Black Iron Burger has room for improvement
Some things are worth the hype. For example, The Michael Phelps Diet. Seriously? How can you go wrong? Pancakes. Ice cream. Hollandaise sauce. Mmmm... Some things are not worth the hype. For example, Black Iron Burger Shop as it stands today. They seems like a great little shop and have only been open for a few weeks. No doubt they can do better in the future. Consider this just an early look at their signature burger.
Black Iron Burger Shop is tucked between Avenue A and B on 5th Street. It's kind of a hike to get there and has a feel of a neighborhood spot. They have seven sandwich selections on the menu: Black Iron Burger, patty melt, turkey burger, BLT, grilled cheese, falafel burger, and the Iron Horse Burger (two patties). If you get a Black Iron Burger (BIB), it comes with rabbit food and horseradish cheddar. And once you add fries to that, it comes out to $12.50. But then somehow the 'tax' is $1.50. If you're scoring math at home, even if tax is 10%, it is less than $1.50 and sales tax in NY is less than 10%. Oh and the best part, the dude who did the math used a calculator right in front of me. Go figure. Yea yea, it's a burger shop and not rudimentary math class. But I should know that burgers and math don't mix
Aside from Intro to Calculators 101, the burger had some minor issues that will probably improve with time. As you can see from the above picture, they get a good char on the patty which is a plus. They seem to melt the cheese on the bun as opposed to the patty. I wonder what the thought is behind that because it seems most places melt it on the meat. The horseradish cheddar is quite flavorful and takes a little away from the meat itself. Regular cheddar and bluecheese are your other cheese options so maybe go with regular cheddar if you want to taste the meat more.
They do not ask how you want your burger. It was somewhere north of medium but not quite medium well. The patty is loosely packed but not overly juicy. You'll have no problem keeping your bun in tact. The meat to bun ration is decent once you squish the bun a little. As for the bun, it was brioche-y. I wasn't really sure what it was but it reminded me of other brioche buns.
The french fries were ok and well seasoned. Pretty addictive but I wouldn't call them super amazing. To give you a frame of reference, I really like McDonald fries so take what you want out of it. Maybe I'm not the person to ask about fries (or even burgers for that matter!)
Black Iron Burger was originally mentioned by the Times way back in February. And NY Mag talked about the griddle that they used. Maybe I just got too excited about it. The good news is no one with real taste buds has visited yet, so maybe the rest of the world will think it's the bomb. And they've also only been open a few weeks so they can definitely get better.
For my money though, $14 dollars for burger and fries is just not worth it unless the burger is simply amazing. And it's by Avenue B. Hmm... more burgers to come so stay tuned.
Black Iron Burger Shop
540 East 5th Street.
New York, NY 10079
212-677-6067
The cheese remnants after the bun top was lifted, looks like congealed fat on top of the burger patty.
wonders
September 15, 2008 11:56 am
Did you ask him what the tax rate is? WTF? Built in gratuity? I'm in a bitchy mood right now but seriously, I'd like to believe bitchy mood or not, I'd have been like, uh, what?
Yvo
September 15, 2008 12:04 pm
I hate it when I pay for food and it's not as good as I want it to be. Also that tax situation is pretty shady.
Aubrey
September 15, 2008 4:58 pm
Wonders,
hahaha, oh man.. now that you mention it...
Yvo,
I forgot to ask what the tax rate was but just made a note that it was funny how $1.50 rounded nicely as the tax. Go figure.
Aubrey,
Wooord. I hate when that happens. Good thing I eat things in bunches and the next burger experience was great. :)
Danny
September 15, 2008 5:10 pm