Craigie on Main (brunch)

It's probably the most famous and sought-after burger in Boston, and maybe even the nation. (!)

It's got bone marrow and dehydrated miso mixed into the grass-fed meat. The homemade ketchup is laced with nutmeg. And the entire patty is cooked to a precise temperature with a C-vap oven before being seared a la plancha.

It's one heck of a burger.

In fact, there was a time not too long ago when the burger became so popular that it "disappeared" from the regular menu at Craigie on Main. Food and Wine Magazine had just named it one of the best 25 burgers in the U.S. Other media outlets were praising it left and right. Diners poured into Craigie on Main, all hoping to try a bite of that ethereal burger.

It became crazy. Chef Tony Maws just could not keep up with the demand. He sources his meat from two very small farms and he was unwilling to sacrifice quality for the sake of meeting the demand.

So instead, it quietly disappeared from the menu. Diners could still order it at the bar, but there were only a limited amount of burgers available per day.

We had friends that went at 6:00 PM once only to find out the burgers were already gone. It was so discouraging, I decided not to even try to fight the crowds for that elusive burger.

Instead, I took another, possibly lesser known route.

I went during Sunday brunch, the one day it's a guaranteed menu item.

Bryan and I stopped by Craigie on Main for brunch a couple Sundays ago. It had been a few years since I had tried the burger, and I was curious what the brunch version was like.

The burger ($17) itself is just as delicious as I remembered it. The patty is gorgeously juicy and flavorful - all around perfect, really. At brunch you have the option of adding a fried egg on top, which we did. It makes the burger horrendously messy to eat (see top photo, where the egg yolk just oozes all over the place), but it's totally worth it.

Additionally, the fries during brunch look more like thick home fries instead of the shoestring fries that normally come with the burger.

Finally, the brunch burger is a bit smaller in size than the normal bar version, which is totally fine with me. We had no trouble finishing it.

Though the burger is famous and an obvious dish to try, I must say everything we had at Craigie on Main was excellent. The side of Smoked Pork Belly ($8) was juicy, smoky, and beautifully charred.

I absolutely loved the Grass-Fed Beef Cheek, Brisket, and Smoked Beef Tongue Hash ($18), which came with crispy onion strings and a farm fresh fried egg on top. I was extremely impressed with the attention to detail of every single component of this dish. Each small cube of potato seemed to be cut the exact same size. The texture of the waxy potatoes was perfect (perhaps made using sous vide? It was almost eerily perfect), and the melt-in-your-mouth beef was flavorful and super soft. I loved this dish, maybe even more than the burger!

Bryan ordered a Bloody Mary and I seriously think it's the best Bloody Mary I've ever tasted (yes, significantly better than the one Bryan made at East Coast Grill a few weeks back, which was already very good). I just couldn't get over the intense and real tomato flavor in the base, which added so much deep complexity to the drink. Unlike most Bloody Mary drinks, this one did not need to be that salty. The other strong components provided plenty of depth and flavor to the drink.

Overall, Tony Maws did not disappoint at all. He seeks perfection in everything he does, and it really shows.

I can't wait to come back.

Craigie on Main

853 Main St
Cambridge, MA 02139

Ben's Chili Bowl - an Inside Perspective

Jen and Virginia Rollins, co-founder of Ben's Chili Bowl and wife of the late "Ben" Ali.

This is the second post in the new series about my recent trip to Washington DC right on Julia Child's 100th birthday (Series overview: Happy Birthday Julia Child): Other posts in this series include Wolfgang Puck's The Source.

There's no question that this is one of the most famous and popular food places in the entire DC area.

Tourists line up around the exterior of the building just for the chance to take a bite into their famous, absolutely delicious, chili half smokes. It's the stuff of legends, really. President Obama's been there. Bill Cosby swears by it and goes all the time.

The walls of this simple, humble looking place are adorned with photographs from celebrities, old friends, and loyal customers from the past fifty years.

I first visited Ben's Chili Bowl just like any other regular tourist back in 2010 with Bryan's family. We stood in that long line to get inside to taste those chili half smokes. It was crowded, crazy, but lots of fun.

This time, I got the inside scoop.

Together with Kate, our fearless leader from Destination DC, we got up bright and early and headed over to the U Street in the Shaw neighborhood of DC.

 Shaw is a historically African American area that originally grew out of freed slave encampments. Black Broadway (U Street Corridor) thrived in the early 20th century as the hub of African American music and culture, bringing about greats like Langston Hughes, Miles Davis, Nat King Cole, and Duke Ellington. These days you can still see the grandeur of those times reflected in the gorgeous victorian houses that line these streets.

