Milk Burger. Milk Shakes.

You know what's pretty awesome? A burger under $10.

You know what's even more awesome? When that same burger comes with bacon, jalapeno relish and melted cheese with a sunnyside up egg that juts out at you like a star. For $7.75. Behold the El Barrio from Milk Burger! It's like Shake Shack without the wait. Only you have to trek up to East Harlem for it.

Fun tip: take the Java shake for the long walk back downtown. Vanilla ice cream spun with Cafe Patron. Makes your afternoon that much better.

Rumor has it they're coming to Williamsburg this summer!

Milk Burger

2051 2nd Ave, NY, NY 10029
Btwn 105th & 106th St
(212) 360-1988

The Five Leaves Burger

Okay, so I know I was just talking about how great a classic burger is and how special its non-specialness is and all that, but I have to talk about the concept of the Five Leaves burger now. It's fantastic. I've had it a little overdone or underdone or generally not that great in the past and it seems like they've finally nailed it.

The Five Leaves burger is a big, high-quality, somewhat fatty beef chuck topped with a grilled pineapple ring, pickled beets and a sunny-side-up egg with harissa mayo on a ciabatta bun. The end result is a fantastic combination of sweet, spicy and beefy, the egg adding a level of creaminess and the pineapple and beets contributing a little vinegar in addition to its unique flavors. (Strange illumination of picture below due to combination of 2009 iPhone pic in dim light and misunderstanding of Photoshop techniques in general).

I knew that the burger had the potential to be this good because I've made this at home before! Yup, one of my favorite recipe books, The New Brooklyn Cookbook, includes the burger from Five Leaves (and also the brick chicken from Marlow & Sons, duck legs and dirty rice from Egg, and the hanger steak from Dressler... hard to find a more awesome book). It was a bit of advanced cooking in terms of timing and patience making this at home, but it also gave me an appreciation for what goes into it. The pineapple ring is cooked in vinegar, honey, ginger and a few other ingredients before sitting overnight in the fridge. It's grilled right before its placed on the burger. The harissa mayo is whipped up at home with a little lime zest and lime juice. The eggs have to be fried just right. The buns need to be grilled with butter and the burgers need to be shaped and cooked to a perfect medium rare.

If you're feeling crafty, you should give it a try. Or go to Nights and Weekends for a few drinks, because your table at Five Leaves won't be ready for at least another hour.

Five Leaves
18 Bedford Ave

Classic Burgers: Shake Shack & JG Melon

Happy almost Spring! We're lucky Daylight Savings Time began on such a mild, warm day. This afternoon we set off for a few hours of wandering about the city with hopes of catching an early, hopefully waitless dinner at Ippudo. But after a walking a few blocks out in the sun, we decided instead to join the end of the 40 min line at Shake Shack. 

It's something about the longer, lazier days that makes me think of classic, just-off-the-grill burgers that you'd get at home. No fancy cheese, no weird bun, no fois gras. Just quality meat, a basic hamburger bun, American cheese, lettuce, tomato. The Shackburger has definitely grown on me since the first time I had it. I like the almost jagged, uneven burger patties, the small amount of grease that seeps into the fresh bun, the American cheese that binds everything together. The krinkle cut fries have improved a lot here as well. They're crispier than they used to be. And better with cheese on top.

I'm glad it was getting a little chilly towards the end of the meal, or else I might have been tempted to hop onto the B Line and get one of those Concrete Jungle frozen custards with the fudge and peanut butter and bananas. OMG deliciousness. Shoot, I'm kind of regretting not getting one now.

JG Melon's burger is really similar to Shake Shack's, but they seem to get a lot less attention. Maybe because the old bar is tucked away on the UES? Still, the place still gets pretty crowded on the weekends. They use fresh, high quality meat with a lot of salt, plain American cheese, and a regular bun. I like to get mine with bacon for an extra crunch. 

I should add that I don't think any plain old burger is a good one. I'm a firm believer that it all comes back to the quality of the ingredients. Donovan's Pub in Woodside is supposed to have one of the better ones, but on my last visit, the burger was overcooked and the bacon had that springiness that old bacon tends to have. Lesson learned: a trip to Woodside will never be complete without a meal at Srirpraphai!

Shake Shack
Madison Square Park


JG Melon
1291 Third Ave (at 74th St.)

Burger Fridays

There are so many good burgers to be had in the city. Just ask the Burger Club from the NYTimes, read one of the latest articles from NYMag or check out Grub City's list of the city's 82 most notable burgers. It seems sort of overwhelming, as I want to try them all and not compromise my recent attempts to eat healthier. I think I've found the perfect plan of attack though: Friday afternoons, one new burger spot. I have half day Fridays in the summertime so its a great time to just sit and relax. Plus, I've found a burger with lots of bacon and cheese to be a pretty good reward for eating well during the weekdays.

I had my first burger of the summer at Dumont Burger. This place is fairly well-known as Williamsburg's favorite spot for a good bun and patty, so of course I felt the need to verify this loose claim. But honestly I wasn't terribly impressed, though it was a good, high chunk of meat. The ingredients were all very fresh (I tried mine with guacamole and grilled onions) but the meat was a bit overcooked. The saving grace here was the mac 'n' cheese -- simply incredible. My favorite kind of pasta (radiatore) that perfectly holds the thick cheese and crispy bacon in its folds, saturating it with cheesy perfection. I'm not usually a fan of heavy duty mac 'n' cheeses, but this one was amazing.

Dumont Burger
314 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 384-6128
DumontRestaurant.com

Next stop was Joy Burger Bar in Harlem. Rob works near here and comes here a lot for lunch, so I joined him one Friday after work. Maybe I'm a tough burger critic, but again I wasn't all that impressed. There's no table service, you just wait in line and order at the counter. Very similar to Goodburger, although I have to admit I like Goodburger more (even though its crazy overpriced). Even if its slightly crowded when you get there, you'll have to wait forever because they make each burger to order. Munch (3 oz), midi (5 oz) or maxi (8 oz), then topped with whatever sauce you want (and they do have a nice selection of those). On my first visit I got the midi with garlic mayo and sauteed onions. The garlic mayo was pretty watery, and I couldn't even detect any garlicky taste. The burger was flat and the overcooked parts were gray and dripping with grease. My stomach didn't feel so great afterwards. On my next trip I swapped the mayo for some chimichurri sauce, which definitely improved the overall taste, though the meat was still flat and grayish. I think the medium-sized patty was too slim for it to have any hope of pink after it was ordered to medium doneness. It's too bad, but my stomach fared much better this time, even with a half order of mozzerella sticks. And at about $6 for a medium sized burger, the price is right here.

Joy Burger Bar
1567 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10029
(212) 289-6222

Well, I guess the third time's the charm, because Prune absolutely blew me away. Maybe its because Prune figured out the perfect calculations for an ideal mound of ground meat: 80% beef and 20% lamb. Maybe its because I felt confident ordering the burger the way I really like it: medium rare. Maybe its the parsley-scallion butter that pares so well with the cheddar. Or maybe it's because of the English muffin. I've never been a big fan of bready hamburger buns -- they never add much to the burger equation anyway -- and I found the English muffin to be a great bun substitute. The greasy pink juices (which squirt out every which way upon every bite) settle into the crevices nicely, and the thin halves take up minimal room, so much of your bite is straight up beef and lamb. Put a small slice of cheddar cheese on top and a strip of bacon on the bottom and I think I found my favorite NYC burger yet. Much better than Five Napkin. Better than Luger's, even. Yeah... I said it. And I'm not taking it back.

Prune
54 E. 1st St.
New York, NY 10003
212-677-6221
PruneRestaurant.com