Manhattan Drone: In Search of Beer and Burgers

It’s starting to get warm outside, and to me, there’s nothing better than a nicely charred burger off the grill that you can chase with an ice-cold beer on a warm spring day. Maybe that’s just me. But I can assure you that’s not an exaggeration on my part - just ask my waistline.

The problem in New York is that there are plenty of great burger places and plenty of great beer places, but rarely do the two meet. There is one way around this: make a plan. Here are a few of those plans to enjoy a great beer and a great burger.

A Washington, DC import has joined the ranks of the best burgers in New York: Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened their first location in Queens last year, and now have three in Manhattan, including one on Bleecker Street at 7th Avenue in the West Village. Five Guys’ regular burgers are massive. In fact, if you want a burger with one patty, you order a “little cheeseburger.” A little is plenty for most people, considering if you order fries, they will be served in massive quantities in the bag with your burger. You actually have to dig through your fries just to get to your burger. It is a glutton’s dream come true. But alas, there’s no beer at Five Guys. For great beer, though, you only have to walk one block down Bleecker - which is about as far as you’ll want to walk from being so full. Blind Tiger Ale House has more than two dozen beers on draft - mostly microbrews - and a list of bottles that will make your head spin. Plus, if the burger didn’t fill you up (you might want to get that looked at), they serve some snacks and cheese fresh from the cheesemongers at Murray’s down the block.

If you head east to the corner of 3rd Avenue & 12th Street, you might be able to close your eyes and think you’re in Southern California. That’s what loyalists of Blue 9 Burger claim when they compare their burger to the California-based burger nirvana known as In-n-Out. I wouldn’t go that far, but Blue 9 puts out a damn good burger. They use fresh ingredients, and their mango chili sauce is a tasty complement to both the burger and the fries. If you care to add a beer to your meal, you can carry the burger down to Standings, a few blocks away on 7th Street. It’s a small sports bar (how small? Well, Real Estate agents would call it “cozy”), but it packs quite a punch with its 12 unique microbrew drafts and enough TVs to make your head spin. They don’t serve food, so saddle up to a table and wash down your burger with a Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale. If they’re out of that, they’ll recommend something else. The taps change daily. On busy days, they might change several times just while you’re there. So if you don’t like what’s on the menu, just wait a few minutes.

Finally, there’s the best of both worlds: a bar that serves a great burger with beer. For that, head to Royale on Avenue C. Burger freaks have a burger top ten list, and this is never far from the top. The bun is soft and airy, the burger is near-perfect, and the toppings as so fresh, you’d swear they came from a farmstand. A Royale with Cheese (hold the Pulp Fiction reference, thanks) is pure heaven. At Royale, you can wash that down with several beers. If you’re on a budget, the bar serves up $4 cans of upstate Butternuts Brewery’s Porkslap Ale, which pairs quite well with the burger. As the weather warms up, Royale has a beautiful courtyard that’s ideal for a late lunch on a summer afternoon.

Now, I’m going to go out for lunch and grab some sushi. Yes, sushi. A man cannot live on burgers alone!

« previous post    next post »