Best burgers<\/h1>\n

By William M. Dowd<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello. My name is Bill and I\u2019m a hamburger addict.<\/p>\n

From the days long ago when I\u2019d visit my mom and wheedle her to bring me a burger from the kitchen of the smalltown restaurant where she was a waitress to the every-Friday burger night tradition my now grown kids still remember to today\u2019s unrelenting search for yet another good burger joint, I love that ground beef.<\/p>\n

The Capital Region, like much of America, is loaded with burger offerings of all sorts, ranging from the frozen discs slapped down on griddles at greasy spoon dives to pricey Kobe beef sliders at the upscale dp: An American Brasserie at the Hampton Inn in downtown Albany.<\/p>\n

Over nearly 20 years of reviewing restaurants in the Baltimore-Washington megaplex, in the Capital Region and in nearby swaths of New England, I\u2019ve tried \u2018em all, from enduring icons such as the South End Tavern in Troy that opened in 1934 to seasonal places like Jumpin\u2019 Jack\u2019s on a bank of the Mohawk River in Scotia.<\/p>\n

Even when I promise myself not to order a burger just because a place looks like it\u2019s a place for them, I sometimes hedge my bets as I once did at Scarboroughs in Rotterdam\u2019s Hannaford Plaza with a thick, delicious cheeseburger soup du jour.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m continually reassessing which places I think serve the best burgers. New combinations arise, new contenders arrive — think Fuddruckers, the Texas-based chain (motto: \u201cWorld\u2019s Greatest Hamburgers\u201d) that will succeed the failed Lone Star steakhouse on Colonie\u2019s Wolf Road.<\/p>\n

I do try to avoid those fast-food chains that treat burgers as just one more widget to crank out on the assembly line. This noble creation that probably dates back as far as the pharonic Egyptian period demands to be treated with respect. Any time I\u2019m stuck eating under the golden arches or the crown because there\u2019s nothing else available, I\u2019m reminded that the pickle is the best part of their sandwich. And, I don\u2019t particularly like pickles.<\/p>\n

As all-American as the hamburger has become, it had sustained many long before there was a United States.<\/p>\n

Mongol horsemen used to eat scraped or shredded raw meat that had been formed into patties and tenderized by being placed under their saddles before long rides. When the Mongols invaded Russia in the 13th Century, the locals adopted their meat patties, adding raw eggs and chopped onion to create \u201csteak tartare.\u201d (Tartars was their name for Mongols.)<\/p>\n

Something known as \u201cHamburg steaks\u201d gained popularity in the late 1800s with sailors who visited the German port city of that name. European immigrants who were served this salted, sometimes smoked meat brought it with them to the U.S.<\/p>\n

European cookbooks of the 17th and 18th centuries had recipes for such dishes as broiled meat cakes, \u201cHamburgh\u201d sausage and beef cakes.<\/p>\n

Many people claim to have invented the modern hamburger, with most of the claims arising near the dawn of the 20th Century. The most vocal claim at one time came from Seymour, WI, which was the home of the Hamburger Hall of Fame until it closed a few years ago.<\/p>\n

It had commemorated \u201cHamburger Charlie\u201d Nagreen who, in 1885 at the age of 15, was selling meatballs at the annual fair in Seymour. When he realized business wasn\u2019t going well because meatballs were hard to handle while strolling around, he flattened the meat into patties and put them between slices of bread. The change was so well received by fairgoers that he returned to the fair to sell burgers each year until his death in 1951.<\/p>\n

On this side of the country, the first purveyor of hamburgers may have been one Louis Lassen of New Haven, CT, who ran Louis\u2019 Lunch Wagon.<\/p>\n

He served steak sandwiches to factory workers until in 1900 he decided to do something with the meat scraps he had left over each day. He ground up the scraps and served them between two pieces of toast, calling them hamburgers.<\/p>\n

Louis\u2019 Lunch still exists, without the \u201cwagon\u201d part, in a little brick building in New Haven. Its burgers are cooked vertically in old gas grills and served plain on toast, no mustard, ketchup or other foreign matter allowed.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not even get started on who invented the cheeseburger. Just be thankful someone did.<\/p>\n

When it comes to ranking hamburgers, the gloves are off as soon as the subject is mentioned. Everyone has a favorite, or two or three, and thinks everyone else is a knucklehead if they don\u2019t agree. Here is my current Big 3 among independents and Big 3 among chains locally. They don\u2019t necessarily reflect my thinking of a couple of years ago and they may not reflect my thinking a year from now. That\u2019s because the search always will go on.<\/p>\n

THE INDEPENDENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1.) ALBANY PUMP STATION <\/strong>\u2013 Or, the C.H. Evans Brewing Co. Either name is proper for Neil Evans\u2019 brew pub located in the shadow of the I-787 off-ramp at Clinton Avenue and Broadway, but they do most dishes only one way there: nicely. Even — dare I say it? — their veggie burgers aren\u2019t bad.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something about biting into a humongous burger sandwich while surrounded by Industrial Chic d\u00e9cor of brick, steel and wood. The signature, and highly imaginative, Pump Station Burger lends itself to that setting: ground beef blended with scallions, cheddar jack cheese, barbecue sauce and the house\u2019s Kick-Ass Brown Ale, topped with bacon and pepper jack and served with ancho-chipotle sour cream.<\/p>\n

