Jackson Hole restaurants hold a special place in my heart. I met my wife for the first time at the east 80s location when she was working there as a waitress.
The original Jackson Hole location is a pretty cool little joint on the ground floor of a nice brownstone building on 64th Street between 3rd and Lex.
When you first come down the stairs you are greeted with the cashier, the kitchen, and a few bar stool type seats, like you might see at an old diner.
Around the corner is the dining room, which seems to have retained all the charm it had upon opening nearly 45 years ago.
Upon sitting down, you get a nice bowl of half sour pickles. Fucking damn good.
I ordered an American cheeseburger.
It stacks up nice with lettuce, tomato and pickle:
The burgers here are generous 7oz patties, cooked to a nice medium on the flat top griddle. The bread could use some improvement, but otherwise this was a great burger.
The fries were steak fries style, but they were cooked to a great crispy golden brown. I typically hate steak fries, but these were excellent.
Wash that delicious shit down with a coffee flavored milk shake, and you’re all set:
My wife ordered a breakfast plate of two eggs over easy with sausage and toast:
Last night I had the chance to drop in for a bite at BRGR with my buddy on his recommendation. This place holds up against the fast casual joints like Shake Shack, Burger Fi and Schnippers.
The decor makes it feel like you’re in someone’s 1980’s style finished basement, but updated for today’s interior design norms.
Good quality burgers, nicely cooked, great seasoning, quality buns and toppings. I had the “beautiful day” burger. American cheese, lettuce tomato pickle and grilled onions. Awesome. Next time I would get a second patty on top.
The fries here are on par with Mc Donald’s. Golden shoestring types, with a good crisp and well seasoned.
The black and white shake is ready to drink as soon as it comes to you. Most places serving shakes make them too think and you can’t get the shit through the straw, unless you can suck harder than Jenna Jameson.
For dessert, I had a hot dog. I was confused as fuck when they brought it out to me.
They split and grill the dog long ways, and then cut the dog in half and arrange it on a hamburger bun. Pretty cool. This one was topped with lettuce, tomato, American, mustard and pickles. Delicious, but the burger take the stack here.
My wife and I tried this new joint that has recently hopped the pond from the UK to find a home on our shores on 19th street between 5th and 6th Avenues.
The concept of this place is pretty fucking simple, which I like. They offer three dishes: a burger, a grilled or steamed lobster, or a lobster roll. Each comes with fries and a salad, and each costs $20.
For the burger, what we have is a great 8oz blend of Pat LaFrieda prime meats, topped with American and cheddar cheeses, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. Bacon is free to add on top as well. I got mine on the side.
The bun is really nice. It was durable, yet soft, warm and toasty. The black and white sesame seeds were a nice touch. The burger meat itself was delicious. The patty had a nice char and was well seasoned. It was cooked nicely to my specifications:
The grilled lobster was really nice too. The weight of these babies come in at 1.5lbs each, so it’s a pretty good deal when you think about it. It was cooked perfectly, had tons of great flavor, and the grilling technique imparted a nice char.
I’m going to go ahead and say that this lobster roll is the best that I’ve had. I haven’t had too many yet, but this whopper has 6oz of meat, not much filler by way of mayo or chopped veggies, and it is dressed and seasoned perfectly. The meat was so juicy, tender and lumpy. The bun was perfection. It had a light taste of butter, was toasted and firm on the outside, but soft and warm on the inside.
The fries were like McDonalds, but better, which is high praise for me since I love those Mickey D’s fries.
The salad was nice too. A mix of garden greens with some sliced radish, croutons, red onion and a light sprinkling of Parmesan cheese – all dressed deftly with a basic vinaigrette.
Decor is nice in here too, and the space is absolutely MASSIVE.
A variety of condiments and a neat set of shell crackers are on the tables, and you even get a cool plastic lobster bib to rock while you stuff your face with delicious food.
UPDATE 3/11/17 – PRESS REVIEW OF NEW MENU ITEMS
My wife and I came back in to try some new specialty items that were added to the menu. I must say, I was impressed!
First off, they added a smaller burgers to the menu for those with a lighter appetite. But they didn’t stop there. They also used that smaller patty for some specialty burgers. To make up for the smaller 6oz patty, they’ve added amazing toppings like lobster meat, pulled pork and foie gras. We tried both the lobster burger, called “The Beast,” and “The Frenchman,” which had foie gras on top.
