Tag Archives: roadside

American, Burgers, Long Island, Restaurant Reviews

Flo’s Luncheonette

July 20, 2019 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This little neighborhood roadside joint has always been a local fan favorite on Long Island.

The best thing I had here is Flo’s Puppy Dog, which is a split griddled hot dog with bacon and cheese sauce.

The waffle fries and regular fries are both pretty good as well, and if you get one of their lobster rolls, it comes with fries for $21.

Flo’s Burger is served on Martin’s potato bread with Canadian bacon and American cheese. LTOP come on the side.

Really tasty but it can get messy.

But the sleeper here is the Big EZ wrap, with shrimp, lettuce and avocado. Absolutely delicious and refreshing.

This place is a must try, especially in the nice weather. They even have ice cream on one side and a full service bar on the other.

FLO’S LUNCHEONETTE
302 Middle Rd
Blue Point, NY 11715

American, Burgers, California, Restaurant Reviews

YAKS on the 5

June 7, 2019 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This roadside dining spot was referred to us by the folks at Belcampo Meat Camp as a fun place for good burgers.

We tried their famous warm sticky bun first. This was deadly delicious.

Next up, some wings. I thought these were a little on the sweet side, but I appreciated the smoke flavor.

We tried the jalapeno and cheddar burger, which was really tasty despite looking like pure foodporn. Loved the addition of ranch here to cool it down, and the local beef happened to come from a guy’s family farm who we just met (he now works for Belcampo now, but this place uses his family’s grass finished beef). Great beef.

The cajun brown sugar tots were strangely addictive! I could not stop popping them.

YAKS ON THE 5
4917 Dunsmuir Avenue
Dunsmuir, CA 96025

Burgers, Food Halls, Midtown East, Press Reviews

Hard Times Sundaes

August 18, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

If your taste in burgers is anything like mine, you like to keep it fairly simple but always delicious. They say “you don’t mess with perfection,” and I believe that’s vital when it comes to the outstanding combination of meat and cheese. That perfection, for me, is a classic flat top griddle burger with crispy edges and a medium center, covered all over with melted American cheese, and topped with lettuce, tomato and fresh jalapenos. It must also be slapped on a potato bun with a bit of mayo.

One of the best places to get this style of burger is Hard Times Sundaes at Urbanspace Vanderbilt.

What started out as a meager food truck venture turned out to be one of the most sought after “roadside” style burgers in the city. Two years later, this place is consistently hailed as one of the best burgers in town by some of the most respected burger critics around. I agree with them.

I came here to celebrate their second “BURGthday” with a bunch of other NYC food scene press people. Since this was my first go at this place, I kept it simple, sticking to my favorite style, as outlined above. I was impressed! Everything was perfect – seriously.

A bunch of people were getting triples, because they do look amazing in photos, but I really wanted to experience the single in all its glory, perfectly ratio’d between bun, meat, cheese and toppings. It was so fucking good, and I wish I had more right now.

But I also got to try their bacon wrapped hot dog as well. These are not dick pics with toasted foreskin. These are delicious hot dogs.

I had this once with avocado at Crif Dogs, WAAAY back in the day, before I started reviewing restaurants. I loved it then, and I love it now. I like glorified hot dogs, and wrapping them in bacon and deep frying them is probably one of the best ways to do it. I liked it so much on that first bite, that I totally skipped any additional toppings like mustard, ketchup or onions.

Do yourselves a favor and get your asses over here ASAP.

There’s also a luncheonette spot out in Brooklyn that serves the burgers and also a nice skirt steak sandwich:

Watch the video of the steak sandwich being made:

HARD TIMES SUNDAES
At Urbanspace Vanderbilt
230 Park Ave
New York, NY 10169

Burgers, Hawaii

Bully’s Burgers

October 16, 2015 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Bully’s Burgers

This is pure roadside awesomeness. This little shack is an outpost for Triple L ranch, which develops 100% all natural grass fed beef.

They use a special flavoring, perhaps teriyaki, worked into the grind that gives this shit a really awesome uniqueness. My second burger of the trip was a hit. It may look overcooked, but the cheese and flavor was enough to make it work.

Check out my wife’s “grilled cheeseburger” as well. This was so gooey, buttery and toasty!

Hawaii, Other, Product Reviews

Halfway to Hana House

October 16, 2015 Johnny Prime 1 Comment

The drive to Hana was actually pretty fun. I was expecting death or dismemberment from the way it was described by nearly everyone I know who had been there. Parts are crazy and tight, and bumpy in the unpaved spots, but you’re going to be safe if you’re a moderately good driver.

We snacked on some banana bread from the “Halfway to Hana” shack along the way, and got down on a bag of spicy Vietnamese pork rinds along with our leftover Cow Pig Bun pork rinds.

The banana bread was really flavorful and moist, spiced with comforting shit like nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves.

Burgers, Food Halls, Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews

Genuine Roadside

October 1, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS FUCKING CLOSED! Such bullshit…

After hearing good things about this place, and the fact that it was listed in a top 10 or 15 places to get a burger under $10 list, I had to try it. And why not? I love Gotham West Market. If by some wacky turn of shame this place was bad, I could always hit The Cannibal or El Colmado.

Check out the retro condiment area:

Here’s the full menu:

I grabbed myself a smokehouse burger, which has jalapeño mayo, smoked gouda, bacon, and BBQ sauce on it. This was excellent, especially washed down with a nice shake. I ordered vanilla cardamom, but I was not really able to taste the cardamom.

Shit was good, and the fries were nice and crisp. I’d put this above Burger Joint easily, and I paid the exact same price for both meals:

But I wasn’t done there. For dessert I had a fucking classic burger: lettuce, tomato, special sauce, and cheddar. This was great too.

It was even better with American, as was my photo, on another visit.

Now all that’s left to try is the double cheeseburger, and the buttermilk batter fried chicken sandwich. Fuck yeah.

UPDATE – So I went back and put down a double cheeseburger, the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich, an order of fried pickles and a spicy Mexican chocolate shake. Fucking delicious, everything. This time I was definitely able to taste the spice in the shake. The apple slaw on the juicy, crunchy chicken sandwich was the perfect topping to go with it. Add some Texas Pete hot sauce on that bitch and it is heaven. The double cheeseburger was incredible. Nice flame broiled flavor, nicely cooked, juicy, cheesy and delicious without being sloppy. I even enjoyed the fried pickles. Nice and crisp.

And here’s the William:

Breakfast here is pretty fucking fantastic too. I had a fried green tomato BLT with an egg on top. It was hands-down the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever eaten:

My wife had the chicken & waffles, which were perfectly executed, and came with a really kick-ass maple butter to slather on top.

UPDATE 9/3/17

Went back in to try the fried green tomato, chicken sandwich and double burger again. Still excellent as usual. And I grabbed a nice show of the burger again.