Lane Cardwell

Bobby Bets Big on Burgers

I finally had the opportunity to visit one of Bobby Flay’s burger restaurants yesterday during a trip to New York City.  Bobby’s Burger Palace gives the public a chance to enjoy the food and flavors of this celebrity chef in a quick casual format. Fine dining for $12. One year after opening the first unit on Long Island Bobby has three locations open and a fourth under construction. The restaurant that I visited is the most recent and is in Bergen Town Center in Paramus, NJ. My bottom-line after trying four burgers, two types of fries, and three different milk shakes: this guy can cook. I must not be alone, the restaurant is doing over $90,000/week in less than 4000 feet.

I have always believed that doing “simple” foods well is the truest test of a chef. While expensive ingredients and sophisticated cooking techniques can often lead to a spectacular dish or meal, making a simple, familiar food taste extraordinarily well is a real challenge. Bobby manages to take the simple concept of a burger, fries and shake and make it a celebration of three classics.

I spoke with Bobby about a year ago during the Cowen Consumer conference in New York. He said that he thought that doing a burger concept would be the purest test of his talents as a chef and restaurateur. No high paid and skilled sous chefs to coax his creations from the kitchen to the dining room. No expensive and exotic ingredients that can elevate any dish into a masterpiece. No five-star service staff that can help smooth the inevitable bumps in any dining experience. Just a burger, fries and milk shake ordered at a counter and delivered to the table by food runners. Take three menu items that most people have extensive experience with, strong biases about and the ability to go to many different places to enjoy and you have a challenge in living up to expectations.

But Bobby has raised the bar on burgers. He starts with a 6 oz. fresh, Certified Angus beef patty. He offers it as 10 different burgers that are mostly drawn from different regions around the country:

• Dallas Burger (spice crusted, coleslaw, Monterey jack, BBQ sauce, pickles)
• Philadelphia Burger (provolone cheese, griddled onions, hot peppers)
• Buffalo Style Burger (red hot sauce, blue cheese dressing, watercress)
• Miami Burger (pressed with ham, swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, mayonnaise)
• Santa Fe Burger (queso sauce, pickled jalapenos, blue corn chips)
• L.A. Burger (avocado relish, watercress, cheddar cheese, tomato)
• Napa Valley Burger (fresh goat cheese, watercress, Meyer lemon honey mustard)

I was a little discouraged when Bobby described the concept last year that he planned on using a frozen fry. Many other burger concepts coming on to the scene with a limited menu use a fresh cut fry. They are a lot of work, but a superior product to a frozen fry (and you can’t make me believe otherwise).

Recently Bobby saw the light and has switched to a fresh cut fry which has taken on a life of its own in the kitchen. Unlike In-N-Out Burger which takes a potato, punches it in front of you into fries and then into the fryer, Bobby follows the classic technique for fry making. Potatoes are turned into raw fries, soaked in water for 48 hours, drained, blanched (partially fried), dried, and then are fried again in one last cooking process. The result is an outstanding fry worthy of a chef.

He also offers a sweet potato fry and beer battered onion rings. The final product is a milkshake made from ice cream that has a perfect consistency for drinking. He has ten flavors, but the pistachio with natural vanilla will be my order from now on.

Bobby’s next unit will be in the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. He may be a celebrity chef and own five-star restaurants, but Bobby has decided that the sure path to wealth and security rests between a bun.

Posted by Lane Cardwell on May 2, 2009 | Comments (4)