In-N-Out Burger and Shake Shack garner similar breathless devotion from their followers. The burger chains, from the West and East Coast respectively, have transcended food and become part of the popular cultural dialogue, and recently they've existed in separate universes. But late last year in Las Vegas, and this week in Austin, TX and next year in Los Angeles, the two burger titans go head to head for the first time in the same market. That's great news for Texans, but if a trip to the Lone Star State isn't in the cards for you, there's a better option right here in NYC: The Happiest Hour burger, which manages to combine the best of both places.
The Happiest Hour is the West Village cocktail lounge from Jon Neidich of Acme and Tijuana Picnic and Jim Kearns, late of Pegu Club and The Nomad Bar. While the bar has an accomplished chef in Thomas Lim, the burger is principally the work of Neidich, who spent close to two months exhaustively researching and developing it. A tough job, but someone had to do it.
The bar is patterned on the mid-century beach resorts of California and Florida, the sort of places where one presumes a flame grilled burger, tickled by fire and seasoned by the salt in the wind would be the thing. But the "Happiest Burger" at the Happiest Hour turns out to evoke a different style. Neidich looked to the diners and the drive thrus of the same era, and came up with a double patty, griddle cooked burger that is pure California. The menu description — two all beef patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, confit onions, special sauce — sounds strikingly close to the McDonald's Big Mac jingle (excluding those fancy confit onions, of course) but when you are confronted with the towering sandwich, its resemblance to an In-N-Out double double is clear.
Being inspired by California, the burger is suitably appointed with a "special" sauce similar to the classic Russian dressing used as the spread at In-N-Out. But here it also contains mustard, making it less sweet over all. The double patty stack is aided by a comical amount of American cheese, which cascades down the burger face in an oozing mass, and in a deviation from both In-N-Out and Shake Shack, which both use whole leaves of lettuce, this burger sits on a pile of shredded iceberg.
But if the visuals are old-school West Coast, the essential ingredients themselves betray another more contemporary and specifically New York influence. The beef comes from noted butcher Pat LaFrieda (who also supplies Shake Shack) and tastes beefier and more steak-like than anything In-N-Out offers. Neidich tried several different blends, and arrived at one that primarily features chuck with cheek thrown in for added depth of flavor. Because the patties on the burger are quite svelte at three ounces each, Neidich opted for a 70/30 lean to fat ratio. This insures that the burger is still juicy when cooked to medium, as all of them are (since the patties are so thin, the bar doesn't offer a choice). The patties are aggressively seared on a flattop giving them a charred, crunchy crust, not quite the sear of the smashed Shack burger, but close. The bun, slathered in butter and burnished on the flat top, is the Martin's potato roll popularized by Shack Shack and now ubiquitous in NYC.
And what about the taste? The burger deftly draws on the strengths of the forms that it combines. The first thing that hits you is the tang from the special sauce. It primes the senses for the salty, fatty explosion to come. The next thing to register are the confit onions, which are rendered down with Benton's bacon to adding an unexpected smokiness. This, in combination with the mustard laced special sauce, colludes to evoke a similar flavor profile to the famed off-menu animal style burger from In-N-Out, where the patties are cooked in mustard and served with caramelized griddle cooked onions. The crunch of crisp lettuce, tart pickle, and sweet tomato brighten the whole thing, helping to cut the hearty richness of the beef, which is the last thing to register on the palate. Despite the deluge of ingredients, the flavor is well balanced over all, with no ingredient dominating, but perfectly highlighting the meat.
So what we find at The Happiest Hour is a burger with true East Coast/West Coast synergy. It combines the finest traits of both forms, and does so at only $12, more than reasonable (for a bar in NYC). There are other burgers on the menu, but the Happiest Burger will make you the happiest. Highly recommended.
The Happiest Hour, 121 W 10th St, New York, NY 10011