The most famous food institution in the area is, of course, Ben's Chili Bowl. If you come in the afternoon, you'll fight with the mobs of tourists who come to experience this significant historical place.

The early morning, however, is when the locals hang out. The place buzzes with energy as the workers at Ben's dole out hearty breakfast items to the guests.

People treat each other like family.

In fact, the crew that works here is pretty much like family. Some of the workers have been with the restaurant for decades.

When we asked Virginia (cofounder; wife of Ben Ali, who passed away October of 2009), her philosophy on how they hired people, she said you had to let people be themselves. It's really about hiring happy people who love what they do.

"It's not just a job - you work too hard for it to be just a job."

"It's family."

For example, this lovely lady in purple on the right (boo, I can't remember her name) has been with the restaurant for over 40 years.

She stuck with Ben's as the only employee back in the dark days when riots following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination essentially devastated the neighborhood. Further construction to build the new U Street metro station forced most businesses off the street because no one could get the the restaurants.

Ben's was one of the only businesses open in their entire neighborhood, staffed by the loyal employee, who worked tirelessly next to Ben and Virginia.

It's incredible and inspiring to see the rewards of such tenacity during difficult times.

And they give back to the community.

Homeless kids in the neighborhood will sometimes come by, hungry for some food. The restaurant will feed them, but the kids have to bring a book and read it there. Afterwards, they actually get tested on the contents of the book! The folks at Ben's Chili Bowl care about the education of these kids.

Occasionally, single mothers who are in a bind will drop their kids off to hang out at the restaurant. The folks at the restaurant encourage these kids to be productive during this time, teaching them how to help out at the restaurant.

We asked Virgina what her favorite breakfast items were. Salmon cake, grits, and eggs. She says she makes sure to eat a hearty breakfast every morning.

"You have to eat enough food to have energy for the entire day."

Her daughter-in-law attests, "she has more energy than the rest of us!"

The staff was so kind as to bring over a ton of various breakfast foods, like these homefries, which had fantastic flavor.

Scrambled eggs were normal - nothing particularly unusual.

Similarly, the French Toast was solid.

My absolutely favorite (not surprisingly) was their signature chili half smoke. It's juicy, smoky, with just a bit of heat. Definitely eat it with their famous chili, which is a must-have.

When we asked Virginia what influenced the recipe for the chili half smoke, she mentioned that Ben took inspiration from his Trinidad background and applied it to the American hot dog, which he learned about in the US. The resulting hot dog is legendary, and definitely worth trying. [More pics of the chili half smoke when served as a full hot dog here]

Salmon cakes are moist, flavorful, and definitely a healthier option. It's also one of Virginia's favorites.

The grits come with a generous dollop of butter on top. They were alright, but I've had much better versions in the south.

At the end they dropped of some sweet apples, which tasted like the inside of an apple pie. A bit sweet for me, but my palate is definitely more sensitive to sweet than most!

Alas, we had to move on.

As part of this crazy food trip, we still had to go to a food tour of U Street and Little Ethiopia before lunch.

The eating had just begun . . .

Stay tuned tomorrow to learn about Little Ethiopia in DC, the second largest Ethiopian population outside of the capital city in Ethiopia

Jen enjoying an entire chili half smoke back in 2010

For a different look on Ben's Chili Bowl, definitely check out my post from 2010 where I describe a lot of their non-breakfast, more normal menu items.

Ben's Chili Bowl
1213 U St NW
Washington, DC 20009


Disclaimer
This trip was part of a media tour of Washington DC paid for by Destination DC, a non-profit organization that supports the DC travel and tourism sector. The tour was provided by DC Food Tours.

Shake Shack

This is the seventh post in the Eating the Big Apple series. Other posts include Soba Koh, Sylvia's Restaurant (Gospel Brunch), Torrisi Italian Specialties, Ippudo,Tasty Hand Pulled Noodle, and Il Buco Alimentari & Vinera.

Who has the best burger?

It's a touchy, touchy subject. Those from the West Coast (like my husband) swear by In & Out, citing their soft buns, high quality meat, and the variety of secret "off-menu" styles that are available. Friends from the DC area absolutely love Five Guys, a burger joint originally from Virginia that offers generously sized burgers with a wide variety of fresh, high quality toppings.

Up until this point, those were the only two I had tried. Bryan always insisted on stopping by In & Out every time we were in California, and I have several friends who are so obsessed about Five Guys (this is a couple years back), we would regularly make the trip to Dedham from Cambridge just for a bite of that burger.

Yet I would always hear about Shake Shack.

