📍Lovely’s Old Fashioned, New York City
I was walking around Bryant Park in the early afternoon. My upcoming lunch plans got moved around leaving me free to find something else. I was in the mood for a burger so I looked at places I had saved. Lovely's was a bit of a walk but nothing too crazy.
As I rounded the corner onto 9th Avenue, I could already smell the burgers in the air. I saw the big green awning and I knew I found the right place. There's a register right in the front and a counter that runs the length of the shop. Almost every seat was taken and a few people were in line to order burgers. I ordered at the register and then took a seat towards the end of the counter.
The whole place represents the "Old Fashioned" part of the name well. The team there has the old-school white hats. The Americana is represented in the signs above the open kitchen area. The fries and onion rings prepared for takeout orders even get served in the classic blue NYC coffee cups.
I ordered the Charlotte's Special Burger. It's a single by default but I made it a double. I asked the person at the register for his recommendation between fries and onion rings. He suggested the onion rings so that's what I got. I rounded it out with a Coke Zero.
Double Charlotte's Special Burger at Lovely's Old Fashioned
The Charlotte's Special has griddled onions, American cheese, and a burger sauce. It's a smashed patty but not smashed so thin as a smashburger might. This is smashed to get contact on the griddle and develop a crust. Smashing it to the bun's diameter keeps the center juicy. The burger was steaming hot. It reminds me of Motz Onion Burger.
There's a lot of onions in the burger. I like onions. The caramelized onion sweetness was a strong component of this burger. There were so many onions that I found the burger slipping around between the bun. The cheese brought the salt and fat to the burger, more cheese might have kept it in place between the buns. The potato bun did the job. The burger stayed together. That old-school burger counter vibe carried through even to the last bite.
The person at the register made a good recommendation. It's a generous portion size. The onion rings came fresh from the fryer and well salted. The onions were fully cooked but kept their texture. You could bite through the onion ring without pulling it out of the batter. It's a rare balance to find and they nailed it.
Post by @jitpalView on Threads
I enjoyed transporting back to an old fashioned burger counter. I dig the whole vibe. The classic way the burger was prepared with the ASMR and the smells, I tried to capture them. The video in the Threads post is a fraction of how I felt there.
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