Entries tagged with 'sliders'
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 1, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Over the weekend, while I was trying not to work, we at A Hamburger Today received this email from longtime reader and frequent commenter Phauxtoe:
Hey, I got a bone to pick with you guys.
Today (Friday) I stopped at Burger King to get a road coffee (nothing else). I saw an ad the menu for "BURGER SHOTS," with and without cheese.
I guess they have moved into the slider market.
Here is the problem: I read your site everyday or so—why do I have to hear about this on the streets?
Thanks but no thanks,
Phauxtoe
Trying my best to make things right with Phauxtoe, I responded as soon as possible:
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Posted by Nick Solares, November 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM
One of Adam's pet peeves is the way the term slider is bandied about with such reckless abandon that it encompasses almost any type of small sandwich, be it beef, pork or lobster, with no regard given to whether it was actually steamed.
Contestant Richard Sweeney took the misappropriation of the term to a new low last night on the season premier of Top Chef when he produced what he called lamb sliders for the elimination challenge. In fact, the two massive, grilled lamb burgers served on some very crunchy bread bore about as much relation to a slider as a gyro. Now I have nothing against riffs on traditional fare, even burgers, but don't call it a slider when it is grilled, made of lamb, and requires two hands to eat.
Related
Shopsin's General Store, for the Best Sliders in New York City
Oi, Yank! What's a Slider?
A Mini Hamburger Is Not a Slider
Posted by Robyn Lee, October 10, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Photographs by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
Now's the time to catch up on your knowledge of regional American fast food chains specializing in miniature burgers. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid gives a brief overview (accompanied by nice photos) of White Castle and Krystal, two chains that specialize in tiny square burgers/sliders with White Castle mostly dominating the Midwest and some of the Northeast of the U.S. and Krystal, the South.
Related
Oi, Yank! What's a Slider?
Tiny Hamburger Week
Happy Valentine's Day, AHT Style
Posted by Robyn Lee, September 26, 2008 at 2:00 PM
The Big City Slider Station, a device that cooks five slider patties at once, may have a grating infomercial full of Billy May's overenthusiastic shouting, but according to burger expert George Motz, it actually works. Enticed by the device's use of the "scoop and smash" method, he tested the slider station with mostly good results. (The non-stick surface wasn't quite as non-stick as advertised.)
You haven't fulled lived until you've watched the infomercial in all its hyperactive slider-loving glory. Watch the video after the jump.
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This Sunday the 28th in Chattanooga, Tennessee, record-breaking competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will compete in the annual Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship, along with 9 other finalists. Chestnut won last year's contest by eating 103 Krystals in eight minutes.
Posted by Nick Solares, September 23, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Shopsin's General Store
Stall 16, Essex Street Market, 120 Essex Street, New York NY 10002 (b/n Delancey Street and Rivington Street; map); 212-924-5160; shopsins.com
The Short Order: Amazingly authentic sliders that rival the nation's best, but Shopsin himself is the real star of the show
Want Fries with That? Comes with chips, fries are extra and untested by the reviewer
Price: sliders $9; burgers $7
Notes: Open Tues. through Sat., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"That's you?...You're wrong!" bellowed Kenny Shopsin when he discovered that I, occasional but passionate (and accepted, at least at the time of writing) patron of Shopsin's General Store, and the writer of Beef Aficionado who last year heaped lavish praise upon his sliders, were one and the same. It wasn't enough that I called his sliders the finest I have had in New York City and the closest one can get to White Manna, the appropriately named holy grail of sliderism in Hackensack, New Jersey, without actually leaving Manhattan.
"I see what they are doing," he said. referring to a video I had posted on White Manna. "They steam the onions; my sliders are better, I grill them," he stated definitively, as if that was the end of the discussion, which it actually turned out to be. "You'll see—try mine again and you'll eat your words."