Both were great. The foie burger was both funky and sweet: Funky from that rich goose fat, and sweet from the cranberry jam. I mean, look at this – perfection!
Take a look at this tall and proud lobster-topped burger.
It also gets a pop of great flavor from the truffle mayo. That’s Swiss cheese on top, too. So nicely balanced with equal portions of lobster meat and high quality Pat LaFrieda beef.
Now let’s get down to the new lobster roll items. You can see them flanking the original on the menu below.
We tried “The 7 Samurai” and passed on “The Fiesta.” Next time.
This beauty is a lobster roll dressed with ginger mayo, cucumber, sesame and Japanese spices. Really awesome. This was my favorite item of the day. The cucumber, ginger and sesame added a really daring Japanese flavor profile to this New England classic.
And I really can’t say enough good things about the bread they use for the lobster rolls here. I started getting into it in my old review above, but I want to expand a bit on it. It’s like a very thick slice of loaf bread with a half slice or pocket in the center for filling with lobster. The outside is toasted and buttery, but not wet or greasy.
It really is the perfect vehicle for delivering the lobster into your mouth. And everything you order here, as I mentioned above, comes with both fries AND a salad. Both are great.
I don’t know how we managed to fit dessert, but I guess there is a separate, second stomach designated just for dessert in the anatomy of food crazy freaks like me. Chocolate mousse. Awesome.
BURGER & LOBSTER
39 W. 19th St.
New York, NY 10011
Here’s a throw-back few pics from one of the great falafel joints in Manhattan, Mamoun’s. This place is a must-do for late night food binging. Get on this shit and put it down without looking back. Awesome.
As you know, I eat a lot of steak and consume large quantities of meat. If Conehead is to Johnny Prime, then beer and chicken embryos is to rib eyes and porterhouses.
As you might imagine, my steaks and meats are often still connected to some kind of bone when they come to the table.
“Bring Home the Bone” is a project of mine that’s meant to keep that meaty, beefy, steakhouse goodness going all week long, after the meal has concluded. I’ve even seen this starting to become a trend in the food world, with a few articles discussing the idea.
Some places just serve broths now. There’s even a video about it too:
What exactly happens in my BHTB initiative? This isn’t fucking rocket science, people. I take home the scraps and bones in a doggy bag. If we get a bone marrow app, the bones get packed. If I eat a bone-in rib eye, or a porterhouse for two, I’m taking those fucking bones home.
It’s a great way to conserve and save too. Shit is expensive these days, even the offal, less common/cheap-o cuts and bone bits are pricey at the grocery store – especially marrow. People are waking up to how good these things can be if put to the right use. The market is responding to the demand and costs are rising. And there’s simple inflation as well.
So what am I making with the bones and scraps?
BROTH/STOCK
According to the great Alton Brown, a broth is a liquid that has had meat cooking in it, and a stock has to be made from bones. In most cases, I’m making a broth or stock, but in the case of BHTB it is stock. Boil the bones and scraps with some other herbs and spices, add a little salt, and after a while you can strain it off into a container to use later as a soup base. Some flavors I like to play around with are what I like to call “faux-pho,” which is star anise, cloves, cinnamon and sometimes cardamom. Add noodles and some of your own thinly sliced eye round and you’re set for a delicious meal.
If not, even a hot cup of clarified broth is sometimes enough to do the trick, especially in winter. Hot beef liquid is better than coffee, tea or hot chocolate in my opinion. More nutritious too.
SAUCES/GELATINS/FATS
In other situations, I’ll make a sauce or concentrated beef gelatin of some kind. Essentially this means I just keep reducing the above broth until it becomes less liquid. I don’t do anything to thicken, solidify or gel up the base other than to keep boiling. The fat, marrow, gristle and cartilage break down into collagen and blend into the water and these substances will naturally thicken on their own. Most times, when I do this, I pop the stuff into the fridge and the liquid gels up into a substance that is more like jello than liquid. I can then scoop or spoon that out to use as a flavoring or cooking agent while cooking something in a pan, or to coat some pasta after boiling, during the saucing phase.