New Yorkers rave about Shake Shack. Fans point to the soft potato bun and deliciously juicy beef patty. Apparently their shakes are incredible too. Lines are notoriously long.

This past year Bryan and I finally tried Shake Shack. We visited twice - once at the original location in Madison Square Park and once at a newer location in the theater district (not too far from Times Square!).

Shake Shack is definitely a more recent phenomenon, starting as just a simple hot dog cart in Madison Square Garden to support the garden's first art installation. It became so popular that, in 2004, Shake Shack obtained permission to open a permanent kiosk right inside the park.

Since then, the lines have been notoriously long (the guy with the Lakers shirt above is at the end of the line). Don't be surprised if you have to wait 15-20 minutes for your burger. Thankfully, there are two lines. If you're just there for shakes, ice cream, or drinks, you can actually go into the much shorter line.

Their namesake burger "The Shackburger" (shown below), is a cheeseburger served with lettuce, tomatoes, and "Shack Sauce" (a ketchupy-mayo-like sauce with other spices).

Their burgers are cooked medium by default unless if you request otherwise. Frankly, I thought medium was just perfect. The potato bun is super soft and goes down quite easily with the juicy burger. The vegetables are all fresh, and overall, it's a great burger.

Their version of a hot dog - the Shack-cago dog- is topped with relish, cucumber, pickle, tomato, onions, sport pepper, celery salt, and mustard. It also uses the same type of potato bun. I'm really not a hot dog connoisseur, so I'll guess this is similar to a Chicago-style hot dog? (Yes, I'm embarrassed to say I was raised a Midwesterner and I don't know the answer to that . . .)

They serve all sorts of frozen custard. For some reason, this particular one I got was a bit melted, which made me sad. One time before, I had tried one delectable, single spoonful of perfect custard at the other location (they were passing out free samples), so I knew it could be better than this.

Perhaps this was an anomaly?

Bryan told me to go and get a new one, but I really didn't feel like standing in line again.

So I ate the melty one. The flavors of the custard were nice, but the melted, messy nature of the custard sort of ruined the texture and enjoyment of the dessert for me.

They had messed up our order and accidentally gave us a root beer float, which they let us keep. Bryan actually loves floats so he thought it was great. Me, I like my ice cream nicely solid. Why "melt" it with liquid and ruin a good thing? ;)

We visited one of the newer Shake Shack indoor "brick and mortar" locations in the theater district. This one is pretty close to Times Square (it's at 44th street and 8th Avenue). We stopped by here for a quick bite right before heading out to Penn Station (34th street) to take the train back to Boston.

This Shake Shack is trendy and modern inside, especially when compared to the outdoor benches at the Madison Square Garden location.

The lines are still ridiculously long and very often snake outside the door. They have those line-organizing barriers (like at Disneyworld!) to keep everything in order. Crazy!!

The seating area is reasonably large, and people eat quickly, so it wasn't too hard to find a seat.

Bryan got the crazy ShackStack® - a cheeseburger and a ’Shroom Burger topped with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce. It was alright, with fresh ingredients and quality components, but Bryan thought it was a bit too crazy. It's virtually impossible to put that thing in your mouth, it's messy, and at the end of the day, it just wasn't as good as a simple cheeseburger.

"It tastes like a veggie burger with meat on top" - Bryan Che

I got the a single cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. It was just the right size and pretty darn good.


Thoughts
We both really enjoyed our burgers at Shake Shack. They definitely make a solid burger at a good price point ($4.55 for a single, $7.10 for a double cheeseburger). I can totally see why the lines are so long.

Having said that, Bryan still prefers In & Out. He didn't really like the beloved potato buns. He thought they were too "airy". He also is a huge fan of the "animal style" burger at In & Out (grilled onions, special "sauce"), and hasn't yet found another "fast" burger that quite competes.

Nevertheless, we both agreed that Shake Shack burgers are quite enjoyable and we would most definitely consider stopping by again if we were in New York.

And I still do want to go back and try a full cup of that custard. I am dreaming of a rich, thick and creamy bite without a melty puddle in sight.

Shake Shack
Madison Square Garden
11 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10010

Hard Rock Cafe Boston

A long time ago - during my awkward, braces-wielding, teeny-bopping days - I used to be obsessed with Hard Rock Cafe.

It wasn't because I liked hard rock. In fact, I sort of hated it. Seriously, it was only because so many other people at school wore their shirts. You know how it is in middle school - you scope out what everyone else is wearing and you desperately try to copy it.

Hair-sprayed tall hair? Check. Huge Esprit tote? Check. Guess jeans? Hmm, actually my mom never let me get those, so I guess that's not a check. But I tried as hard as I could.

