📍Little Maven, New York City

Happy hour burger and martini before the Knicks game.

The burger and fries at Little Maven

For the first two weeks of 2024, I was under the weather. Instead of burgers, I was having soup. I built up quite a craving and was determined to get a burger. I couldn't decide so I ended up asking on Threads for recommendations.

Post by @jitpal

View on Threads

I got great suggestions but I zeroed in on Little Maven in the meantime. I wanted to try a burger I had never tried. I tried 46 new burgers in 2023 and I need to beat that number in 2024. Little Maven opened just a few months ago and while following them on Instagram I saw that they offer a burger at the bar during happy hour. I wasn't too far so the plan was set.

Little Maven is by Josh Capon. He's had other restaurants in the past like Bowery Meat Company, Lure Fishbar, and Burger and Barrel. All of them offer burgers I've enjoyed. Burger and Barrel is no longer around but it's very special to me. It was one of the first burgers I remember having that made me love burgers. There's a thread between the burger I had at Burger and Barrel and writing this about the burger at Little Maven.

I walked in shortly after opening. There's a host stand in front and the main area is directly to the right. An L-shaped bar with high tops toward the front and tables on the side and back. There looked like a private dining area in the back but I didn't explore. There were just a couple of people at the large bar and I joined them.

I ordered a beer, the Krombacher Pilsner. It's a fairly light German pilsner. I find it a crisp, easy drinker with a toasted hop flavor. I also ordered, of course, the burger and fries.

The burger came cut in half with toothpicks to hold it together with a mountain of fries and a gravy-sized container of ketchup. The burger is a single patty smash with a crust. This isn't the fast food style thin smash with lacy edges as the beef is still bun-sized. I'd estimate it as 6 oz. Slicing it in half did not impact the juice, I had all the drippings you'd want after eating it.

The construction of the burger is interesting to me despite classic toppings and flavors. The onions and tomato were piled underneath the patty creating a kind of bump that was easy to visually see in the cross-section picture. The lettuce wound up on the bottom and the pickles on top. Usually, burgers I've seen are constructed the other way. I wonder if there's a good reason for this. You can't tell while eating because the brioche bun keeps it all together and evens out any bump in the construction.

White American cheese and the burger sauce brought a lot of flavor to the burger. If you've had a Josh Capon burger before, you'll find it familiar. For me, it's a taste I recognize and find comfort in. On a cold day, craving a burger, it's everything I wanted.

The fries were hot and crispy. The classic fast-food shoestring french fries. They were well-salted, which I appreciate. There was a little black pepper too. Normally I'll eat one or two fries before the burger and the rest after. With the burger coming cut in half, I was able to sneak some fries mid-burger too. They stayed crispy before, during, and after the burger. I ate every fry.

For dessert, I ordered the happy hour martini. It came with a choice of Gin or Vodka. I order the Gin with the twist. It came with Suncliffe Gin which is from Arizona and Torino Montinaro Dry Vermouth. It came across as a floral, almost sweet martini. Burger, fries, and martini–nothing better in the evening.