The 175 Dollar Burger

Not Clinton Hill-related, but in the spirit of NYC food in general, I give you the $175 hamburger.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Its creators admit it is the ultimate in decadence: a $175 hamburger.

The Wall Street Burger Shoppe just raised its price from $150 to assure its designation as the costliest burger in the city as determined by Pocket Change, an online newsletter about the most expensive things in New York.

"Wall Street has good days and bad days. We wanted to have the everyday burger (for $4) ... and then something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street," said co-owner Heather Tierney.

The burger, created by chef and co-owner Kevin O'Connell, seeks to justify its price with a Kobe beef patty, lots of black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flecks of gold leaf on a brioche bun.

The eatery sells 20 or 25 per month in the fine dining room upstairs versus hundreds of $4 burgers each day at the diner counter downstairs, Tierney said.

I'd rather go to 67 Burger or make my own, although I admit to not having any truffles around.

Cafe Martino Prix Fix Dinner Specials

A reader recently urged me to stop into Cafe Martino, and while I still plan on doing that, I thought I'd relay something I saw over at Myrtle Minutes. Cafe Martino is now offering Prix Fix Dinner Specials in addition to breakfast and lunch.

I've heard nothing but great things about this place but I just haven't had the opportunity to stop in. Now that they'll be open a little later, I hope I'll be able to.

Information:

Cafe Martino
559 Myrtle Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718.636.3966

Google Map

Square Root Cafe Grand Opening

It's a lovely (and cold) day, and in between playing with the dog and doing laundry, we sauntered over to the Square Root Cafe, which is finally open for business. I wasn't in any shape to move on New Year's Day, let alone go to a free brunch, so I missed their soft grand opening a few weeks ago. Today they finally opened up for real, and we went in for lunch.

The space inside is pretty nice and not cramped at all. There's some fun decorations - a 60's-era Coke machine, jukebox, phone booth (?!), etc. It's got somewhat of an old-fashioned diner feel, with some campy hipsterness thrown in.

Since it was so cold out, we ordered up some hot chocolate to sip while we waiting for our food. The chocolate was really, really good - I highly recommend it.

For lunch, we each ordered a panini. Mick had The Bela, which had portobello mushrooms, spinach, and goat cheese. I had The Neapolitan - tomato, basil, mozzarella, and grilled chicken. Despite taking a really long time to show up, both were pretty great. We'll chalk the long wait up to it being their first day, but it's certainly something they need to make sure and work on.

The prices were reasonable (it was less than $20 for the both of us), and the staff was friendly. Since it's so close, we'll definitely be back, especially for a Sunday brunch. If only they served mimosas...

Information:

Square Root Cafe
584 Myrtle Avenue
718.230.7077
www.squarerootcafe.com

Google Map

67 Burger

After last night I didn't think I could handle any more red meat. It turns out I was wrong.

After not getting a chance to eat all day, I pulled myself away from work for a while to get out of the house and get some air. I originally thought I'd walk over to Quizno's on Myrtle, but when I passed by I decided I wasn't really in the mood for it. I walked pretty far down Myrtle, considering each restaurant I passed, but nothing really jumped out at me. I did seriously consider Maggie Brown, but I wasn't positive I really wanted a burger yet.

I did get to pop in Barking Brown for the first time, though. Cute little shop with some really nice hats. Hats kick ass.

Anyway, after walking almost all of the way to Fort Greene Park, I hung a left and walked down to Lafayette. Briefly considered Olea, but passed on that. By this point I had burger on the brain and I was heading for 67 Burger, a joint I'd never gotten a chance to go in.

I didn't have my phone or camera with me, so you'll have to forgive the lack of pictures.

Let's go over what I didn't like about 67 Burger first: this is an expensive burger joint. I got a burger - their signature "67 Burger" - fries, and a diet coke, and it ran me $15. That seems a bit steep for a burger and fries, personally. My only other complaint was that the fries didn't seem to have much, if any, salt on them, and there were no salt shakers on the table.

Ok, enough nitpicking, on to the good stuff: this is a fantastic burger. I got mine medium, and it was on the rare side of medium, which was fine with me. I usually order burgers medium unless I trust the place to do medium rare justice, and these guys have earned my trust. The 67 burger is a good size patty with bacon and blue cheese, and like all burgers comes with lettuce, tomato, and onion. It wasn't long for this world, as I pretty much inhaled it, pausing only to turn the pages of the copy of The Onion I was reading. It's a pretty messy eat, but the fries did a great job of picking up anything that dropped to the plate.

The fries were pretty great, minus my salt caveat. They weren't soggy or too greasy, and they came to the table hot enough to kill a man.

The diet coke was a diet coke.

67 Burger is awesome. Better than Five Guys? I'm not sure, but they're still really good, and much closer to me than 5 Guys, so I'm more likely to go.

Now, I really need to go run a mile or three before I kill myself with red meat. I really should've gotten a turkey burger, but whatever.

Information:

67 Burger
67 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718.797.7150
http://67burger.com

Google Map

Craving A Noodle Bowl

Today on the way to the gym I was craving a noodle bowl for some reason. There's nothing like that in our food court at work except for the a Chinese place, and their lo mein sucks and isn't really what I had in mind anyway. I was resigned to getting something else.

So I went to the gym and then to our company cafe, which was recently completely redone. Lo(!) and behold today they had a build your own noodle bowl bar. I got soba noodles with chicken and all sorts of other stuff in them - pea pods, sprouts, broccoli, tofu, mushrooms, and some other stuff I can't remember.

Just an awful picture, I know, but the lighting in my office sucks and it's a cell phone camera.

It's awesome, and spicy as hell (yay rooster sauce). So is there any place in Clinton Hill to get a great bowl of noodles? I think my favorite bowl in the city is this Thai place that I can't remember the name of in midtown - 56th or 57th I want to say. The spicy drunken noodles there are fantastic, but since I don't work in midtown any longer, I haven't been back. I'd love to find a great neighborhood noodle place - preferably one that delivers.

Welcome

We spent most of yesterday out of the house and, for the first time in my life that I can remember, had two separate brunches. The first was at a fantastic little Mediterranean place on Lafayette called Oléa that we've enjoyed for a while. We were there at about 9:45 and got a seat outside - a perfect vantage point to watch the NYC Marathon. I had the parmesan French toast and Mickey had a Greek omelette. Both were outstanding, although she admitting being jealous of mine because it was lathered in hollandaise sauce.

Later, after a trip up to Queens to run some errands, we found ourselves having our second brunch at Maggie Brown where we eschewed the traditional brunch fair and each had a cheeseburger. Neither of us had ever been to Maggie Brown although I'd been meaning to for a while. The burger was great, especially notable for the excellent, reasy bun and the horseradish they sprinkle on top of the cheddar.

During the meal I mused out loud that I should start a blog about restaurants in Clinton Hill. There are new ones opening every week it seems, and since we both love food we try and hit as many of them as we can. As everyone should already know, Clinton Hill in Brooklyn is the "bloggiest" neighborhood in the nation. I'm a regular visitor to the fantastic Clinton Hill Blog, and I love when they post about new restaurants. Eating Clinton Hill is another I had high hopes for, but they don't seem to be updating much these days. By the end of the meal I'd decided it would be fun to try my hand at my own Brooklyn food blog. I haven't had a regular blog since 2000 or so, and back then it was about my adventures in web design and technology. I don't know if I'll have the time or the inclination to keep this updated regularly with interesting tidbits, but I'll give it a try in any event. Thanks for stopping by, and if you enjoy what you read, spread the word!