You Will Love (or Hate) This $35 Burger
Everything you need to order (or avoid) at Sip & Guzzle in the West Village. Plus: Notes on the NYT reviews of Alinea and Atelier Crenn
Hey Friends!
I’m writing about Sip & Guzzle again!
It’s one of those places I keep going back to, because the talented chefs are always tinkering around with their Willy Wonka menu of bar snacks.
We’ll take a look at the venue’s new A5 wagyu burger, and after that I’ll give you a short guide to everything you should be trying at the West Village hotspot.
The burger review is long, so if you just want to skip to the verdict, go ahead and scroll down to the “bottom line” section for a quick 90 word take.
Ryan!!!
The burger, the fry, the listicle…
Corner Bistro is a low-key West Village bar. It’s a place for regulars. For locals who know the bartenders by name. The cooks surely make over 100 burgers every day. And I bring up that institution as a reminder of how people normally eat the American red meat staple — which is without thinking about it too much.
Sip & Guzzle is not a low-key bar. It’s an experimental West Village cocktail destination. It’s a place for people who ‘gram their food. For folks who want to chat with the bartender about white truffle milkshakes and wagyu steak sandwiches. It draws in serious crowds most nights…but it makes just twelve Miyazaki wagyu burgers for each service.
When I dropped by on a recent afternoon at 4:45 p.m., the host mentioned — without me even asking — that there were still burgers left, lol.
By the time I paid my check around 5:30 p.m., there were nine burgers remaining.
Here’s what you’ll get if you’re one of the lucky twelve: A very rich A5 patty on a sesame bun. A slice of cheese. And some fermented shishito relish. It all comes courtesy of chef Mike Bagale (Alinea) and chef de cuisine Isaac Leidenfrost (Aska).
The brand-new burger is getting more than a bit of attention.
The World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants, with 301,000 Instagram followers, deemed the weeks-old creation to be the best burger in North America. Quite a vote of confidence. It’s also the only burger that Maxim, with its one million Intagram followers, has written up in the past few years.
Anyway. The burger costs $35, though folks can add on one of those truffled milkshakes for a so-called “Happy Meal.” That runs an extra fifty bucks.
What does it cost to add on fries? Trick question. Sip & Guzzle does not serve fries. At least not potato-based fries.
This is an avant-garde spot that offers a crisp and chewy mochi tube topped with nacho dust. It is long and squiggly and looks like something that came out of a broken 3D printer. This is what the restaurant coyly calls a “fry.”
So how does this burger and fry taste?
The fry is great.
As for the burger, many of you will love it. But many of you won’t. Indeed, that’s the type of sentiment that listicles aren’t always great at conveying. Folks will be in for a bit of a shock if they think they’re getting something that simply tastes better because they’re staring down a bold-faced luxury.
This is a burger that challenges.
This is where things start to get interesting. So let’s have a little FAQ fun…
Behind the paywall…An FAQ review of Sip & Guzzle’s burger
Guide: What to order at Sip & Guzzle, with reviews of dishes like the foie gras Mont Blanc, the spicy tuna volcano rolls, and the mochi fry
Notes on the truffled milkshakes at Sip & Guzzle
Notes on the NYT reviews of Alinea and Atelier Crenn
A few thoughts on ambiguity in criticism