Burger of the Week Recap: Great New Burgers to Try Around LA
There are just as many new burgers on the dining scene in LA as there are restaurants, and no one’s complaining. We happen to love a great burger, be it beef, chicken, turkey or, sure, we’ll even do a veggie burger if it’s really, really good. Lately we’ve been seeking out some of the best new burgers on the scene in a new weekly series, some of which we highlight here. Did you know Ludovic Lefebvre has a burger at Petit Trois? You do now. Read on.
The Burger: The Beverly Boulevard bistro now has a bigger bar area, a new chef in Trevor Rocco (a 30 Under 30 alum), and a fun weekly menu offering with Burger Night, which happens every Wednesday at the bar only. Every week, Rocco features a few different burgers, and some change out, but there’s always one crowd favorite, the BLT burger. He uses a grass-fed pasture beef blend for the patty and likes to keep the toppings simple — just aioli, butter lettuce, bacon and pickled green tomato — and puts it all on a brioche bun. “If not always traditional, the toppings will never overpower the taste of the burger itself,” the chef says. “I have nothing against an over-the-top ‘gourmet’ burger, but if all you can taste are the toppings, then what’s the point?” That’s not to say he hasn’t created some interesting combinations for burger night, like the one topped with whole-grain mustard, cornichons, Gruyere cheese and ham that he makes in-house (he’s very involved with whole animal butchery), an another with date mostarda, grilled onions, buttermilk blue cheese and arugula. Brunch fans will also find a smaller version of the BLT burger on the lunch and brunch menus.
Price: $17
What to Drink With It: “The logical answer is beer, and I love Stiegl Gold, an Austrian lager,” says Claudio Blotta, co-owner and beverage director. “But actually, I love rosé with burgers so I’d drink Rosé Gris de Gris, Domaine De Fontsainte ’14. It’s a great combo — the crisp, light, easy-to-drink pink makes the burger that much more enjoyable.”
8009 Beverly Blvd.; 323-653-8009
The Burger: There’s already a great burger on the menu at Josef Centeno’s Downtown neighborhood bistro, Ledlow. And you could probably even get an egg on it. But when you want an egg in your burger, you have to ask for the Scotch egg burger. Currently only an off-menu item (but available daily), it’s exactly what it sounds like: a traditional Scotch egg — a soft-boiled egg wrapped in housemade breakfast sausage, coated in panko crumbs and fried to a golden brown — topped with cheddar cheese, lettuce, pickles, onions, mayonnaise and mustard on a freshly baked bun. “There are a lot of things happening at once,” Centeno says. “The crunchiness of the panko coating, the meaty sausage and the soft-boiled egg with its molten yellow yolk at the center. I think these kinds of contrasting textures and flavors make a great burger.”
Price: $17
What to Drink With It: Director of operations and beer connoisseur Genevieve Hardison likes the Mikkeller American Dream IPA to go with this beast. “It has citrusy hops, good body and crispness,” she says. The beer comes in a can, but is served with a cold, frosty glass. “It’s just a great combo.”
400 S. Main St.; 213-687-7015
The Burger: Walk by this Manhattan Beach gastropub on any given afternoon, and the place will likely be packed, especially for happy hour. But it’s not just for the great deals, it’s for things like the Rockefeller burger, a flavor beast made with Wagyu beef, truffle bacon jam, roasted tomatoes, taleggio cheese and garlic aioli on a soft brioche bun. As with just about everyone, a great burger for new executive chef Aaron Johns starts with the meat. “We use a blend of chuck, brisket and short rib. The meat to fat ratio is very important so we like to use an 80/20 blend and the outcome is a juicy patty,” he says. “It’s also important to season liberally with salt and pepper to bring out the flavor of the beef.” He also strives for a nice char from the grill to add more depth to the patty. Don’t forget to look for the 99-cent burger on Tuesdays, which changes every month.
Price: $14.95
What to Drink With It: General manager Robert Mauck, who oversees the beer menu, likes the Hell or High Water Watermelon brew from 21st Amendment for the burger, a great summer sipper (everyone loves the watermelon!). “It’s a light wheat beer with an incredibly smooth watermelon flavor and light citrus at the end,” he says. “Just an incredible pairing with our burgers.”