I retorted that when it came to burgers I didn't mind eating my words one bit, and put in my order. I could have posited that the gooey, oozing onions on the sliders at White Manna add a particularly pleasing textural component—not to mention a sweetness that his onions lack by virtue of all the sugars being caramelized—but Shopsin had moved on, laying out a perfectly reasoned but expletive-filled diatribe against the city parking system. Of course, Shopsin's onions, like Shopsin himself, have their own particular charms. And while I still give the White Manna slider the slight edge, the ones at Shopsin's have one thing that Manna does not have: Shopsin himself.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, September 18, 2008 at 3:00 PM
At 1 2 3 Burger Shot Beer in New York City's Hell's Kitchen, burgers are $1, shots are $2, and beers are $3. That's not a bad deal even if you have to order at least three slider-style burgers. For those craving more than burgers, the menu includes fries ($3) and wings ($5)—for those craving intoxication, there's a $30 beer tube. [via Urban Daddy]
1 2 3 Burger Shot Beer
738 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10019 (b/n 50th and 51st; map)
212-315-0123
123burgershotbeer.com
Posted by JWFROMNJ, August 27, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Editor's Note: A few weeks ago, J. G. Wallace, a former food-service professional, avid cook, devout foodie, and newspaper food writer, contacted AHT about Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "Powers is an often overlooked player on the slider scene," he wrote. "They come very close to Hackensack's White Manna, and I am qualified to say that since I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. My wife is from Fort Wayne and we now live 20 miles outside of Fort Wayne. I went to Powers and got some great pics, and enjoyed what many locals call onion burgers with meat. Would you be interested in a write-up?" Of course we were, and here it is. Thank you, J. G.! Burgermeisters, have at it!
Powers Hamburgers
1402 S Harrison Street, Fort Wayne IN 46802; (at West Brackenridge Street; map); 260-422-6620
The Short Order: The approximately 2-ounce sliders are generously topped with grilled onions and optional American cheese (nothing else), and served on a potato roll.
Price: Hamburger, $0.85 (double, $1.60); cheeseburger, $0.95 (double, $1.80)
By J. G. Wallace | What I am about to write may seem like burger blasphemy to some of AHT's readers, but as a New Jersey native, burger fanatic, and obsessive "foodie," I'm prepared to say Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, Indiana compares very well to White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, both in terms of the actual slider, atmosphere, and overall experience. Is it possible, you ask, for there to be a Nirvana-like hamburger experience in a mid-sized Midwestern city best known to many Americans as the home of M*A*S*H's Major Frank Burns? To be fair, Fort Wayne also hosted the first night baseball game under lights, was the former home of the Detroit Pistons—then called the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons—and once had a mayor named Harry Baals (you can't make this stuff up).
More Than 60 Years of History
Before you say it's not possible for a Hoosier slider shack to be compared to one of America's best and most famous burgers, just talk a walk with me to 1402 South Harrison Street in downtown Fort Wayne. It's in the old downtown business district, across the street from the U.S. District Federal Courthouse. Over the years many businesses have moved away from the center city as the city expanded, but Powers Hamburgers has stood steadfast since 1940. The small white Art Deco style building with black trim and black and white awnings hasn't changed much since it opened. The Powers Hamburger story begins in that same period of burger history that spawned places like White Manna, along with White Mana in Jersey City, White Castle, and the slider in general.
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... and Florence Fabricant throws a sop to slider purists, noting that the term has become somewhat schizophrenic these days. Just what is a slider these days, she asks, before giving a rundown on things like mini lobster rolls that are clearly not sliders.
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 15, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Photograph by Nick "Beef Aficionado" Solares
I have a couple pet peeves.
Scratch that.
I have a lot of them. And the New York Times just poked at one. Previewing tomorrow's food section coverage, the Diner's Journal blog foreshadows some "slider" coverage:
Meanwhile, back in the home of the burger, its most humble version, the slider, has been getting a makeover. Florence Fabricant writes about how it’s become trendy, high-end bar food, as likely to be made with seafood, chicken or cheese as with beef.
I'm guessing this is going to be another one of those "slider" roundups we see every few months in various guises and in sundry publications. My ire is piqued here by the notion that sliders can be made with seafood, chicken, or cheese.
They can't.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 30, 2008 at 1:15 PM
For $1, you could own a burger joint like this. This one's in Dayton, Ohio, but there's an old White Tower for sale in Toledo.