I also liked visiting Hard Rock Cafes because they served as badges representing cities I had visited. My hometown did not have a Hard Rock, which meant we had to travel to get the coveted T-shirts. My sister and I relentlessly dragged my parents to multiple Hard Rock Cafes every time we traveled. If there was a Hard Rock Cafe in a city we visited, we had to go there.

I have Hard Rock memorabilia from Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Beverly Hills, and Orlando - not to mention Banff (Canadian Rockies), Tokyo, Singapore, and Honolulu.

We were nuts.

Then I went to college and proceeded to completely forget about the Hard Rock Cafe.

That is, until a couple weeks ago, when I got an invitation from My Blog Spark to try Boston's Hard Rock Cafe's new menu.

Hard Rock? Wow, that totally brings back such funny nostalgia. It's been years since I've even thought about that place. 

I decided that, after almost 20 years, it was worth revisiting this place I'd sought after with such zeal during my childhood. I really had no idea how my new adult, food blogger self would see this place.

There was only one way to find out.

For those of you who have never heard of Hard Rock Cafe, it is a nationwide chain that houses cool rock memorabilia from famous (often local) artists.

It all started back in the seventies in London when Eric Clapton, who loved eating at this American restaurant called "Hard Rock Cafe", asked them if he could mark his favorite seat with a plaque.

They said, "why don't we put up your guitar?"

A week later, Pete Townshend of The Who dropped off his Gibson Les Paul.

Pretty soon, donations of guitars and other musical memorabilia began pouring in, and the restaurant slowly expanded throughout the world.

Eddie Van Halen

In Boston, for example, you can see Eric Clapton's acoustic guitar, Aerosmith's outfits, Van Halen's electric, and handwritten lyrics by Bruce Springsteen. It's sort of fun just to wander around the restaurant and peruse the stuff hanging on the walls.

Bryan and I arrived at the Hard Rock Cafe Boston on a warm, Monday evening. Although tons of seats were empty, the hostess told us there was a 20-minute wait. She could not seat us because the restaurant was severely understaffed.

"We only have 6 servers. You're welcome to go to the bar."

We walked over to the bar. Initially, the bartender told us she was maxed out and wouldn't be able to serve us. However, we indicated that the hostess had sent us here. She looked harried. A piles of dirty dishes sat forlornly a few seats down from us, desperately wishing to be cleaned up.

It was quite evident the staff was overworked.

Bryan tried to order a beer on tap, only to find out almost all of their beers were sold out.

"We had a crazy weekend; the patrons drank up most of the beer on tap."

Thankfully there were one or two remaining choices, so Bryan opted for one of them (sorry, I can't remember what it was!).

For appetizers, we tried the Santa Fe spring rolls, which were stuffed with spinach, black beans, cilantro, corn, jalapenos, diced red peppers and Jack cheese. It was satisfying (we were hungry!) and decent, though I did leave behind the tired bed of lettuce in which they sat.

We tried the hickory smoked BBQ combo with ribs and pulled pork. The ribs were, unfortunately, a bit tough and far from "fall-off-the-bone." The pulled pork was OK, but it was hard to really love either one considering we had just tried some pretty incredible barbecue a few weeks ago.

Hard Rock calls their burgers "Legendary", which compelled us to try one. These burgers are 10 ounces and come with either fries or onion rings. At $15 each, they are flirting with the prices of Craigie's famous bone-marrow-infused burger, the famous Radius Burger, and actually cost more than a Smith & Wollensky burger made from 100% prime beef.

The burgers were good - definitely the best item we had that night. The meat is juicy, cooked well, and slightly charred on the outside. It's filled with onion rings, cheese, and bacon.

They make regional versions of burgers too. The Boston version is topped with baked beans, which just didn't sound all that appetizing to me.

For dessert, they have normal sized desserts and "bites", which are small portions that only cost $3. We tried two different bites - chocolate mousse and chocolate peanut butter pie. Both tasted as expected - decent, but nothing to write home about.

Overall, Hard Rock Cafe is a mixed bag. The memorabilia is cool, and if you're a fan of rock, you'll love looking through the cool collection that the Boston Hard Rock Cafe has. However, the food is mediocre, not exactly cheap, and the service can be spotty (though I must say that after we sat down, our bartender actually took reasonably good care of us).

If you do come, the burger is pretty solid, and I'm guessing some classic "American" dishes might not be too bad either. However, I definitely wouldn't consider the food destination-worthy. There are much, much better places in Boston for the same price.

Disclaimer 
I received free gift certificates to try the food at Hard Rock Cafe as part of the My Blog Spark program. All opinions in the post are my own.