Boilermaker

Given the choice between burger or pizza, I choose burger 90% of the time. As a native New Yorker, that’s probably a little shameful… almost as shameful as the secret I’ve been keeping from y’all, my dear and loyal readers.

Boilermaker has the best burger in NYC right now, and has taken over the title for my favorite burger – a title previously held for roughly 10 years by Shake Shack’s single shack.

A brief reminder of what I like in burgers: the meat should be savory, seasoned, and have a good sear. The burger should not be overwhelmingly large, but rather a good size to stuff in my mouth. Flavors and textures should all be balanced by each other. I will generally order a single burger over a double, when given the choice.

Boilermaker – a wonderful cocktail bar which I’ve been frequenting and makes delicious mocktails for when I’m not drinking – has a burger that doesn’t just satisfy all of these criteria; it transcends them. I would never have thought sweetness beyond a succulent tomato would belong on my burger; they’ve proved me wrong.

The delicious single is served on a toasted potato bun, topped with a leaf of lettuce, then pickled carrots and daikon, slivers of red onion, a slice of tomato, and – the real surprise winner here – fig aioli. The sweetness of the fig aioli plays against the vinegary pickled veggies, and everything is crunchy and delicious but then mingled with the beefy juices of the burger patty, which then takes your mouth to levels of heaven previously unknown to man.

Get thee to Boilermaker, and order the burger. Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this, but I’m drooling a little while writing this.

PS While I only posted one pic, I assure you I had to eat this burger multiple times to confirm that it was indeed consistently awesome, and worthy of the title. It is. I love it. I’ve had it more than 5x which is huge. Most of those times it was night/dark so the pics were terrible. This is the best one. Plus, Jinx.