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Camera in the Kitchen: brgr
By
Robyn Robyn
Published Apr 13, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Robyn Robyn
Published Apr 13, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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From the restaurant's hip design and web 2.0-esque name, brgr gives the impression that it churns out especially tasty burgers. Why else would they go through the trouble of creating a cool space for their vowel-less star creation and be able to charge $8 or more per bun-hugged patty if the food weren't awesome?


While the beef burger wasn't bad, it failed to reach the expected level of awesomeness that would propel us into burger heaven. Even if our burger had come out medium-rare as we had asked instead of what looked more like medium-well, it probably still would've been slightly disappointing. The patty thankfully didn't suffer from dryness, as it was moist enough -- we were mainly bothered by the uniformly mushy texture. Sure, we like soft, rare, bloody burgers that make us feel like we're chomping straight into a cow, but those kinds of burgers have juicy, flavorful softness. This burger had non-juicy mushiness, if that makes any sense. Perhaps due to a taste bud malfunction, we couldn't taste much flavor from the patty or the toppings and sauces. Or maybe we were preoccupied by the texture.
Still, we ate the whole burger because it was tasty enough. And it did cost about $9.

On another visit we went with the veggie burger since we knew the beef burger was not to our liking. Surprisingly, we really liked it...at least compared to its bovine counterpart. Admittedly, we've never eaten a veggie burger before and thus have nothing to compare brgr's burger to, but the freshly ground vegetables seemed to have more flavor than the beef and made us feel like we weren't doing a huge disservice to our organs by eating it. The texture was very soft, almost like mashed potato, which may or may not be a turn off. We think that deep frying the patty would result in a better veggie burger oozing with delicious fatty crispiness, the downside being that the burger's healthfulness would drop a few notches.

But a price (namely the depletion of nutrients from one's body) has to be paid for bliss-inducing deliciousness. brgr's milkshakes are among the best we've ever forcefully sucked through a straw to the point of reaching brain freeze. Those are the best kind. A friend told us that each deceptively petite cup of blended dairy joy contains four scoops of ice cream. We chose not to think about the recipe of our shake as we happily splurped it down past the point when our belly should have exploded because we refused to let even one drop go to waste.
brgr is located at 287 7th Ave (between 26th Street and 27th Street ). 212-488-7500
Tagged
burgers
design
food
restaurants
Web 2\.0
Robyn Robyn
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