Building a better burger
You’ll flip over The Counter’s custom-made creations
By Dan O'Heron 05/13/2010
From buns to bowls, from fingers to forks, the build-your-own burgers unfold at The Counter in the highest, tastiest style you can imagine.
As a guest, you are the architect and designer in providing a blueprint by checking off boxes on a menu; the kitchen does the building. You begin by selecting the type of burger (beef, chicken, turkey, veggie or market special), its size (one-third pound, two-thirds pound or one pound) and type (on a bun or in a bowl).
Then you mark selections from a choice of 12 cheeses, 30 toppings, 21 sauces and four buns. On my first visit, I was glad that the building takes place in the kitchen. In a self-serve buffet line, given so many options, a shambling tray-bumping yeti might try to build a burger to match his mountains.
Noting so many intriguing menu choices — including one I would come to love, horseradish mayo — I was worried about the greed of my own appetite and its impact. Would my burger become too tall and topple over? Could I get my mouth around it in public with any kind of decorum? Would I have to go outside and eat it behind a tree? Or should I just cheat and order it in a bowl and eat it with a fork?
“Not to worry,” said The Counter partner Jason Doherty. Most people make fully grown burgers that are pretty easy to handle, “except for the few who overload the bun with cheese,” he said.
Checking the list, I could understand why. Included among 12 choices were fine cheeses like sweet, nutty Gruyere, prized for out-of-hand eating and a perfect mate for beef, and oozy, buttery soft Brie.
I missed Muenster on the list. Originally made by Benedictine monks, it’s blessed on a burger.
When piled on with excessive tangles of popular fried onion strings, the burger may seem to be too tall for comfort on a bun and may be consigned to a bowl. But, onion lovers tell me, it’s easy to compress.
For guests like me, who don’t trust their own inspirations, the kitchen composes six signature burgers — no additions, no substitutions. My first taste was the plain “Purist,” simply a patty on a bun. No etceteras. The taste of the 100-percent natural Angus beef was superb. Used on all the burgers, it retains an 80/20 ratio of beef to fat. The fat kept my medium-well burger nicely moist.
Cooked on a ridged grill that imparts appetizing charcoal markings, the beef tastes better than anything I’ve tasted in a burger — and that includes Kobe. The Counter burgers usually range in price from $7.50 to $10.50, depending on the size and the amount of toppings. In comparison, spending $17 on a Kobe beef burger elsewhere seems silly and wasteful. It’s like feeding caviar to a dog.
To develop taste preferences, whether for an agglomeration of burger, dried cranberries, roasted red peppers, Black Forest ham, Russian dressing or apricot sauce, The Counter is a spiffy lab. Built in the stead formerly occupied by Radhika’s Cuisine of India, it sports the look and feel of a post-modern diner, notably reflected in art work that studs the walls throughout.
A creation of local artist Joe Joe — or as he puts it, JoeX2 — the amusing pop art-like provocations are totally fascinating. One painting really got to me. I regarded it as an old Helms Bakery truck caught in a windstorm. From it, I caught a whiff of fresh bread. Also, to spark the ambiance, there’s a snazzy beer and wine bar —– the kind that rarely comes with hamburger.
As a teenager, I was fortunate to live near a joint where a hamburger made my annals. It was called Pop’s Pampered Burger. In making the burger, Pop didn’t allow for additions or substitutions. He’d say, “I do it my way. You can remove what you wish but don’t throw it on the floor.”
While grilling a well-peppered patty, his method was to slice a beefsteak tomato and large onion to the exact circumference of the burger and bun, overlaying both with see-through strips of dill pickle and folded iceberg lettuce. In each bite, you could taste all the flavors. It was a judicious use of simple ingredients.
I’m judging that The Counter burger, even at the risk of its complexity, is a mile ahead.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT