Stand
This restaurant is closed!
Contact Info:
Address: 24 E. 12th St (near University Pl)
City: New York, NY
Zip: 10003
map: View the Map
Phone: (212) 488-5900
Website: http://www.standburger.com/
Food Info:
Cuisine:
Burgers
Cititour Review:
I like hamburgers. I mean, who doesn’t, right? Now, I’m not gonna write a blog about ‘em (that’s been done; see www.ahamburgertoday.com), but I think they’re swell. First, they taste good. But more than that, there’s something very comforting about them that makes you feel young and silly and happy. I like that they are a food you have to eat with your hands. I like that they get you messy. And I like that they are a food that most probably will cause you to smile at some point during the course your meal. So, yes, I like hamburgers. And with the rate that burger joints have sprouted from the sidewalks of this city—like wiry stubborn weeds in a summer garden—apparently I am not alone in my love of this culinary genre. Apparently, a lot of people like hamburgers. In fact, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a carnivore who doesn’t love them. Really, what’s not to love? Even a bad burger is kinda good. And these days when you get it right, you’re treated to a hot freshly seasoned mound of juicy meat snuggled into a top notch bun, most probably topped with some local farmhouse cheese, house-caramelized onions, artisan smoked bacon and homemade ketchup made from hand-picked tomatoes from the chef’s personal garden. What’s better than that? I mean add a plate of fries and I have no idea why you’d want to eat anything else. Like most people in the city, when I want to get my burger fix, I have my favorite places. For a simplest of burger pleasures, I go to Shake Shack (with a friend or enough reading material for a two hour wait.) You get four ounces of meaty goodness on a potato bun, and you’re set. When I get the hankering for a big beefy bad boy, I can’t say that I want anything other than April’s burger at The Spotted Pig. My second choice would be the one at Five Points, and you know what, they make a damn good one at Farm on Adderley and at Jane.
But wait, I’m getting carried away here. I don’t want this to be a piece on the best burgers in the city. (That story has been done to death.) So let me reel it in a bit and focus, because I want to talk specifically about one breed of burger. And that would be the mighty fine breed served at Stand, a place I’ve been spending a good number of my eating hours lately.
From Jonathan Morr, the man who made sushi sexy at Bond Street and noodles hip at Republic, Stand is the newest entrant in the hamburger wars, joining haute burger boys Laurent Tourondel (BLT Burger) and Chris Russell (Brgr). So far, Stand’s my favorite. Moor’s new place has got that effortlessly cool, I wanna-sit-at-your-table kind of vibe. He’s gone with a design that is fresh, clean, hip, and simple. Stand faces the sidewalk with a sheet of oversized floor-to-ceiling windows, and invites diners inside with a warm chocolate and orange color palate, an industrial steel-faced open kitchen, and stylish dark-grained wood picnic tables. It’s part urban cafeteria, part hipster dining room, and part picnic in the park. All together, it works. What’s more, the service is attentive and friendly, and so enthusiastic you half expect them to be on roller skates, and heading out to serve the drive in.
The food also works, quite well, right down to the shakes and salty golden French fries. I’ve eaten at Stand several times now and my burger requirements have been met every time. First, there’s the beef. There are seven ounces of it—not too much, not too little. Every burger is made from beef that is ground daily in house so it’s got great texture. And this beef’s got chops. It’s not bland or pale in flavor. It tastes like beef—meaty and just salty enough. The burgers are grilled to order and prepared to medium rare (unless otherwise requested), and every burger I’ve had has arrived at the correct temperature. Not overdone, dry and gray, not bloody and cold in the center, but the perfect temperature that’s just right. Bravo! Goldilocks would be happy here.
The idea behind the burgers at Stand is to riff on the Big Mac. Jonathan’s feeling is that like the Big Mac, which comes with its own special sauce (etc.), every burger deserves a set of matching condiments and garnishes. So he designed a menu of burgers that ranges from the classic burger, the little black dress of the menu, which stays simple, with choice of cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and homemade ketchup ($9) tucked into a beautiful golden topped bun—to the House Burger ($10), a burger blessed with jammy onion marmalade, and house sauce, and the Bacon & Egg Cheeseburger ($12), one topped with bacon, cheddar and hard-boiled egg mayo. In this way, the menu offers something for everyone. If you’re craving a simple burger, as Jamie was the other night, the Classic is the way to go. She had one topped with lettuce and tomato and nothing more, and couldn’t have been happier. Adrienne, however wanted something that had a bit more personality, so she opted for The House, which comes with special sauce. I shared it with her for reviewing purposes, and was quite pleased. It was juicy and super fine, and I loved the house sauce, a tart, tangy number that was the perfect accessory to the beef. Susie, who was visiting from Rome and was in need of an American food fix (which translated to sushi and burgers), went for the Hamburger, served with green peppercorn sauce. Susie has really been missing New York, and the burger practically brought her to tears. “Why do I live in Rome again?” she cried. “If I have to eat another plate of proscuitto and mozzarella I am going to die!” Let me explain. Susie loves Italian food, but having it 24/7, every night and day for a year straight, it’s getting to her. She is dying for someone to open a good burger joint, a place for brunch and a sushi place that delivers. (Hint Hint.)
I was feeling like being good and bad, so I ordered both the turkey burger ($9), and the mini burger ($4). I recommend this approach. You get just the right amount of beef in that juicy petite pup swaddled in a brioche bun with a pickle and a swipe of ketchup, and in the next burger, a dose of freshly ground, well-seasoned turkey, crowned with onion marmalade, lettuce, tomato, and pickled shallot sauce on a poppy seed bun. (Love the buns by the way. Nice job on these.) My only issue with the turkey burger is that the shallot sauce, which is actually quite a bit like tartar sauce, was way too much. It takes over the burger, makes the bun soggy, and really just doesn’t need to be there as the turkey is amazingly juicy and packs a punch of flavor all by itself. Not to quote Sally but it should be on the side, if at all.
And since I’m in the constructive criticism section of my review, I will also say that while the chopped dinner salad is terrific—a eclectic mix of romaine, iceberg, radishes, yellow string beans, quinoa, and hard-boiled egg—the creamy sauce that it comes dressed in was flavor-free. I mixed in a bit of mustard to wake it up, but without it, it was basically a great set of fresh salad ingredients sadly doused in mayo. Why? Get that salad dressing some life, please. It’s really a shame otherwise. My quibbles end here, though. Aside from really loving the way the burgers tasted, I loved they way they were presented, like burgers in still life with melted cheese slipping down the burger’s sides, and fresh puffy golden buns, each skewered with a STAND toothpick.
I also really enjoyed the starters, which include a pot of pickles ($3)—perky levels of tart, sour, half-sour, spicy, sweet, and pungent applied to cucumbers, string beans, onions, carrots, and beets. Then there’s the pickled egg ($3)—an amazing little snack. The egg has been brined and pickled so that it is colored the deep purple shade of an eggplant skin. It looks like an Easter egg might look at an egg hunt held at Prince’s house. The egg is sliced in half (its yellow yolk against the white center and the purple skin is quite beautiful) and served with a dipping sauce that’s sort of a Russian dressing aioli. Don’t roll your eyes. It’s great!
Okay, if pickled eggs aren’t your thing, you’ve gotta get busy with the sides, which are treated with such care that I feel like it is an insult to call them sides. Maybe “Some wonderful additional items that are not burgers,” would be more appropriate? Too wordy? Well, we’ll work on that. Anyway, take the mashed sweet potatoes for instance. These are heavenly—creamy and fluffy and filled in the center with a warm puddle of cream and fresh grated Parmesan ($5). Sautéed mushrooms ($5) are cut rustic and rough and taste roasted with such intense earthy meaty flavor. The cucumber salad ($4) is light and fresh, but like the chopped salad could use a bit more zing, but I loved the French fries, cut into wide lengths. They are hot, an amber shade of golden, and good and salted and I could not, as hard as I tried, stop eating them. I must remember to not order them the next time I’m in because once I start on them I cannot stop. And one girl should not eat a large order of fries (pretty much by herself). And she should definitely not eat a large order of fries and then proceed to slurp her way through a selection of super thick ice cream shakes for dessert. But one girl did. (I have no idea who that girl is, mind you.)
Okay, it’s me! But, people, the shakes ($6) are so good! The pumpkin is like sipping pumpkin custard through a straw, the toasted marshmallow will actually have you looking around for the campfire, and the peanut butter is the shake that eats like a meal—it’s packed with peanuts. Lemme put it to you this way. It’s been all of eight degrees all week, and my apartment is freezing (because for some reason my landlord does not see heat and hot water as a regular requirement of winter), and I would actually drink one of those shakes right now. Granted I’d rather it not be sub zero in my apartment, but I’d bundle up for the occasion. But I do have this very happy vision of myself in the summertime, flushed from the global warming heat, spending afternoons at Stand cooling myself down with ice cream shakes and fresh homemade sodas ($5) like the zippy lemon basil, the feisty ginger ale, or the rosemaryade, a stunning expression of rosemary and lemon in soda form.
If it’s beer from a frosty glass you crave—not ice cream sucked through a straw—Stand’s got quite an impressive selection of these as well ($5 glass, $20 pitcher), from Whale Tale Ale to Southampton Secret Ale, Sixpoint Rye Ale and the Dogfish Head Snowblower. The selection is so great that you could just go to the bar and do your own little beer tasting. But while you’re there, you might as well, have a burger with your beers. You know you want one. Everyone loves a hamburger.
Review By: Andrea Strong
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