Here’s a shot of a friend’s process. His bones cooked for a few days. Look at the delicious jelly-like stuff:
Here’s his recipe:
~15 pounds of Frozen grass-fed beef marrow bones
~8 frozen chicken feet (from local farm, pasture raised chickens)
Fresh thyme (whole package from grocery store)
~10 Fresh Bay Leaves
2 Onions
~ 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
He filled the 20 quart pot up with water to the top. He put in enough bones to reach the top of the 20 qt pot, then applied water to match the top of the bone level.
On the second day he added in two 8oz beef shanks to add some more meat flavor. He noticed an improvement to the broth on the second day. First day was mostly clear, second day turned a golden color.
While cooking he was skimming off the fat, and removed roughly 48 oz of fat from the top of the pot over the course of 2 days.
The fat also rises to the top in the fridge and naturally separates from the beef gel or stock. You can sometimes lift it away with your fingers and put the solidified fat into a separate container. I use this like I would use butter or olive oil. Beef fat is a great way to grease your pan for cooking eggs, cornbread or whatever. Even better if you’re using pork bones in your “Bring Home the Bone” endeavors. The fat is softer.
STEWS/LEGUMES/GRAINS
It’s always good to add a bone of some kind when you’re making barley, stewed beans or lentils, rice or even something like split pea soup. Throwing in a ham hock, or a bone with some bits of meat still clinging to it, is an excellent way to add flavor and depth to all these items.
In it’s simplest form, you can just gather all your bones and put them on a baking sheet. Roast them in the oven to punch up the flavors.
Once your house or apartment smells amazing, take them out and put them into a pot with some onions, garlic, and whatever spices you want. Boil or simmer for several hours, at least until all the excess scrap meat comes off the bones and is falling apart with the touch of a fork or stirring spoon.
Pretty simple, right? Bring home the fucking bone, yo.
This joint is right near my apartment, so it was just a matter of time before I wandered in. I’d been to the other Empire location a while back. It was okay; room for improvement there, but I still wanted to try this other location. I went with my wife for a quick dinner. Check it out:
Flavor: 8
I had the bone-in rib eye. It had a great sear and crust on the outside, and it was cooked to a nice medium-rare on the inside. There was not one drop of bleed-out, as the steak was properly rested before it was served. Aside from a bit of gristle in one spot, this was a great cut of beef. Better than the other location (which is now closed).
Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 9
Empire covers the basics in a plentiful way. They offer porterhouse for two, three, or four; ribeye; filet; strip; and even prime rib. To top it off there are veal and lamb chops too.
Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions here are average to good. The creamed spinach is enough for two to share at $11. Even the creme brûlée dessert is probably big enough to share. At 22-24oz, the steak is a good size too.
Price: 8
Great prices here. Our bill was just over $100 because my wife didn’t have much of an appetite.
Bar: 10
This is a great bar to hang out in. The bar room itself is beautiful, but not only is the atmosphere cool, but they have over 400 different bottles of wine and over 100 different single malt scotches – not to mention a serious bourbon and cognac selection.
Specials and Other Meats: 9
The great thing about this place is their pre-dinner price fix menu. At $49 you get a soup or salad to start, then either a filet or strip with crab cake or grilled shrimp, a side of either broccoli or mashed potatoes, and dessert. Awesome. I will definitely be back here for that deal.
Apps, Sides & Desserts: 7
Unfortunately, the chilled seafood platter missed the mark for us. The shrimp and lobster portions of the dish were just really bland and lacking in flavor. The lump crabmeat was excellent though. I noted the same problem in the review of the other location as well.
I had to drown it in their steak sauce to get some enjoyment out of it.
The creamed spinach was really good. It may have been a bit too salty, but I didn’t necessarily mind too much.
This creme brûlée is the best in the city. I’m serious. I’ve had them all over the place, and this shit was perfect. So creamy and light. Amazing texture and flavor, and just the right amount of broiled sugar on top.
Seafood Selection: 8
Aside from the chilled shellfish platter, I really can’t make an assessment on this here. The shrimp and lobster cocktail in that shellfish tower were just no good. Not rancid or “bad,” they just had no flavor whatsoever. It is my hope that, based on the greatness of the lump crabmeat, some of the other seafood selections are better. I recall liking the oysters a lot at the other location, so there’s that.
