February 19, 2005

Peter Luger's hamburger takes a beating in NY Times

The elsewhere-elevated lunchtime-only burger at Peter Luger is turned into well, ground beef, by New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni. He and two friends trekked to Williamsburg for lunch and paid a visit to one of the city's finest steakhouses. He was not amused:

My friends and I elongated our burger anticipation by having a Caesar salad, which was icy and insipid. We didn't care. The burgers, we felt certain, would redeem all. I ordered mine medium-rare with Muenster. One of my friends ordered his medium without cheese; the other ordered hers rare with a slab of Luger's famous Canadian bacon on the side.

None of the burgers hit their marks. Mine arrived medium to medium-well. The one that was supposed to be medium was much more done than that. The one that was supposed to be rare verged on raw. Its center was scarily cold.

This was a clear failure of attentiveness in the kitchen, and when a burger is as round and high-rising as Luger's, vigilance is necessary to make sure the layers are not heated too unevenly and incorrectly. It's a geometric challenge.

February 19, 2005 08:17 AM in Foodology, Out of Manhattan

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