Stand at Union Square
June 23, 2008 § 2 Comments
Last Friday I was in the mood for a relatively cheap burger at a restaurant that wasn’t too far from the office. A search narrowed my choice down to Stand near Union Square, which is only two stops away on the 4 train from Fulton Street.
NY Magazine recently mentioned that the restaurant recently changed its burger buns from a doughy, chewy bun to a brioche-like, fluffy bread, and though I hadn’t tried the original, I thought I’d see if the burger was up to the hype.
First though, was my honey lavendar milkshake. Stand uses gelato from the famed Il Laboratorio del Gelato in New York’s Lower East Side to make their gelato and it shows. It wasn’t extremely dense and surprisingly light given that honey and lavendar aren’t as heavy as chocolate or peanut butter to begin with. I loved the herbal undertones and the naturally sweet taste – there’s nothing artificial about this baby. Considering it’s a combination I never would have considered for a milkshake, I was impressed.
Honey lavendar milkshake
I didn’t order fries, no onion rings. I just wanted a big, fat, juicy burger plopped down in front of me that I could bite into. The classic burger I ordered landed with some homemade ketchup (tangy and a bit sweet, but I couldn’t really care less) and looked quite amazing. The bun certainly looked light and soft, and the patty, huge. Oh but what I loved most of all were the glorious juices that spewed out the moment I sunk my teeth into the beauty, probably due to the 70-30 lean-to-fat ratio that Pat La Frieda uses. Oh yeah, the bun was excellent. It held up to the burger and still managed to be all fluffy in my mouth. To be honest though, I had forgotten all about the bun controversy while wiping my hands from all the burger juice.
The Classic
However, despite the abundance of burger juice, the flavor was lacking. Maybe they hadn’t seasoned the meat as much as they should have, but there was definitely something missing that the Shake Shack always delivers, and I’m not talking about the Shack sauce. My taste buds just didn’t have that happy-dance reaction they usually have when I bite into a Double Shack Burger. It was still good though, considering I didn’t have to wait an hour for it, but S.S. still comes out on top in the burger division.
Notes on Food 
A honey lavender milkshake sounds delicious!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog
Shari – It tastes delicious as well! Now all I have to do is figure how to make some of my own.