Pottstown, PA: The Hilltop Drive-In’s California Cheeseburger

2910 East High Street

Pottstown, PA‎

(610) 326-2342

Cast in the eerie shadows of the twin towers of the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant lies the Philadelphia Premium Outlet Mall, a mecca for consumers that in just a few days will cast its siren song southward to lure Black Friday shoppers and welcome their efforts to spur the economy through ritualistic spending at Nike, Adidas, Jockey, Le Creuset and the thankfully curable Perfumania (not to mention food offerings such as the painfully punny Chinese stand called Asian Chao).

What was even just a few months ago a barren field now teems with activity, forever in the present with today’s hottest fashions and modern trends.  At the exit ramp off of Route 422 drivers are offered barely the chance to turn away from the mall, almost by centripetal force their cars are willed to turn left and ease into the acres of available free parking. But for those who can fight the potent inertia of drastically reduced prices on factory seconds and previous year’s stock (or perhaps more realistically forestall their entry into the maelstrom for a few moments) there is a reward for steering your car to the right at the end of the ramp – The Hilltop Drive-In.

In stark contrast to the not so accurately named outlet mall (anyone from these parts will know they are nowhere near Philadelphia, Google Maps pegs it at just over 29 miles from City Hall to the Wilson’s Leather Outlet), the Hilltop sits as a pink-hued reminder of a bygone era and the simple pleasures of a pre-fast food chain dominated burger landscape.

Make no mistake, this is not the best burger you will ever eat, but the overall experience makes it well worth the effort and miles.  Add equal parts classic architecture, hand-spun milkshakes and malts, black and white photographs and retro signage and you’ve got yourself the ideal destination for a lazy Sunday drive to the far reaches of the suburban Philly telephone area code.

On this my second trip to the joint I ordered the California Cheeseburger, so-named for the appearance of (gasp!) vegetables which, at a time in our country, must have been viewed as exotic and otherworldly, just like the Golden State.  Two perfectly acceptable fast food size and style beef patties were joined on the white, squishy burger bun by a piece of American cheese, sliced raw onions, tomato, shredded lettuce and mayo.  (I substituted the kaiser roll which this sandwich is usually served on for a regular burger bun due to my long held belief that a kaiser roll has no business being near a burger.)

I had forgotten the pure pleasure of eating a burger with heaps of mayo on it. Despite the results of A Hamburger Today’s “Favorite Condiment” poll back in August, far too few of the burgers we eat have mayonnaise on them.  Why not?  Adding more fat to a burger seems like a no-brainer, and at the Hilltop, which uses some brand that bridges the chasm between Hellman’s egginess and the sweetness of its arch enemy Miracle Whip, the gooey-ness continuum that is created with the inevitable mingling of the white American cheese and mayo is pure perfection.  That moment of self-questioning “was that the cheese or the mayo?” works well in the burger as grease delivery vehicle equation.

The Hilltop’s roots reach back to the 1950’s when it was a Carvel outpost and the shakes and malts served today are legit.  I had a chocolate malt on my first trip and it was perfect, deeply chocolaty with flecks of slightly bitter malt powder.  Soft-serve cones and sundaes are available as well and I can imagine in the summer time they do a fare bit of business cooling off the locals with these treats.

One of the great surprises of The Hilltop is that they serve Good’s Potato Chips from nearby Adamstown, PA.  An old-school producer of no-frills, fried in lard chips, Good’s have become a strictly rationed treat in our house (Philly area folks can get them closer to home at The Head Nut in Ardmore) and as served here are the perfect accompaniment to your burger.  They also offer pretty good french fries, McDonald’s style thin cuts fried up crisp and tasty, but when presented with the chip option they slip into second place.

Special mention must be given of their crab bisque soup.  With our proximity to Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay, decent crab doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to come across, but it certainly wasn’t expected in this kind of setting and truly stole the show on our first visit.

Huge thanks to ModBetty of Retro Roadmap for bringing The Hilltop to my attention via her great post and pictures (special notice should be given of the early ’50’s black and white image she shares of the Hilltop as a Carvel -complete with a rogues gallery of patrons straight out of central casting).  Her site is packed with other great info and she is the rare Keystone state resident with actual duckpin bowling experience.

Filed under: Burger, Burger Geek, Burgers In The Burbs, Burgers from a bygone era, Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Marc Sanders, Real Retro

Home Cookin’: Blue Cheese Burger w/ Grass-Fed Beef/Bacon Mix

Quick dinner from a few weeks back when a 1/2 day at work gave me the opportunity to hit up two different farmers markets for ingredients.  A Le Bus Whole Wheat Burger bun was the perfect foundation for our burger mix of natural, (primarily) grass-fed beef and chopped bacon ends (oddly shaped, wildly fatty slabs of deliciousness from the Lancaster County Farmers Market in Wayne, PA).  Add blue cheese, a fire-engine red tomato and some extra whole bacon ends on top and the urge to go out to a restaurant and spend $15 for a fancy burger is officially curbed.  When possible serve your burgers on plates with pictures of surgeons on them – its a karma thing and it fights off the bad cholesterol.

