PRIME BURGER CAFÉ @ OLD HOMESTEAD
THE KING OF BEEF IS NOW THE KING OF BURGERS, TOO!
Old Homestead, one of New York’s foremost Steakhouses opens Prime Burger Cafe @ Old Homestead (56 Ninth Avenue b/w 14 – 15 Sts. NYC 212-242-9040) at their outdoor café. Burger aficionados take note; these are the plumpest, juiciest burgers in town and why shouldn’t they be? The Old Homestead has been serving USDA prime cuts of beef for 140 years.
In keeping up with current dining trends
and wanting to offer their current and new customers that are frequenting the meatpacking district more options especially in the daytime hours, owners Greg and Mark Sherry decided to take their 20-seat outdoor sidewalk café and re-design it to bring New Yorkers a new restaurant for the summer months, and offer the All-American burger; but with Old Homestead flair.
And such flair should be rewarded, and once diners grip the soft bun, see the juices ooze from the meat and take one bite their taste buds will be rewarded, and they will quickly realize that there is no reason to go to one of the other burger joints in town. With the burgers (and one Kobe beef hot dog) priced at $15 it doesn’t cost the price of a cow to munch on this prime beef. Of course one can have a Classic Burger, nothing wrong with that. But why when the other choices include a Peppered Slab Bacon Burger, and an It’s All Greek to Me Burger, topped with Greek salad ingredients. For those who forgo beef there’s a Kurobuta Pork Burger, a Chicken Paillard and a Bigeye Tuna Burger. The close proximity of Old Homestead to the Union Square farmer’s market has inspired Chef Oscar Martinez to offer Hawthorne Valley Farm Garlic Edamer cheese on the Artisanal Cheese Burger and to use organic greens, spouts and heirloom tomatoes on top of a bun-less burger for those who use Ninth Avenue as a catwalk. He is cleverly offering a trio organic sauerkrauts, (also from Hawthorne valley) with mustards alongside the Kobe beef frankfurter, but the most impressive offering is the Surf & Turf Steak Burger: Old Homestead’s Signature Beef topped with steamed lobster medallions, yes there’s a $23 supplement for this, but well worth the indulgence. Traditional sides are not forgotten with delicious Hand-cut French fries and Kobe Chili among the offerings. The full menu is also available for take-out and delivery.
To give a part of an existing restaurant a new personality is always a difficult task, but Prime Burger Café outdoors at Old Homestead is without a doubt its’ own entity. The sidewalk is covered with a green indoor / outdoor carpet, beautiful bright red geraniums hang from white flower boxes and original photographs of the Old Homestead’s famous cow by famed artist Julian Schnabel hang alongside the building. Blackboard menus and picnic-style tablecloths give a picnic feeling to the experience, but this burger is unlike any had at a backyard barbecue. In a city where everything is IT, this is the IT burger of the summer of 2007.
