From Louis' Lunch in Connecticut
...you gotta click on the above title; lotsa Jersey spots, but a little scrolling gets you across the country (We need the gas prices to come down first!)
I was pleased to see the White Castle double cheeseburger mentioned, along with a Johnny Rockets number -- just 'cause it's a chain doesn't mean it's in the Burger King league.
Over the years I've eaten at a surprising number of these joints, so I must be at least a minor-league expert. Tell ya what, though; I'm definitely hitting that Newark Brazilian joint over the weekend. That's a YOWZA burger (and here it is, on this page).
Here is where you can find the best burger (in NJ, East Coast, US?) --the Pluckemin Inn in Pluckemin, NJ. Unlike most other favorite burger joints, this place has an elitist, upscale cache. For non-burger dining, you have to figure at least $100 per head for dinner -- much more as you go up the wine list. You can get the $15-$20 burger only in the bar, which is way too small for the pinot-sniffing crowd that gathers there. But when you bite into this plump clump, you will experience an exquisite taste you can't find among the favorites cited in other top places. It doesn't need even the most basic of customer-applied seasonings or condiments -- no salt, pepper, cheese, onions or ketchup. It is accompanied by 3 or 4 french fries, but they are extraneous to the experience and one of these wimpies is enough to sate most appetites. Try it, you won't be sorry.
ReplyDeleteThere may be a law of diminishing returns here -- can a burger be $20 worth of good? I heard rumors of a Kobe beef burger for $120.
ReplyDeleteI am not maligning the Pluckemin burger. I'm sure it's excellent -- the commenter IS a bonafide expert -- it's the price and venue that make the total experience suspect. I've known about this burger for months, but I as yet have not been able to part with that kind of money in that kind of setting.
It is on my 'to do' list, though.