Service: 10
Our waiter, Tim, was awesome. We got to talking about cameras and photography when he noticed my camera, which he is currently in the market to get for himself. The rest of the staff were all very courteous and kind, and the service was FAST! We got our meal very quickly, and the servers were very happy to refill our plates with spinach and/or shellfish from the tower when we ran low. Decent bread basket, though not warm.
Ambiance: 7
This place was a little stale for me. I did like their private dining room, and loved the front of the house and bar, but the main dining hall was just lacking a little oomph for me. That said, does it really matter, as long as the food is good?
EMPIRE STEAKHOUSE
237 W. 54th St.
New York, NY 10019
We scored a sweet Gilt City deal for this place: $30 gets you a bucket of suds (six of either Bud, Bud Light, or Coors Light – you can also mix and match), and a pair of burger plates.
I went with the Proper Burger, which was topped with cheddar and bacon. It was cooked just right – a perfect medium. I’ve had better burgers, but for the price/deal, this was a great buy.
The fries were perfect – a nice crispy golden brown, but still soft inside, and well seasoned.
My buddy went with the black & blue burger on the bartender Kyle’s recommendation (great bartender, by the way), which is topped with blue cheese and caramelized onions. As you can see below, his was undercooked a bit (he ordered medium), but he still loved the flavors.
Decently decorated inside – slightly high end-esque, but comfortable. Also a good amount of TVs.
I’ve walked by this joint a million times and never thought twice about entering.
But a buddy and me decided to stroll in and try the burger. I thought it was going to be a fucking tourist trap shithole, but I was wrong. The inside is spacious, and actually nice.
The burger here is incredible.
Better than Rosie O’Grady’s nearby, better than P.J. Carney’s as well. In fact, I’d say it is one of the best burgers in midtown. The patty had a great crunchy crust on the outside edges. it was cooked properly to my “medium” specification. It was thick but not too thick that you can’t add toppings, and the cheese ratio was just right. Bun was strong and pliable as well. The only thing I didn’t like was the lettuce (garden mix as opposed to iceberg). I also swapped out cheddar for American cheese.
My buddy got a “chicken burger,” which was essentially some chicken breast pounded flat and breaded/fried, then topped with ham and swiss, and smeared with some thousand island dressing.
The fries were also excellent here as well. Crispy, natural cut, golden-brown twigs of awesome.
Those are a few of the things I hear pretty regularly from people who follow the blog.
“Are you Bulimic? Do you spit the food out?”
“What’s your dieting trick? Atkins?”
Those are some questions I get from people who have only met me in the past few years and have seen my loss of weight.
I figured it was time to post an official response to these sorts of questions here for all to see. I guess the best thing to do is start at the beginning:
I was always a skinny dude growing up. In fact my whole family is skinny. We are those people that everyone hates: we can pretty much eat whatever we want, not work out or exercise, and stay skinny (the women in my family might beg to differ, but that’s just how broads are). My dad, at his fattest, was 122lbs after he quit smoking and retired. I came out of high school at about 115lbs, maybe 120lbs. Coming out of college, I was the biggest in the family. I was the tallest at 5′ 10″ and heaviest at about 150lbs (I grew taller in college, by about 4 inches). At the peak of my youth, I looked like this:
Feel free to mock this photo all you want. I do.
Then it all went to shit. After I graduated law school things changed. My life became sedentary with the beginning of my career, sitting at a computer desk for 8-12 hours at a pop. No walking around, no fun with friends playing sports, and I was NOT the working out or running type.
My mid to late 20s hit and suddenly 150lbs became 175lbs. I wasn’t too concerned at the time. It actually felt good to have a little meat on my bones. I felt normal around people instead of being “holy shit I can see your ribs” skinny. I had just met and fallen in love with my future wife. I was comfortable, and not looking to impress anyone. Girlfriend became fiancé, and fiancé became wife (and wife became Cake Dealer). Meanwhile the steakhouse quest had started, so 175lbs became 180lbs, and 180lbs became 185lbs, then 190lbs and 195lbs… you get the picture… And I also started losing my hair! That sucked. A bald spot meant it was time to take it all down and accept being hairless. That made me bald and getting fat. Eww. A horrible double whammy. I was becoming George Costanza.
