(They’ve got shiny silverware!)
8oz Burger Bar, 9.17.09
After eating here last night, I’ve figured out what makes a great burger. It’s not just a great patty, or excellent condiments, or some strange special ingredient.
It’s every component of the burger working in concert, creating a combined taste that is greater than the sum of its parts.
I figured this out because the 8oz burger bar’s burger did not do this. Their patty was delicious, a blend of “sirloin, tri-tip, short rib and chuck cured in our himalayan salt locker”. Now I don’t know how a himalayan salt locker comes into play, here, but it sure didn’t hurt.
Unfortunately, that was really the only stand-out part of the burger. The lettuce, the pickles, the tomatoes, the bun, all were decent. Standard. None of those elements took away from the meat, but they didn’t help the taste along, either.
The great burgers I’ve had so far, The Foundry’s burger, Father’s Office’s burger, those were burgers where each piece was given the same excellent amount of care. Where the overall taste was factored using each element as a necessary part of the equation.
It’s a complex culinary arithmetic, but it’s what’s required for such a dish.
8oz burger bar, while their menu was solid, their service excellent, their waitress saucy and fun, should really put a bit more effort into creating a Fine Burger, not just a fine patty.
And don’t give me the “put they let you choose what kind of cheese, and what kind of sauce and what kind of whatever you want on your burger” retort. I want not buffet freedom. I want a chef to give me a dish saying “This. This is what I have created. It is perfect as it is. I know better than you. Do not substitute. Eat.”
Grade: B-
