Monday, September 21, 2009

Butcher Burger

Butcher and Singer

1500 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19102-3523
(215) 732-4444

How many steakhouses can Stephen Starr open? I have been to Barclay Prime, and it is fantastic. Although Starr is consistently pretty good in all of his restaurants, he is also consistently way too expensive for me to want to eat at any of his establishments repeatedly when there are so many other independent fine dining restaurants in Philadelphia. As you probably have heard, PYT up in Northern Liberties is really generating some noise, however almost everyone who has eaten there has felt it was a bit of a let down. I am going to pass; I hate the name and the gimmick of the place. Also, Five Guys has ruined me, in that I don’t think I should have to pay for each topping. As you have probably heard, in response to PYT, Butcher and Singer has slashed the price of their Butcher and Singer burger down from $16 to $5.99 - talk about change we can believe in! Well, I had heard many people talking about it, but I wanted to see for myself.

When you walk into the room, it is really pretty spectacular. It has a dimly lit old school feel - like you are on Mad Men or something. All of the servers are dressed finely and wearing pressed pants and Tuxedo shirts. The decorations are pretty cool, and I immediately thought, “sooo, is this whole six buck burger and fries just a rumor or what?” Well, when I looked around, 98% of the restaurant was eating burgers. On a Monday. So I ordered the burger and stuck with water. A soft drink would have probably pushed me over the edge. No need for carbonation and 10 ounces of ground beef during lunch when I have to go back to work. So I order my burger from the snappily dressed waitress, medium rare, of course, and check out the surroundings. Mostly upscale clientele with business people there for the lunch burger deal. Literally three minutes pass, and we have our food. It was insane. They must be back on the line just cranking them out.

It arrived looking like what it was, a monstrous pile of meat and lettuce with a sweet puffy potato bun. The French fries served with it were fried perfectly and SOO addicting (must be the peanut oil and copious amounts of salt!). I took a bite of the burger. Wow, it was delicious, however hard to eat in the form presented. Yes I could have taken some of the lettuce or tomatoes off, but I am not that kind of guy. The meat was cooked perfectly. Red in the middle, pink around, and juicy. The cheddar was great, sharp and flavorful, but not overpowering the rich, quality meat presented in the burger. The onions, while good were greasy - a bit too greasy, in my opinion. The burger was also too greasy. It was sliding everywhere, and given its large stature to begin with, this made for a challenging task positioning it with a proper bun & topping ratio per-bite. Fortunately, I was able to rise to the occasion and finish the entire thing (of course). I understand there will be increased juice when ordering medium rare, that’s the point, but this was straight up grease. I soiled the table cloth and my napkin to over three quarters of its surface area wiping my greasy hands. These were fine linen napkins and table cloths too. That’s a lot of grease for the kind of place that folds your napkin when you go to the bathroom.

All in all I would say the burger is well worth the limited time price tag. I would not pay $16 for it, but then again, I PROBABLY wouldn’t spend that much on ANY burger. But I can’t be sure. When it all comes down to it, even with tip, it is literally the same if not slightly less to eat the Butcher Burger than it is to go to McDonald’s. I would highly recommend trying the former.

1 comment:

pink vinyl tablecloth said...

Did you manage to clean your table cloth with your greasy hands? How is that? :)