There's a White Tower in Toledo, Ohio, for sale for $1, but the catch is that you have to move it. The YWCA next door wants to expand and is looking for a way to get rid of this location of the onetime White Castle competitor.
If there are no takers, the building might be torn down in fall. Come on! Some history-minded burger lover out there oughtta get on this. Could you imagine grabbing a cool little building like this to open a slider joint? And it's like $0.00016 a square foot (600 square feet total). [Tip o' the hat to T.J.]
Posted by Nick Solares, June 17, 2008 at 10:00 AM
If it's Tuesday, it must be time for another review from Nick Solares. Nick is also the publisher of Beef Aficionado, his blog that explores beef beyond burgerdom.
As the newest member of the AHT team, I thought it appropriate to follow in Adam's intrepid steps and venture across the Hudson on a pilgrimage to two of America's most historically significant Hamburger establishments. I speak, of course, of White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, and White Mana in Jersey City, New Jersey. Adam visited both three years ago to the month, and while he raved about the burgers he ate in Hackensack he was less enthused by the Jersey city location. While I have eaten at both places on previous occasions I did so as a civilian, without the responsibility of reviewing the joints and putting them in to the context of the modern burger landscape.
Both establishments are now operated independently of each other and indeed have different owners but they were both founded by Louis Bridges back in 1946. The story goes that the structure that houses the Jersey City location was originally situated at the 1939 World's Fair and was then moved to its current resting place on Tonnele Avenue.
White Mana opened its doors on June 2, 1946, and has been going ever since; it is open 24 hours a day. The only major change, aside from the fact that the burgers cost a little more than the 10¢ they did back then is that during the 1980s, is that the restaurant lost an n in its name as the result of an error at the sign makers. The missing n was never straightened out, and the reconfigured name stuck.
The diner proved such a success that Bridges open three more Mannas in north Jersey in the 1940s, although now only the original and the Hackensack locations remain.
In reverse order to Adam's trip I started in Jersey City and then went north to Hackensack. While I am in complete agreement that the latter is far superior, I am not sure that I would necessarily countenance against visiting the original location in favor of the White Castle nearby as Adam did. I recommend you visit both!
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 16, 2008 at 9:55 AM
Shopsin's sliders are as good or better than many on Danyelle Freeman's list.
Danyelle "Restaurant Girl" Freeman comes correct with her list of the best sliders in the city.
- Rare Bar & Grill
- The Stanton Social
- Wall Street Burger Shoppe
- David Burke at Bloomindales
- Little Owl
- Blue Water Grill
- Swifty’s
- Stand
Sliders are pretty much my favorite form of burger, so it's always great to read someone else's list. I like her choices of Burke Box, Rare, and Stand, but I'm not sure if the Little Owl is a slider slider. It's a meatball on a bun, not a burger. I'm also not that keen on Stanton Social's Kobe sliders, as they suffer from all the faults that Kobe burgers do. Meh.
The Blue Water Grill's mini lobster roll is not a slider in the least, and Swifty's, though it sounds intriguing, doesn't even place its patties on buns, so they don't even qualify as sandwiches, much less sliders.
Two obvious omissions are the sliders at Shopsin's and the O.G., the Original Gutbomb, the little lovlies at White Castle. [via Serious Eats New York]
Posted by Nick Solares, May 31, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Jesse Taylor, a mixed martial arts fighter competing on Spike TV's reality show The Ultimate Figher, was shown eating frozen cheeseburgers before a fight on this week's episode (TUF airs on Wednesday evenings on Spike TV). Burger King is the official sponsor of the show so all other branding is obscured, but the small burgers looked suspiciously like White Castle frozen cheeseburgers. While the rest of the competitors ate leafy greens and low-fat protein Taylor is quoted as saying, " I like Oreos and I like cheeseburgers." The other fighters on the show were aghast at his diet, but despite the incredulity of his rivals, Taylor went out and dominated his match, winning on all three of the judges' scorecards.
Posted by Adam Kuban, May 27, 2008 at 1:50 PM
Yo, burger cheapskates: Starting at 2 p.m. today—cheap White Castle burgers. As in 27¢ each.
