Sunday, May 30th, 2010—Bar 140
Day 140—Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Black Iron Burger Shop
It’s Saturday and that can only mean one thing: Cheeseburger Saturday Night! On most Saturday’s here I go to a bar and get a cheeseburger and chill out a little bit. Today while googling bars and cheeseburgers I found this place, The Black Iron Burger Shop. Now any place that puts the word “burger” in the actual title of their joint is a pretty bold move, so let’s go and see if their burger lives up to their name.
And tonight we have two special guest stars appearing in the bar crawl. Tim and Colleen Carey are in town from Peoria, Illinois celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and tonight I’m thrilled to have them as special guest crawlers (they will probably be guest crawling the next couple of nights, stay tuned.) Tim’s family has a pizza business in Peoria and they produce some of the tastiest pies in the world. They are available in stores and a lot of bars in the area serve them up as well. You can also order them online. Check out Butch’s Pizza here and dig the pig: Butch’s Premium Pizza.
And before I begin the bar crawl, I’d like to send out a special bar crawl toast to my Baltimore Bar Crawling buddy, Gene Rubbico. Gene’s deployed in Afghansitan and I wish him lots of safety and a speedy return trip home. He, Smoopy and Terry will be back here on the bar crawl in October and I look forward to that. Be safe, Gene and good luck, my friend!
Tim and Colleen are staying at the New Yorker hotel. As usual, I'm early, so I'll mill about on the street for awhile.
If you're looking at this shot, Steve Jobs, the donation button is over there at the top right.
Okay, here we are at Tim and Colleen's room.
And here they are in their room, tonight's special guest stars, Tim and Colleen! Woo hoo!
And here I proudly accept the new, official bar crawling, Butch's Pizza pen! It smells like pepperoni and I love it! Thanks, Tim!
Okay, we're at Penn Station taking the train to the East Village.
And here's our train. All aboard.
And after a bit of a walk (okay, I got us a little lost, I'm directionally-challenged), here we are at the Black Iron Burger Shop. And not a moment too soon, I'm starvin' like Marvin over here.
The bar is crowded, but this nice couple moved down so we could sit at the bar and do the crawl proper-like.
Scott's the bartender and manager here and he was friendly and knowledgeable about the craft beers and burgers and was more than happy in assisting us in ordering from the menu.
And here we are, a trio of hooligans out on the town.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, could this be the greatest cheeseburger on the crawl?
I leave Tim and Colleen to crawl around the bar and meet some of the other patrons.
Peter, Milan and Jeremy were enjoying burgers in the corner of the bar.
Here's Becky flashing the 365 card. Becky's one of the cute waitresses who serves up the tasty delights in here.
Ketchup!
This quartet had already enjoyed their food and were having some beer for dessert. From left: Sonja, Lester, Chelsea and Michael.
And here's chef Favian preparing the food. Hey, I need to get back to the bar to see if my cheeseburger is there.
And here it is all of it's cheesy gloriousness. I had the Black and Blue burger with grilled onions. It looks delicious.
It's one of the best burgers I've had on the bar crawl!
And Tim and Colleen agree.
And here's the man who cooked up our tasty dinner, Favian pictured with Hillary who's the other cute waitress in the bar.
The cheeseburger was so good, we got a couple bags to go. Goodnight everybody!
Review
Black Iron Burger is a cozy and friendly burger bar. Even though the bar is just over a year old it has old school wrought iron and wooden ambience with a mirrored back wall that has the entire menu and craft beers for your perusal. The bar seats just over a half a dozen and there's comfortable wooden tables and stools lining the walls and small back room. The griddle is located right next to the bar, so you can see the burgers as they’re being prepared. The staff is friendly and the patrons are mainly locals from the East Village neighborhood.
