Burgergal recently enlightened me to a happy hour special at the Beacon Restaurant and Bar. For a mere $19.95, any time from noon to 9pm, you get two drinks (well, beer, or house wine) and a burger or pizza.
Of course we had to be there. And my recent oral surgery (today, in fact) requires me to take a break from solid foods for a bit. In fact, one of the two things that I could do to “really mess it up”: take a bite into a sandwich. Now, before we get into a philosophical debate about whether a hamburger is a sandwich or not, safe to say that I will be heeding my periodontist’s advice.
All of that said, I needed one of my last meals to be a good one. And I’ve gotta say, the burger at the Beacon did not disappoint. I unfortunately did not take any pictures, since I was too ravenously devouring the burger, but there is a great set of pictures taken by our friends over at Midtown Lunch.
The burger comes out pre-cut, immediately revealing how cooked it is. Ours were a perfect medium, with a rosy color all the way through and a nice char on the outside. When I first saw the inside of the patty, however, I thought that it looked a little pre-salted, like Kenji on Serious Eats had warned not to do. It didn’t look like it would be as crumbly as a JG special, or even a Shake Shack smashed burger. This gave me my doubts, but at the price, who was I to complain?
But then I took my first bite. The meat was well seasoned, and it was juicy as could be. The flavor was great, enhanced by the onion bun, which absorbed all of the umami-rich fat that was dripping from the patty. The burger had a smokiness to it that was earthy, reminiscent of the black label (although much less aged tasting), which was further enhanced by the smoky ketchup that was served with it. With a slice of American cheese (as Laurent Tourondel says, “for a cheeseburger, the only cheese you can use”), it was great. Even now, the memory of the burger is with me, as I am relegated to Jell-O pudding and yogurt, and even that hurts to eat 🙁
The fries were ok, but nothing to write home about. They were a little inconsistent, with some being a little soggy.
But I still devoured all of them.
And that was that. And today I went to aperiTIVO with uberchef for a my true last solid/tomato-based/spicy/hot meal for a week or so. And it was great.