A random visit to the doctor revealed that I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and borderline diabetes. I was put onto some blood pressure meds for a few months while I tried to diet. The timing was good here (2008-2009) because my and my wife’s wedding was approaching. I was probably around 180-185lbs for the wedding, which was in April of 2009. I had lost 10-15lbs and was generally keeping it off.
The steakhouse quest was slowed if not halted. Until two things happened: (1) a trip to New Orleans, where all I wanted to do was eat and try everything in sight. Muffuletta sandwiches, beignets, gumbo, po’ boys and all that fantastic shit.
The diet was out the window at that point. Then, (2) we moved from NYC to Long Island after the wedding in the Summer of 2009. Three hours of my day had suddenly been sucked out of existence and lost to the horrors of the LIRR commute.
The first thing to go was home cooked meals. The last thing I wanted to do at 8:00pm when I got home from work was to cook a “sensible meal,” and then clean up afterward. By the time I finished eating and cleaning it would be close to 11:00pm, and my alarm was going off at 5:00am to catch a 6:09am train. Fuck that. Fuck ALL of it.
In my defiance of all things healthy, and with a raging middle finger held high to the LIRR, I re-started the quest for great steakhouses, all the while keeping notes and a list of places to go next. In April of 2011 I decided to put my notes into a blog format, and, eventually, here we are today.
But from mid-2009 to December 31, 2013 I was blowing up like a balloon. I never thought I could be a 200lb person, yet by the end of 2013 I was pushing fucking 220lbs! What a fat fucking bastard! I’d go up a flight or two of stairs and feel winded, my heart would race, and I felt weak. I was killing myself.
So I made a New Year’s resolution to lose some weight and get in shape. My target weight, at first, was 185lbs. At my heaviest I was 218lbs, so that meant a serious effort. I was looking at BMI (body mass index) calculators to see where someone my age, height, and activity level should be, and I was shocked. To get down to the high end of the acceptable BMI range for my frame, I needed to be about 175lbs. I didn’t think I’d get there, but I did. Here’s how:
I woke up early every morning to run on the treadmill. In the beginning I was going two miles in 20 minutes. Pathetic. Eventually I was doing three miles in 30 minutes, or switching off to do some stationary bike cycling to mix it up. Still a pretty bad pace, but at least I was going for longer. I did this every day, with the exception of weekends. Once the weather got nicer I was running outside. I liked this a shitload better than the treadmill. In fact, I found that my pace was quickening, and I was going for longer distances.
I also switched my diet up drastically. I was counting calories. In the beginning I was trying to keep it well under 2000 calories per day, that way I would get the ball rolling on the weight loss. I thought of the calories like money. I had $2000 in my wallet for each day. If a candy bar cost $300, was it worth it? Or would it be better to spend that $300 on fish and a veggie, getting more food for my dollar? Lunch was typically carrots and celery, raw, with hot sauce to dip. Or pre-portioned serving sizes of nuts, dried fruit, trail mix, etc. Other lunches included Greek yogurt, or simply cooked veggies (steamed with seasoning, or sautéed in garlic and oil).
For dinner, I tried to double the veggie portion and half the meat portion, and always tried to watch the number of calories and serving size. More chicken, fish, or lean meats. Less grains, fatty meats, sugars, breads and starch. High fiber, low calorie, low carbs. I was also eating slowly. Fiber tricks your body into thinking it’s full, and it takes 20 minutes for your brain to tell your stomach that it’s full. Eat slowly and get full before you gorge yourself. Otherwise, that’s how over-eating happens.
Portion control was key though. If I needed a snack, I was hitting on nuts, dried fruit, yogurt or an occasional Fiber One snack bar – ALWAYS in the proper portion size as per the nutritional labels, and keeping my daily intake under 2000 calories. I tried to limit myself to two snacks per day: one between lunch and dinner, and one after dinner if necessary.
It was fucking tough. I was irritable at first. But I banged it out, and lost a shitload of weight in the first month; something like 25lbs. I kept this diet and exercise routine up for three or four months without changing too much up. If I ate a larger dinner, sometimes I would double up on my running for the day to shave off some of the extra calories out of pure guilt. This is analogous to working overtime to earn a little extra calorie dollars to spend.
