Burger Conquest

Burger and Barrel
http://www.burgerandbarrel.com
25 W. Houston
New York, NY 10012

THE CONQUEST
Little known fact, my Pops was in the FBI. As a result, I have developed some of his super sleuthing skills and habits. Notice when I sit down at a restaurant, I always try to sit in the seat that does not have my back to the window or worse, a door. All the better to protect myself and my fellow diners.

I also have an inner ability to know when people are talking about or creeping up around me. Such was the case with superstar chef Josh Capon. I recently took my lovely wife Cara out for a meal at Josh's restaurant, Lure Fishbar. We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the entire experience. Once the review went live, I caught Josh sniffing around the Burger Conquest website. I quickly obtained his email address and reached out. I'm pretty sure I caught him off guard but he replied with " Let me know when you are ready to check out B&B." Shortly thereafter I requested a reservation for a double date with our friends Dawn and Paul.

Burger and Barrel is is the creation of Josh Capon, John McDonald & Josh Pickard located at the top end of SoHo in NYC. It's a relatively small space with a dark and moody wooden interior. Reservations are only made for special occasions and you best be prepared to wait if you walk up. No worries, hang at the bar and sample from the interesting beers, wine and bourbons AKA the "barrel" portion of the restaurant. Once seated peruse the short but interesting and focused menu featuring seafood, burgers, steak, salads, meatballs and chicken lollipops. This touted American pub is great for dates, gathering of friends or just a cool neighborhood hang.

THE BURGER
The best part about sharing a meal with friends, I mean other than spending time with them, is the ability to order a wide variety of foods to share. Burger and Barrel was made for just such an option. The Chicken lollipops have a very spicy yet not to hot sauce to them and if you are hot wing bone sucker, the meat on these slides right off the bone. They're crunchy on the outside yet juicy in the middle.

Damn, that's an awesome meatball! They're served cocktail size, they have just the exact correct amount of spices. I'm pretty sure they found the recipe by unlocking some ancient Italian math equation that unlocked a secret catacomb which held and ancient Roman recipe. The ricotta dipping cheese is a soft cloud of amazing that relies on the subtleties to rule the taste.

With five burger sandwich choices offered, I still had no trouble choosing the Puebla burger made with roasted chili & red onion relish, queso fresco. Let me start of by saying, this might be the juiciest burger I've ever had and that's NOT in anyway to imply it was greasy. This da juice mon!!! Clearly made from a blend of fresh ground beef with a slightly higher fat content than the standard 80/20 mix you'll find at most places. The green chiles are not as smoky as I'm used too and almost sweet to taste. Damn they are nice. The VERY creamy and mild cheese acts like a scout master calling the troops to the fire, which in this case is the beef! I'm guessing its a Chef Capon specialty to top his burgers with heavily breaded and super rad onion rings. It's like a deep fried loaf of bread made out of pancake batter surrounding a fresh onion.

This is one of the best burgers I have ever had. Congrats to Josh and all at Burger and Barrel, you're AMAZING burger has made our TOP IN NYC list. Go eat here and if you're not blown away, you either did it wrong or have disfunctional taste buds.