OnlyLook: Mother Burger

Arthur Bovino — September 30, 2009

Mother Burger’s Bacon Cheeseburger w/Applegate Farms’ Organic Sunday Bacon $8.50.

You know you should be suspicious when servers at a restaurant with ‘burger’ in the name suggest everything except the burger. That happened at Mother Burger (view site) in the plaza behind One Worldwide Plaza in Midtown when we were recently invited for dinner.

The large, open courtyard should be an ideal setting for drawing office coworkers when the whistle blows. Blockheads Burritos co-owners (and brothers), Don and Ken Sofer, must have had a similar thought when they recently signed their 10-year lease. With outdoor seating, $2.00 beer specials, blue skies, recession-friendly prices and hormone-free and organic meats, there’s reason to be hopeful, albeit skeptical when sitting down to the free peanuts.

 

Mother Burger, $5.95.

Then three servers tell you their favorites are the chicken sandwich and salads. At a burger joint? You discover why. Burgers are served fast-food style—you’re not asked how you want it. That’s fine at Shake Shack which laces theirs with crack, but the two red-plastic basket cradled renditions we tasted — a Bacon Cheeseburger, and a burger with mushrooms, jalapeño and onions— consisted of dry post-it pad thick patties that needed more help than a “special sauce” reminiscent of spicy Thousand Island Dressing could give. Things improved, partially because the alcoholic drinks are strong and cheap. We tried four, the Beverly Hills Hawaiian Punch, Happy Trails Iced Tea, and Blue Ridge Margarita— all very sweet, spike-the-punch drinks. More interesting was the batida-like Key Lime Shake ($9.00) topped with two pleasantly sodden marshmallows (left, punch, shake, tea, $5/each).

 

“Texas Tommy,” a Kobe Beef Hot Dog topped w/Applegate Farms organic Sunday bacon and cheddar ($7.95) w/sides of sauerkraut and relish.

It turns out, everything is better than the burgers, notably the hot dog, the grilled cheese and the fries. “I’m digging the dog,” said AlwaysHungryNY.com’s assistant video editor, Ryan “Big Dumplings” Lee, “maybe because of the way it’s cut, for some reason it makes it taste more like a sausage.”

 

Grilled Cheese Sandwich w/Mild White Cheddar Cheese, $5.95 Skinny-Cut, Skin-On Fries (single $3.50, double $5.50). Diced Chicken Sandwich (cross-section) w/Lettuce, Tomato, Pickle, Onion, and Special Sauce on the side, $6.95.

The Grilled Cheese sandwich on buttery Texas toast is Mother Burger’s strongest. It’s sweet and salty, gooey and crunchy. A good example of why it pays to order things you’d ordinarily brush off. Or just the redemption of low expectations. The Diced Chicken Sandwich is better than the burger. It’s reconstituted nature makes it more appealing for chicken sandwich veterans who usually feel obliged to cut it on their plate to eat it, say like at Island Burgers & Shakes. The skin-on fries have the best features of both corporate behemoths, McDonald’s size and taste with the Burger King exterior.

But that’s the end of the story, the Mother Salad (Chopped Mixed Greens, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers, Red Onion, Chickpeas, Bacon and Cheddar, $7.95) is an after-work salad for office girls who pick while they talk—the best thing about it is the 7oz Colt .45 bottles reincarnated as dressing bottles. And the Vegetable Mother Burger had good flavor but no real textural contrast. It was all soft and mushy. What makes any veggie burger great, even the frozen yellow ones, is that you can crisp the exterior so there’s a little more bite in each bite.

For what it is, Mother Burger is fine. It’s not going to hurt anyone, especially at these prices, but for what it could be, it’s a shame. Mother Burger’s website has a tag that proclaims: “Honest Food. Good People.” That may be true, but I’d rather just have good food.

 

Vegetable Mother Burger: Toasted Bulghur Wheat, Carrot, Chickpeas, Onion, Sautéed Red and Green Pepper, tahini and spices ($6.95). Right, cross-section.