There’s a full bar and the beer on tap is craft beer. If you’re not a craft beer aficionado, the bartender and staff are happy to help you with your choice. The name of the joint is Black Iron Burger Shop, so the emphasis is on the burger and they offer up eight varieties including: The Black & Blue Burger which has blue cheese and Cajun seasoning; The Iron Horse which is a double patty with horseradish cheddar & grilled onions and the Black Jack Burger which is built with Monterey jack cheese, chili and jalapenos. I had the Black and Blue Burger and it was one of the best Saturday Night Cheeseburgers I’ve inhaled on the bar crawl so far. I highly recommend it.
In addition to the cheeseburgers there’s specialty appetizers and sides including: Fried Pickled Tomatoes, Chicken Wings, Onion Rings and the milk shakes are rumored to be superb. I wouldn’t know, I knocked back come of the excellent craft beer during my visit. Check out Black Iron Burger Shop, a real contender in New York’s cheeseburger wars.
Black Iron Burger Shop
540 E. 5th St. (Near Avenue B)
212-677-6067
2 References
Reader Comments (14)
Damn!
Those look and certainly sound like "Tasty Burgers!"
A great stop on the crawl Daddio!
And Happy Anniversary to Tim and Colleen.
I have experienced Butch's Pizza!
In fact, I stock up my freezer regularly.
The White Garlic Pizza is amazing!
Keep the tradition alive Tim!
With a name like Black Iron Burger Shop, I almost expected to see a blacksmith in the kitchen hammering out the burgers. More beautiful waitresses, you seem to be on a never ending streak on your way to the perfect cheeseburger!
Goddamn, that IS one tasty looking burger! And happy anniversary to your guest bar crawlers and best wishes to Gene. Stay safe and I look forward to your return to the bar crawl when your duty is done!
If a burger place offers grilled onions its almost a guarantee in my mind, looks very yummy!! Had buffalo burgers with feta cheese last night, didn't even realize that I was starting my own saturday cheeseburger tradition :)
I'm in Manas, Kyrgyzstan right now ... will be in Bagram, Afghanistan on Tuesday ! Let's get the show on the road !
Good luck when you get there, Gene! I'm looking forward to crawling with you again in October!
that's a great looking burger! happy anniversary to tim and colleen and best wishes and luck to gene. you're assembling quite a crew of bar crawlers marty! and i love the correspoding videos your putting the end of the blogs!
Well I was heading to sushi samba on fri but I will check this place out. see not everything is about sushi samba.
Love that scene from Pulp Fiction, the big kahuna looked tasty. As a side note, I grew up in LA and walked to school in the late sixties in front of the Cockatoo Inn on the corner of Imperial and Hawthorne Blvd and the bar there was used for a scene for that movie. I remember peeking in once on the way home and it was dark as hell with red lights and red leather booths,,,and that smell of cigarettes and booze with cold air conditioning hit me,,,I kinda like that mixture to this day.
@Al: Which scene was filmed in the Cockatoo Inn, that sounds like a great bar, is it still there? @Nick Beal, I'm going to Sushi Samba in the next couple of weeks, but bet ready for the rants from the Sudhi Samba hater!
Remember the scene in Pulp Fiction when Travolta was at the bar with Bruce Willis and the big boss Marselleis Wallace? Travolta called Willis "punchy" and "palookaville" because he was a down and out fighter that was to take a dive. That entire scene was filmed at Cockatoo Inn shortly before it closed. Its been torn down but it was as old school as you could get. You know the love I have for those old dark bars, I think it started there peeking in as a teenager.
@Al: I wish that joint was still open and I share your love of the dark bars.
Nothing better on a cheeseburger than a toasted bun! Glad to see that Black Iron is keeping that tradition alive. I'd love to swing by there next time I'm in town and get me a patty melt with some fried tomatoes and a chocolate malt. And then I'll follow that quartet's lead and drain some beers for dessert. Mmmm...beer.
Yaay for Tim and Colleen! They look like super nice people! I am so glad that they were able to join you on the crawl.
The burgers sure look good! What a wonderful place to allow us to accompany you. I love the fun people are having there. Great friendly staff and a wonderful atmosphere.