1209 Highland Ave.; 310-545-5810
The Burger: With all those amazing cuts of beef that steakhouse chefs have at their disposal, any burger they make better be good. Executive chef Travis Strickland says his house blend is the first key to the Butchered Burger. Made with all prime short rib, chuck and brisket, the result is a patty that has a light and airy texture. Great burgers are also all about the toppings. He uses Hook’s cheddar, along with diced red onions, shredded organic lettuce and ripe tomatoes. “Then we top it off with a gribiche sauce I’d bathe in,” he adds. The cheeseburger with hand-cut fries is a regular offering on the restaurant’s lunch and brunch menus.
Price: $18
What to Drink With It: Beverage director and sommelier David Vaughn loves a good red with this burger. “My go-to pairing is the 2013 Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir,” he says. “Our burger is big and rich and needs a wine that can stand up to it. The acidity and subtle tannin of the Calera allow it to get there, and its earthier notes really come through when paired against flavors of the onions and the cheese.” We’ll drink to that.
11647 San Vicente Blvd.; 424-273-1660
The Burger: For years, the foie gras loco moco, which starts with a delicious ground beef patty, was as close as chef/owners Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo got to a burger. But, the dudes have recently changed their tune and added one to the menu. It’s called a Boner Burger — cheeky, sure — but it’s so named for the bone marrow mixed in with the house-ground chuck and short-rib meat. The patty is super rich and beefy, and takes well to the the toppings of jack cheese, caramelized onion, poblano chile and secret “420 sauce.” They won’t tell us what’s in the tangy sauce, just that it was inspired by Arizona and is “good on anything.” The burger is served on toasted marble rye bread, which serves as the bun, from neighboring Diamond Bakery. This is is an off-menu item; you have to ask for it by name. When brunch begins later this summer or early fall — yes! brunch! — look for it then, too.
Price: $16
What to Drink: Helen Johannesen, director of operations and wine guru for all of Shook and Dotolo’s restaurants, suggests a beer like Hitachino White Ale for this burger. “It’s a nice little union and so summery,” she says. “For wine drinkers, a really killer gamay or Sancerre rouge slightly chilled would be amazing, too. Or something zippy like the pinot gris rose from Domaine de Reuilly.”
435 N. Fairfax Ave.; 323-782-9225
The Burger: Now that Redbird is open for lunch (Monday through Friday, 11:30 AM-1:30 PM), chef Neal Fraser has found a reason to put a really great burger on the menu. Made with a special blend of prime beef, with enough fat to make it juicy, aged cheddar cheese and remoulade, this burger is a decadent specimen. In this case, the key to greatness isn’t just the meat and burger-to-bun ratio — it’s pickles. “Burgers are fatty, so a pickle or pickle mayo really makes it pop,” says Fraser. “We make a Korean-style pickle and put some pickle in the aioli as well.” It’s served on a slightly toasted bun and sided by a pile of crisp, well-seasoned fries. With a patio like Redbird’s, it has to be an elevated experience.
Price: $18
What to Drink With It: “Typically when I think of burgers, I think of beers,” says bar manager Tobin Shea. “But in this case I would do the Kinsale King. It’s a part beer, part cocktail that’s refreshing, but it has some undertones that would stand up well against the rich burger.” It’s made with Irish whiskey, stout reduction, lemon and barrel-aged bitters.
114 E. 2nd St.; 213-788-1191
The Burger: If you’re going to serve a burger around the corner from the iconic Pie ‘N Burger, it better stand out. “We needed to have a burger that was flavorful and unique but still maintained the cheeseburger everyone loved growing up,” says executive chef Kyu Yi. And he didn’t start with the patty as a building block — he went straight to the cheese. The melty goodness is a blend of sharp cheddar, smoked Gouda and Gruyere, so it has a slightly smoky flavor. The beef patty is a house blend made with brisket and chuck for true beefy flavor, and rib-eye meat and fat for butteriness. For the bread holding it all together, he opted for a sweeter Portuguese bun, essentially a Hawaiian sweet roll, which adds balance to the savory, saltiness already going on. The rest is complete ingenuity. A classic burger usually has mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and pickles as condiments, and his response is a dill pickle remoulade with fresh herbs, plus the addition of bourbon-caramelized onions and thick-cut Applewood bacon.
The Price: $12. Except on Tuesday nights, when the burger and a draft Old Fashioned are only $15.
What to Drink With It: New bar manager Brian Klemm goes straight for the hard stuff. This is a burger meant for a cocktail. He recommends the Crown City, a sweet, smoky, salty, woody concoction made with aromatic 100-proof Rittenhouse Rye, cacao and a touch of banana.
