👤 Zach Thomas at Emmy Squared, New York City
I recently met up with Zach Thomas for dinner at Emmy Squared in Williamsburg. I met Zach through Threads where he posts about tech and urbanism. He also writes a Newsletter about urbanism in New York City. This was the first time we met in person. He picked the place and made all the ordering decisions, I was along for the ride.
I asked Zach why he picked Emmy Squared. It's been around for a few years and started as a sister place of Emily before expanding across multiple states. Zach had a simple reason, it's been ranked highly, sometimes as high as number one in many "Best Burgers in New York" lists. Since he's tried the pizza here, he had high expectations for the burger.
I walked in a few minutes after Zach. The dining room is rectangular with a bar running along one side. A couple of tables had other patrons. It's a reasonable place to go for dinner in the middle of the week without too much fuss.
After Zach ordered for us, we got talking about urbanism and how Zach got into it. Growing up in suburbia in North Carolina, Zach dreamt about big cities like New York and San Francisco. He witnessed the housing crisis in San Francisco first hand so when he moved to New York he didn't want to be a bystander. After taking a class about what the city could be, he started writing his newsletter to spread awareness. Now, he's taking the next step and running for Manhattan Community Board 3.
MVP Pizza at Emmy Squared
We got the MVP Pizza to split. Emmy Squared does a take on Detroit-style pizza. This one was essentially a plain pizza topped with vodka sauce, red sauce, and pesto. The pesto brought some freshness to the pie. The edges of the pizza were crispy especially with the addition of sesame seeds. The center of the pizza was thick, soft, and chewy like one would expect from a Detroit-style pizza.
The Burger at Emmy Squared
The burger that Zach and I came to eat came with a large portion of fries. The waffle fries were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The ketchup was homemade, leaning heavier on the tomato than the sugar. While the fries were only lightly salted, I preferred them on their own.
The burger is a double patty with lettuce, pickles, American cheese, and their sauce on a pretzel bun. The bun is soft and holds the burger together because it does get quite slippery between the layers and sauce. The cheese is draped all over the beef, almost hiding it. The cheese brings a lot of the salt this burger needs.
A lot of the flavor comes from that sauce. It's surprisingly on the spicier side. Some burgers are about the components and some are about the whole, this is one of those burgers that's about the whole. This burger comes together because of the sauce. If you enjoy sauce forward burgers, this one could be for you.
After dinner, Zach discussed what food meant to him. I asked him the question directly and he was surprised by the depth of it. Zach thinks of food as nourishment but also happiness. He specifically called out the serotonin that comes from eating. He went down a rabbit hole thinking about it, even mentioning optimization of self that comes through food.
A fun conversation with Zach Thomas over pizza and a burger.
📍Emmy Squared
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