin patty.  The ‘BLT Burger’ is served with aged cheddar, double smoked bacon, romaine, beefsteak tomatoes and pickles.  It too, has a ‘special sauce’ which is quite similar to the Shake Shack sauce.  It has that mayo base with ketchup and it has pieces of their delicious pickles in it.    The burger is grilled on an open flame, not cooked on a griddle.  Of course cooked to your desired temperature – medium rare in this case. The patty size is equal to the ‘double’ at Shake Shack.  The BLT Burger easily packs a half pound of beef plus super thick smoked bacon.

BLT also makes a Shaft’s Blue Burger with balsamic carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms. We will absolutely add that to the review later.  We’ve had this burger and it is beyond fantastic. It’s the kind of burger that requires a nap afterwards, but it is sinfully rich and delicious.

All burgers come with a tin of fries that are insanely good.  That’s a different subject, but deserves a mention here.  The fries are batter dipped before the deep fry.  They serve a classic mayo based dipping sauce similar to, but more subtle than the special sauce on the burger in addition to ketchup.

http://www.e2hospitality.com/blt-bar-grill-new-york/
123 Washington Street – Financial District