RESTAURANTS • First Word
The Skinny: Hamburger America, George Motz’s new burger joint just a few doors up from Roscioli in northwest Soho, is as much museum as it is restaurant.
The Vibe: The interior is painstakingly sculpted to call back to the sunny optimism of the American postwar burger stand: a sweeping formica counter, bright chrome and yellow accents with dark wood paneling. Naturally the place to be is at the counter, especially if Motz, one of America’s foremost burger historians and champions, is manning the griddle, grinning sideburn to sideburn.
The Food: The menu is a stripped-down affair: just two burgers and five sandwiches — PB&J, grilled cheese, hot ham, egg and chicken salad. Also, fries, pie, cookies, a selection of flavored milks, and Miller High Life. The style is smash, balls of beef tossed on the griddle, pressed down into pucks and shrouded with layers of onions. Motz tends to them with a knowing certainty, prodding and shifting the simmering patties until they’ve attained the right level of wilt and char, before flipping them, topping them with cheese and, finally, depositing them into a buttered bun to be wrapped in paper and served on a ceramic dish.
The Verdict: Framers, each and every one. –Nick Solares
→ Hamburger America (Soho), 51 MacDougal St. • No reservations.