American Burger & Co.

American Burger
100 W 32nd St
Distance from Shake Shack: 0.53 miles
Travel Time: 16 minutes

of People in Line: 3

Once I'd scanned both New York Magazine's and Village Voice's online restaurant section a few times, it was time to delve into some of the less charted and less proofread parts of the web.  That usually involves a good Google scan and then devolves into hour long plunges into Chowhound for some kind of hidden secret.

Nearly every corner store in the area attempts a burger of some kind, and no matter how awful, someone will claim the burger as the best in the city.  But American Burger & Co. had a decent number of posts about it on Chowhound , and I was eager to check the goods.  Its name sounded oddly close to the other burger-laden joints around town like New York Burger, Good Burger, Better Burger, and the other corporate-owned, stylishly-designed places with outrageously priced burgers.  But as you can see, this definitely wasn't like one of those places, and I walked in confidently, feeling like I was on the verge of a huge find.

This burger is strictly old school, with a charred patty fat from the grill.  Like Burger King done right, it's big and bold, and every beefy bite is filled with flame broiled char that lingers on the taste buds.

As a sort of kick-ass, gut-busting burger, the American Burger is worth recommending.  The beef is juicy, the bun strong (though a nice toasting would work wonders), but it's just a different experience than the Shake Shack, and one that I'm not to keen to explore that often.  Charbroiled burgers scream for a beer in the other hand, which ends up just making one sad for the post-lunch return to work, which inevitably follows.

Not a failure but not quite a true find, the American Burger & Co. is probably best suited to disgruntled males who have been dragged to Macy's to help their spouse shop for towels.  This will make the world balanced again.

A part of Beating The Waiting Game: Alternatives to the Shake Shack

Beating the Waiting Game, Burger, New York, Restaurants