Suddenly I was down 40lbs in four months. That meant I could normalize my diet a bit and just focus on maintaining weight instead of losing. I had hit my initial target, pretty much, but part of me wanted to push it more, to get into that “BMI” range of health and fitness. I still kept my lunches light, but dinner was pretty much a free for all (yay for steaks!). I didn’t do much snacking, but when I did, I tried to make sure I don’t go overboard.
The final pounds were the slowest to come off. My wife and I moved back to the city in the summer of 2014, so I continued my running in Central Park. Eventually I upped the daily average to five miles a day, typically in about 37-40 minutes, and only taking one day off per week instead of two. I was burning more calories, and occasionally doing ten mile runs (once a week) or even half marathons (once a month). That meant I could eat more (more calorie $$$ to spend each day), yet I was still losing weight. PERFECT! I shed even more weight. I donated all of my fat-guy clothes to charity, and broke out some of my older, skinny-guy clothing, as well as picked up some new stuff. I went from a 37 inch waist to a 32.
LEFT: me on 12/21/13. RIGHT: me on 12/25/14.
I currently fluctuate in my daily weight between about 168lbs and 173lbs (generally we are lighter in the mornings). So I’m down about 50lbs from the start! I still weigh myself several times per day. Constantly knowing what I weigh is important to me, because it helps me manage my weight. I’m in the proper BMI range, and I’m in the best physical shape of my life. I place no restrictions on my dinner meals. I still keep to a light lunch, unless I plan on burning more calories with a longer run that day. Snacking is still generally kept to a minimum, but I am not afraid to partake. All I do now is run and watch my lunch and snack intake, and I can eat anything I want for dinner. If I can do it, anyone can.
So what do you call this “diet” that I followed? I don’t know. It’s part Atkins, part “paleo,” part portion control and lots of good old fashioned exercise.
As for my cholesterol, I don’t know. Back in my fat-guy days, it was 169 for LDL and 259 total. As of February of 2014, which was only two months into my diet, it was down to 126 for LDL and 205 total. Improvement. No idea what it is now; hopefully much better. But I couldn’t care less.
My first encounter with a Johnny Rocket’s was back in about 2000 in Hoboken, NJ. I liked the concept of a throwback, old school, all-American diner/burger and shake joint. Now that burgers and this restaurant concept is high on NYC foodie radar, I felt like it was time to give respect to a company that was ahead of its time.
My wife and I popped into the Third Avenue & 56th Street location with a special deal that my wife nabbed for $10 or something crazy. Basically we got to choose any two burgers, any two types of fries or onion rings, and any two shakes.
The place was booming with feel-good music from the 50s and early 60s. The decor was classic chrome and vinyl. As a fan of this era (cars, music, attire, etc), I was in a happy place.
I know this place is a chain, and it’s not Jean le Roquet or some French burger bistro. But let’s be honest here. If something tastes good, what the fuck does it matter?
Check out how delicious my classic double American cheeseburger looks, with jalapeños, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato and chopped onion looks. This place is so far the ONLY burger joint in NYC that knew to put a smear of mayonnaise on the bottom bun to prevent burger juice destruction. I was impressed.
The patties were just a shade overcooked for my liking, at medium-well instead of medium, but then again I was never even asked how I’d like my burger cooked. You may have noticed, I went with the onion rings. They had a nice crispy batter on them, they were well seasoned, not too big, and not mushy inside. Perfect for me.
My wife got the “12” burger, which I believe came with sliced onion and cheddar. She also opted for cheese fries, which were pretty nice as well.
Shakes are presented in the classic 50s/60s style, in old style Coke glasses with the metal glass holder, and a stainless mixer cup that contains some overflow extra shake. These were filling! But delicious. I went with a vanilla-chocolate mix, and my wife went with a chocolate-strawberry mix.
Overall I will just say this: the prices are extremely reasonable for NYC food, and if you’re a food elitist then you may be missing out on good food. They do a good job here so don’t walk on by just because the name is synonymous with the food court in the mall, ESPECIALLY if you score a sweet deal like my wife did.