The Castle is tooting its 87th anniversary by offering the mini burgers cheap. But only for 87 minutes. That would be 2 p.m. to 3:27 p.m.
Date: Today (May 27, 2008)
Time: 2 to 3:27 p.m.
Where: Selected Whiteys in all White Castle markets
Limit: 10 (as if you'd want to do more than that)
Find a Castle near you: whitecastle.com/_pages/Locate.asp [Tip o' the hat to Food in Mouth]
Posted by Adam Kuban, March 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Nick Solares, the guy who publishes Beef Aficionado, is on the same wavelength as I am: "Of all of the infinite varieties of hamburger I think that sliders are my favorite. There is just something about the little bombers that perfectly captures the happy confluence of beef, bun and cheese. The slider is reduction of the burger to its ideal form...."
I couldn't have said it better myself. Those words open a blog post in which Nick goes about trying to duplicate the sliders from White Manna in Hackensack, New Jersey, arguably one of the finest producers of these tiny, oniony hamburgers. Nick's recipe and technique can be found here.
Related
White Kastle Klones: A Recipe for Sliders
Honey-Scallion Sliders [Not Eating Out in New York]
A White Man(n)a Pilgrimage
Grilled: Nick Solares
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 26, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Remember the deep-fried sliders that made a bit of a splash when they went on sale at the Independent League's Gateway Grizzlies baseball games? Thought of trying that at home? Kitchen madman DJ Grocery reports on one of his friends who did, complete with gory detail.
Related
Nacho Cheese Fountain [Grocery Eats]
General Tso's Philly Cheesesteak [SE]
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 14, 2008 at 1:45 PM
For those in love with tiny hamburgers and with each other, Valentine's Day is a win-win situation. Or a win-win-win-win-win one, if your standard order, like mine, involves at least five sliders.
First up: White Castle is once again celebrating the evening with candlelit dinners at participating locations from 5 to 8 p.m. today.
Not to be outdone, Krystal , the reigning slider slinger of the South, is honoring three Georgia couples [second item] who have met-cute stories involving the tiny-burger chain.
Related
Woman's Krystal moment led to a lifetime of love [Columbus Ledger-Enquirer]
Love at the drive-in [Rome News-Tribune]
A White Castle Valentine [Off the Broiler]
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 24, 2007 at 3:10 PM
Friend of AHT Nick "Beef Aficionado" Solares just emailed:
I just tried the sliders at Shopsin’s in the Essex Street Market. It was really very good. Not quite White Manna quality but close. They don’t grill the potato roll à la Manna, but the cheese is from Saxelby Cheesemongers next door and is superb. The beef was juicy and moist despite being cooked through, and the patty was bigger than Manna or Sassy's Sliders. Three for $9 is probably a bit steep for sliders anywhere other than New York City.
Nick's got pix and more to say over on his blog.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 14, 2005 at 10:48 AM
Over on Slashfood, Josh "Mr. Cutlets" Ozersky writes about some exciting news in the world of tiny hamburgers. That news is the innovative approach that David Burke of Burke Bar brings to the grill. Here are the first mad, mad steps to Mr. Burke's method:
1) A miniature English muffin is sliced so that the bottom part is three times as thick as the top. This bottom part is then hollowed out.
2) The meat, of the finest Creekstone beef, is formed and placed inside the bottom bun. The bread now covers its whole upper hemisphere; the bottom hemisphere gets smashed into a hot griddle.
3) The meat juices cook into the bread. And there are a lot of meat juices: Creekstone produces some of the juiciest beef around, and I would be surprised if these burgers were more than 80% lean (Burke says they are.)
If that whets your appetite, click over to Slashfood for the details: The Slider Reinvented. If you're a belly-bomber fan, the read is well worth your time.
A Hamburger Today will be visiting Burke Bar tomorrow with none other than Mr. Cutlets. Look for a report (with juicy photos) soon.
BURKE BAR
Location: At the original Bloomingdale's store, 59th Street and Lexington, NYC
Getting There: 4/6 trains to 59th Street. Burke Bar has its own separate entrance on 59th Street.
The Slider Reinvented [Slashfood]
AHT on Sliders [AHT 'Tiny Hamburger' Archives]