I laid waste to one of the generous burgers before a recent concert at The Egg nearby and found it stayed on my mind through much of the performance.<\/p>\n

(2.) PINHEAD SUSAN\u2019S<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 Jack McDonald\u2019s downtown Schenectady \u201cIrish\u201d pub, located on North Broadway near the Amtrak stop, takes its name from some famous local graffiti and its inspiration from a Dublin brewery. (The original graffiti stated, flatly, that \u201cSusan is a pinhead.\u201d When it was painted over, someone resurrected the pronouncement by scrawling \u201cSusan is still a pinhead.\u201d)
\nI like the name, but that\u2019s not why the establishment tops my list of local burgeries. Its Guinness burger is the reason for that. It\u2019s good quality beef, cooked precisely medium-rare as ordered, served on a toasted bun and topped with an abundant, crisp layer of bacon, sharp cheddar cheese and cooked onions soaked in, and actually tasting of, the iconic Irish draft beer. Great with a side of sweet potato fries.<\/p>\n

(3.) MAN OF KENT<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 This cozy little tavern, perched beside Route 7 in Hoosick just before the Vermont border, has lots of atmosphere and conviviality that can easily convince you that you\u2019re in a British country pub.<\/p>\n

Proprietor John Stoate, who grew up in England, serves his burgers big, a bit charred on the outside, delightfully juicy on the inside (you can even get it cooked rare, an increasingly difficult order to get filled these days) and enveloped in a puffy roll. Whatever toppings you select are guaranteed fresh.<\/p>\n

THE CHAINS<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1.) TGI FRIDAY\u2019s<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 This international dining giant (parent Carlson Restaurants Worldwide has just short of 1,000 places operating in 58 countries) has been a mainstay of Guilderland\u2019s Stuyvesant Plaza since the early \u201890s when the chain had just 200 units. It also has locations on Route 50 in Wilton and Southside Drive in Clifton Park. Its advertising campaigns usually focus so much on new dishes that it\u2019s easy to forget this is an excellent burger joint.<\/p>\n

Although limited to four burgers (five if you count the turkey burger, which I refuse to do) with generous sides of fries, the list is a satisfying one. The basic burger, with or without melted American cheese, and the bacon cheeseburger are fine for the casual burger eater, but the other two options are prime time stuff that puts TGIF atop the chain burger list for me.<\/p>\n

The Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger — the name of which reminds me of the Department of Redundancy Department — teams up melted American with fried provolone, crisp bacon slices, red onion, lettuce and tomato. The Jack Daniel\u2019s Burger starts with the same good ground beef patty, then adorns it with bacon, provolone, grilled onions and a sweet, bold sauce from the whiskey company. Scrumptious.<\/p>\n

(2.) RED ROBIN <\/strong>\u2013 This 360-unit chain has Capital Region locations in Latham (the Route 9 entrance to Latham Farms) and Halfmoon (at The Crossing) and was the reader favorite in this magazine\u2019s 2007 \u201cBest Of \u2026\u201d survey. I rank it high among franchise operations but not for its basic burger which is rather standard issue good ground beef (although never-been-frozen).<\/p>\n

What makes it so good as a sandwich are the combinations and presentation \u2013 more than a dozen different possibilities, each delivered in an old-fashioned paper wrap in a basket with a mound of steak fries (free extras on demand).<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ve tried every version of Red Robin\u2019s \u201cgourmet\u201d burgers without finding any I don\u2019t care for. If pressed to narrow it down to one or two, however, it would have to be the Royal Red Robin Burger (a bacon cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and mayo plus a fried egg atop it, delicious no matter how jarring the egg might sound) or the Guacamole Bacon Burger (a Swiss cheese burger piled high with onions, lettuce, tomato, mayo and a hearty, tangy guacamole). For avocado fans, the guacamole alone is worth the visit.<\/p>\n

(3.) JOHNNY ROCKETS<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 There are 200 of these retro diner-style restaurants in the country, but only one in the Capital Region \u2013 opposite the movie box office in Guilderland\u2019s Crossgates Mall, which facilitates an easy burger-and-a-flick date.<\/p>\n

Any place that puts the name of a menu item in its business name (JR\u2019s subtitle is \u201cThe Original Hamburger\u201d) had better come up with the goods. JR does. It has nine different burgers (plus a soy burger and a turkey burger) that range from its original burger with lettuce, tomato, chopped onions, relish, mustard, mayo and pickle to a patty melt.<\/p>\n

My pick falls in between these standards \u2013 the Smoke House sandwich which layers a sharp cheddar cheese from the renowned Tillamook dairy co-op in Oregon, thick bacon and crisp onion rings atop the burger and dresses the sandwich with a smoky-sweet barbecue sauce. Couple that with a thick chocolate shake and you\u2019ll probably nod off at the movie.<\/p>\n

William M. Dowd is a veteran Capital Region journalist who covers food, drink and destinations online at DowdsGuides.com<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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