492 S. Lake Ave.; 626-584-1126
The Burger: When chef Ludovic Lefebvre was at the James Beard Awards in Chicago this year, he tried the famed burger at Au Cheval. “It was the best burger I ate in my life,” he says. He brought that inspiration back to LA and created his own masterpiece: a four-ounce Prime beef patty topped with caramelized onions, American cheese and rich bordelaise sauce, which may have a little foie gras in it. It’s now permanently on the menu as of this week. More burger wisdom from the chef here.
Price: $12.95
What to Drink With It: While Lefebvre leans Bordeaux, he says a Rhône works just as nicely. Try the Crozes Hermitage Silène.
The Burger: This cheeseburger at the newish Santa Monica spot is not your everyday neighborhood variety. The patty is made with hormone-free, corn-fed Midwestern beef, a 50-50 blend of short rib and chuck that the cooks grind daily. It’s definitely beefy. Served on a soft Portuguese bun, topped with raclette cheese, arugula, pickled onion and truffle mayo, it easily rests on the deluxe side of the spectrum, which may be why it’s a huge hit for the restaurant. It also comes with a side of Kennebec fries. Read more here.
Price: $20
What to Drink With It: You can go either beer or wine with this burger, says general manager and beverage director Brandon Bernstein. “Beer would be the Great Divide Claymore Scotch Ale. It’s got some caramel notes and goes well with the rich qualities of both the beer and burger,” he says. For wine, Funk Zone’s Syrah and Viognier blend from Santa Barbara County.
1534 Montana Ave.; 310-829-3990
The Burger: Any beer bar worth its suds needs to have a good burger to pair with the brews, not the other way around. The California-style burger from chef Derrick de Jesus does the beer list justice at this new Downtown gastropub. The patty is made of dry-aged sirloin for a bigger beefier flavor and is topped with malt mayo to help cut through the richness of the beef, plus Fiscalini smoked cheddar, zucchini pickles and fresh-from-the-market heirloom tomatoes and scarlet butter lettuce. Who doesn’t love a good zucchini pickle? Read more from the chef here.
Price: The single burger is only $10 or get a double for $14.
What to Drink With It: General manager Andrea Comegys recommends sipping the crisp and citrusy Alpine Hoppy Birthday American pale ale ($8) with the burger.
525 W. Seventh St.; 213-232-8657
The Burger: Chef Kris Morningstar was serving brunch on Friday through Sunday at Terrine, but now the Friday menu features more savory lunch offerings, including a decadent burger befitting the Beverly Boulevard California brasserie. It starts with a thick beef patty stuffed with truffle butter. It gets topped with porcini mushrooms, sage aïoli, cured tomato, sautéed onions and Sottocenere al Tartufo (truffle) cheese all on a brioche bun. The result is an earthy, rich and super-savory flavor bomb that can only be made more so with a slice of foie gras terrine because, well, foie gras. Available on Fridays only (for now) during lunch, 11:30 AM–2:30 PM. Take a closer look here.
Price: $16 without foie gras, $25 with it. Go ahead and splurge. It comes with Terrine’s excellent french fries.
What to Drink With It: Wine director François Renaud likes the 2013 Edmund Jacquin Mondeuse Vin de Savoie with this burger. “With notes of wild berries, beech mushrooms, leather and spicy aromas, it is very sharp at first with melting tannins, but has good length to take on the truffled cheese and the cured tomato, and to counter the richness and texture of the patty.”
8265 Beverly Blvd.; 323-746-5130
The Burger: A burger can be healthy, and this brunch-only pesto-chicken burger from executive chef Michael Fiorelli is the perfect example. He adapted a classic meatball recipe for the patty, which is made of ground dark meat chicken (plus the skin) with bread, eggs, herbs and ricotta and Parmesan cheeses, and added Italian-inspired toppings — fontina cheese, heirloom tomato and arugula pesto. Because the bun is just as important, this soft brioche comes from Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne’s Larder Baking Company. There’s one caveat: it’s only available on Saturdays and Sundays at brunch (10 AM–3 PM). Read more here.
Price: $15
What to Drink With It: Owner Guy Gabriele recommends pairing it with the El Segundo Citra Pale Ale. “The bright yet bitter hops are a great counterpart to the pesto and fontina without being overbearing,” he says. For a wine, Fiorelli recommends the the crisp 2013 Tocai Friulano from Petrussa, Friuli.
317 Manhattan Beach Blvd.; 310-545-5252
Source: Zagat