Tony's Newburgh Lunch

Our second stop in Newburgh NY, thought we'd give this more diner-like spot right on the main drag a shot. Pretty much exactly what you want at 9:30am in a small town during the early stages of a 12 hour drive. Long counter with colorful locals screaming about Hilary Clinton at the TV, super nice waitress that refills your coffee every 10 seconds.


The Texas Weiner style hot dog (nice breakfast, huh?) was pretty good with mild sauce, onions and yellow mustard, but lacking the snap of the natural casing dogs down the street at Pete's. Standard frozen french fries topped with whiz for something like $1.45. But the real star was the Tom-Tom Patty Melt, a burger on sandwich bread with cheese and grilled onions, cooked on the flat top like a grilled cheese. Incredible.


Apparently patty melts are not uncommon at old-school burger joints. Hamburgers were served on white bread for years until someone decided to put them on round rolls around 1916. I used to think of a hamburger on bread as sub-par but this is pretty much how I want to eat them from now on. The slider trend is getting stale, I think it's time for some waygu beef & fontina cheese patty melts guys.

Anyway Tony's is a great place to stop if you're up that way, they have breakfast too and pretty much everything on the menu is $1.65.

Tony's Newburgh Lunch
348 Broadway
Newburgh, New York

Greekburger at Gus's Hot Dogs

Gus's burger with fresh rolls in the background
I wrote about Gus's 3 inch mini hot dogs on Serious Eats last week but failed to mention their awesome Greekburger and Sausage Sandwich. Gus's was probably my favorite joint of this whole trip as far as atmosphere goes. (We stopped at 6 hot dog places between New York, Vermont and Connecticut). Counter filled with locals, comfortable booths, crazy shit all over the walls including flyers for eating contests, friendly service and a big pile of food for 4 people for under 10 bucks.

grab a booth inside or order to-go from the front window
The Greekburger was your standard thin fast food patty cooked on the grill and smothered in Gus's signature meat sauce that they cook in big clay pots in the corner of the grill. Gus's sauce is really unique, in the general "texas greek sauce" family finely ground and really strong, with lots of paprika and something that I couldn't quite put my finger on, cloves maybe? Sausage sandwich was a patty with peppers and onions. The size is perfect, not a slider but a notch smaller than what most of us are used to, great if you want to order a couple of Gus's dogs on the side.

Gus's sausage sandwich
What really makes these burgers (and the dogs) are the fluffy white buns that come in fresh every day from nearby Bella Napoli bakery. Before white burger buns were just a crap product you bought at the grocery store because you're too lazy to cook; places like this got them in fresh from real bakeries.

For years everyone seemed to think a burger needed to have brioche or a hard roll to be "fancy" but the move seems to be towards high quality ingredients paired with the comfort of diner-fast food style.. like Village Whiskey and their sesame bun and thousand island dressing. I wish this trend would last forever but next year it will probably be Vietnamese-Colombian fusion burgers with crushed chips, pork pate, grilled pineapple, asian slaw and lemongrass-blueberry mayonnaise.

Gus's Hot Dogs
212 25th Street
Watervliet, NY 12189-1937

enjoy
•Troy Mini Hot Dogs on Serious Eats
•Texas Weiners / Greek Sauce
•In & Out Burger

Village Whiskey

Finally made it to Village Whiskey. Recently deemed the best burger in Philadelphia. Went for the standard burger with russian dressing and bibb lettuce (as opposed to the 24 dollar foie gras burger). Pretty great burger, I'm down with the soft sesame bun and minimal garnishes. The bottom half of the bun was soaked red with burger juice, but somehow managed not to fall apart - maybe because I ate it in about 3 minutes. Also the famous duck fat fries covered in short ribs and cheddar sauce, fantastic.

Lunch is the way to go here, there was no wait for a table (which can get brutal around happy hour / dinner ) and the menu is the same. The modern rustic thing they have going on feels real and comfortable. Pretty much all of Garces' restaurants win as far as design & service go. If I made a million dollars a year I would just sit at the bar all day drinking expensive whiskey and eating deviled eggs.

Village Whiskey
20th & Sansom
Philadelphia