The big brisket hot dog has received no shortage of attention at Mischa, chef Alex Stupak’s chic new restaurant in Midtown. This is understandable. The plebeian foodstuff — it normally costs a few bucks from a street vendor — runs $29 here, a price that feels about right for a frankfurter sold from the bottom floor of one of the world’s largest investment banks.
But while so many folks focus on the lush sausage — served to patrons who seem like they’d pay $53 for pizza — it’s worth spending a bit of time on dishes that haven’t benefited from as much fanfare, like a burger that’s easily one of the city’s finest.
Stupak, a famously creative chef (check out Empellon’s faux avocado dessert), forges his five-ounce patty from a blend of shiitakes, creminis, and maitakes, which he seasons with paprika and white soy. He griddles it for a handsome Maillard char, then places it on a buttered marble rye bun — with each half decked out in American cheese, Joe Junior-style. On the side is lettuce (unnecessary), sliced pickles (good), raw onion (vital), and instead of fries, two foot-long tater tots (fantastic).
The burger costs $27 and it’s as rich and meaty as anything cut from ribeye or chuck. The patty itself almost looks like a Shack Burger. Yet it contains no meat.
The mere presence of a veggie burger — Mischa calls it a patty melt — isn’t a huge deal in 2023. This is an era when you can freely stroll into any Burger King across our fruited plain and enjoy the industrial bounty of a fake-meat Impossible patty.
But what’s curious about Mischa is that it’s a rare non-vegetarian restaurant whose only burger is vegetarian. A hungry carnivore will find no Whopper here. I suppose this isn’t the same thing as a fictional Smith & Wollensky waiter telling you that the only steaks are cauliflower steaks, but it’s not too far off from that scenario.
It’s a situation that highlights the cultural capital that meat-free patties and other leafy sandwiches wield today. These burgers enjoy their voguishness for a variety of environmental and ethical reasons, but more importantly they frequently have their defenders because they taste really, really good.
In fact, there’s not another burger in the city I crave as much as Mischa’s patty melt. I ordered it around 8:30 p.m. on a recent Friday, when the dining room was populated by folks who look like they just dropped by from the closest hedge fund or driving range.