I finally tried Shake Shack here in Harvard Square and was not blown away. I got the regular Shackburger; it was fine, but one step up from McDonalds: squashed bun, more-than-medium griddled patty with not much seasoning, a healthy dollop of ‘shack sauce’, all sort of sloppily piled into a paper sleeve. Nowhere near as good as the nearby Flat Patties or Tasty Burger. Fries were regular old crinkle-cut roadside-diner fries.
Hey what’s that cool long-table style sit-down restaurant near there? That place had GOOD burgers when I went in, musta been, 1997. Is it still there?
Maybe it’s Bartley’s. But I thought there was another place that had a bunch of long tables, cafeteria style. I dunno. Been too long.
You mean Mr Bartley’s? If so, they’re still good, but after being featured on a bunch of shows like Diners Drive-ins and Dives, they became a bit of a tourist attraction, their prices skyrocketed, and there’s always a line. They take pride these days in not seasoning their burgers and in being super right-wing conservative. So while I still like their burgers a lot, it’s hard to pay $14 for a burger mockingly named after Obamacare or Joe Biden.
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Well, heck with Bartley’s then. It was dark in there when I went, lots of harvard kids, fun place. Oh well.
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Dangit. Expansion hurts every good burger joint.
That happened with a place down in Destin, Florida. There was a little beachside burger hut called Fudpuckers (as opposed to Fuddruckers) – “you ain’t been pucked 'till ya been Fudpucked.” IIRC the special sauce was “orgasm sauce.” They opened a bigger location in Ft. Walton Beach but the original place was still going. A few years later, the original location had evidently been set afire and they built a new, huge place away from the beach, on the highway bypass. Big and successful but the food wasn’t the same. I guess they had to kill it to save it. Brings to mind what the late Mr. Berra said, “nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
I love to dis my hometown, Arlington TX*, but I have to say upon reflection that I don’t think I ever ate a better burger than I did when I lived in Arlington. The very best burgers were from gas stations – there was a chain called Jackson’s, and another store called Quickway, that had kitchens and a few seats inside the convenience store. To this day I prefer a griddled burger to a grilled one – i.e. cooked on a greasy flat surface, rather than over an open flame. But this was back in the late '80s, and I haven’t visited Arlington in at least 11 years.
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I prefer flame, if its wood. Not because it changes the flavor of the burger but because it changes the smell of the joint. If it’s gas with a hood… Who cares.
The old griddles are pretty amazing. They put Teflon to shame. And the heat is more predictable than your watch.
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Your meticulous attention to detail has me enthralled in an OCD kind of way. “What will he cite next?”
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I like a cast iron skillet with plenty of olive oil in there, sometimes butter. I’ll even put the skillet on the grill and put the burger in it. Grilled is ok, but skilleted… ftw.
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Yes! I do that. Also, I have a pizza stone and make scratch pizza on the bbq. Great way to have pizza in the summer and not heat up the house with the oven.
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I’ll take a cold frosty pint of something, even something local, but I swore off hops (meaning very hoppy beer, I’m aware it’s pretty much in all beer) about a year ago and never looked back. I don’t hate them, but goddamn if excessive hoppiness isn’t to microbrews what cranberries are to juices. I suspect it’s because ales are easier and cheaper to make as a class but that’s just me blowing smoke.
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Extreme TO THE MAX DUUUUDE!! IPAs are ruining nice beer. It’s getting harder to find drinkable ones over here in England now as well. This is all your fault, America.
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These days I’ve switched to German beer, cider, and anything British with “old” in the name. American microbrews are inevitably hopfests no matter what style they claim to be.
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I used to love hops. Heck, I used to grow hops and homebrew with em. They’re lovely. But you are correct: they are totally overused. Most of the gourmet beer section at the market is pale ales/IPAs!!! An IPA is nice every once in a while, like a sipping shot of something weird and cool like a new Calvados. I do not want one every time I have a beer. I am annoyed that it means all those other wonderful styles of beer are 1. harder to find and 2. more expensive now because the demand must be so high for IPAs. There has even been style creep because craft pils all taste just like IPAs now!
IPAs are about as drinkable as olive oil. Give me something else in another style, please.
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Not to mention it’s a good way to distinguish your recipe from someone else’s. I think remarkably hoppy beers will stick around, but they’ll melt back towards the baseline as the industry matures. The double/triple hopped beers were, to my mind, just outliers trying to find the market edges. And if not, well, I’m one of those lucky few that does love a hoppy beer, so I’m all set.
Now if the world should suddenly anoint hefeweizen as the end-all be-all, I’m out.
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Remember in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when lambics were all the rage? Now, they aren’t and IPAs/pale ales are the rage in the USA. This too shall pass.
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I would suggest a ceramic waffle-iron, making your own pizza-pockets.
Blame San Francisco, you don’t find that much abusiveness coming out of Seattle these days.
My local watering hole, while it doesn’t have actual lambics on tap, has a number of geuzes and American sours at all times. They are still very popular.
I love big IPAs buy haven’t brewed one in years. I do have a couple of Cascade rhizomes near the house though for when I do.
You all would love Brewers Union 180 in Oakridge Oregon. When was the last time you saw a Mild on tap (Ted usually has a few).
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