"I believe that the great American hamburger is a thing of beauty, its simple charms noble, pristine. The basic recipe--ground beef, salt, and pepper, formed into a patty, grilled or seared on a griddle, then nestled between two halves of a bun, usually but not necessarily accompanied by lettuce, a tomato slice, and some ketchup--is, to my mind, unimprovable by man or God. A good burger can be made more complicated, even more interesting by the addition of other ingredients--like good cheese or bacon.....relish perhaps, but it will never be made better." - Anthony Bourdain, from the chapter entitled 'Meat', in his book Medium Raw.

October 3, 2011

Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage (Cambridge, Mass.)

Mr. Bartley's Burgers has been in business near Harvard Yard since 1960.  They are world-famous, having been featured on Food Network, The Travel Channel, and in the New York Times and USA Today.  Which means, we had to check them out for ourselves.
The dining room is very eclectic.  There aren't many seats and what seats they do have are very close to one another.  There was one long communal table in the center and if you sat there, you would likely be sitting by strangers.  They have an extensive menu of burger choices, many of them named after celebrity diners, or you can order off the chalkboard.

For an appetizer, we chose the "Very Famous Sweet Potato Fries" ($4.99 for a large) and they were delicious.  It was hard not to fill up on them before our burgers were delivered.

S. had her perennial favorite: the blue cheese burger.  It was an excellent burger, although a little messy with all the blue cheese dressing.  Just as she was finishing, S. lamented that she could use a wet wipe; before the words were even out of her mouth, the server arrived with wet wipes.  Apparently, they are necessary for many of the burgers at Mr. Bartley's.
A close-up of the blue cheese burger.  That's a pretty thick patty; and it was cooked perfectly to order (which would be well done for S.).  All of their burgers are made from seven ounces of choice beef, ground fresh daily.  No frozen discs of meat here.  Most of the burgers range in price from $8 - $11 and come with chips or fries.  We chose chips with our burgers because we had already ordered the sweet potato fries as an appetizer.  If you get the burgers that come with chips, they are less expensive.


S. was joined on this outing by her mom, who had the pizza burger.  Her mom remembers ordering pizza burgers when she was a teenager/young adult but that she hadn't had one in ages, so it would be a little bit of nostalgia to have one now.  She said this was different than any other pizza burger she'd had previously, she still that it was amazing.  She especially liked that you could taste the quality of the beef patty and that it wasn't overshadowed by the condiments.


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