Not too much to offer by way of recipe on this one, more along the lines of advice…we find the beef available at farm stands tends towards the lean side, so chopping up bacon and adding it to the mix prior to forming your patties keeps the burgers moist (in addition to adding flavor).  We tested a new (and cheap) cast iron skillet from Ikea and were happy with the results.

Additional Resources:

Beef from Hillacres Pride

Bacon Ends from S. Clyde Weaver

Tomato from Good Harvest Farms

Filed under: Bacon, Burger, Burger Recipe, Cheeseburger, Family, Grass-Fed, Healthy, Marc Sanders, Meat On Meat, Meat in Meat, Recipe, Recipes

Bonus Footage: Dissecting Picahna Grill Lanchonete’s X-Tudo Hamburger

Now you can try to authentically recreate this baby at home.  Still no sign of the mysterious 11th ingredient (only available in Portuguese).  Enjoy!

Filed under: Brazilian Burgers, Burger, Burger Dissection, Cheeseburger, Fried Ham, Hamburger, Marc Sanders, Meat On Meat, Opportunity Of A Lifetime, Philly Burgers

Philadelphia, PA: Picanha Grill Lanchonete’s X-Tudo Hamburger

Picanha Grill Lanchonete (yes, that is spelled correctly)

7638 Castor Ave

Philadelphia, PA 19152-3623

(215) 745-5555

The best new burger in Philadelphia is an absolute mess!  An ungodly train wreck of ingredients served to you in a location devoid of glitz, glamor, panache or any of the other adjectives our beloved city’s slew of worthy new burger joints can lay claim to.  It is primal, carnal, evil and glorious.  It is more Ronaldo than Ronald.  It is 5 inches tall and a hemisphere of flavor wide.  It is the reason I may never have to venture into Newark, NJ again.

I present to you the X-Tudo Hamburger-

Hubcap-sized sesame seeded roll – check

Beefy grilled patty – check

Gooey mozzarella cheese – check

Perfectly fried egg – check

Leafy green lettuce – check

Fire-engine red tomato – check

Fried slices of boiled ham – check

Crunchy potato sticks – check

Juicy corn niblets – check

Blasts of mayo and ketchup for good measure – check and check

Game-Set- Match, checkmate, “you sank my battleship“, Yahtzee! and “boom goes the dynamite (as uttered by Cleveland Brown)” all wrapped up in wax paper and delivered piping hot on a plate.

I was first introduced to the concept of Brazilian hamburgers by Jason Perlow’s review of Hamburgao in Newark on his pioneering food/tech site offthebroiler.  After that, and thanks to the coincidence of some of my work locations being in that neck of the woods, I trekked to the Ironbound to get my hands on a Cheese Egg as often as possible.  And whenever possible I dragged others, first my wife and daughter and then later my boss and some work colleagues.  The Brazilian version of a hamburger just rewrites the rules and is guaranteed to be a memorable experience (even if it were bad – and they have never been – it would be memorable for so many reasons including the atmosphere, the language and the ubiquitous pastries).  Now to find a location so close to home serving these gems…needless to say I’m a happy happy guy.

The Picanha Grill Lanchonete is the sister restaurant to Picanha Brazilian Grill, which sits further south on Castor Ave towards Oxford Circle and offers all-you-can-eat rodizio style dining.  In fact, the Lanchonete will be moving next door to the grill later this year, which is good news for anyone visiting from the City or the ‘burbs because it makes the trip about 10 minutes shorter (just off the Roosevelt Boulevard).  It features a long bar with high chairs for eating while watching Brazilian daytime TV and a row of tables for more refined noshing.  In the barren wasteland that is this strip of Castor Ave, the inside of this joint yearns for a hipness above what is both expected and probably attainable considering the rivers of asphalt just steps from any seat in the place.

The menu features several different variations on the kitchen sink theme, with your choice of hamburgers, chicken or hot dogs buried underneath.  Even if this wasn’t a burger blog I’d insist that this be your point of entry to the cuisine as, in my opinion, it provides the perfect foundation (both in shape and taste) for the bevy of toppings which run the gamut from the mundane (lettuce) and mandatory (bacon) to the ridiculous (bananas) and sublime (yes, potato sticks belong on your sandwich!).

My Portuguese is negligible, despite a short period of time living in Rhode Island (where have you gone Vinny Pazienza?), so I am still a bit lost as to how the description of my burger on the bi-lingual menu has more ingredients in Portuguese than English?  (11 items in Portuguese and 10 in English).  I’m jut going to assume the real secret to the deliciousness of this concoction is that magical 11th ingredient which us estrangeiro’s are forbidden to possess (like bikes in the United Arab Emirates  or  that Goethe quote about “…what we cannot understand”).

Eating this burger gracefully is impossible.  Even after cutting it in half (a tactic both to increase one’s ability to grip the darn thing and to cause me to pause long enough to weigh the downside of consuming the whole thing in one sitting) didn’t render it manageable.  An ample supply of napkins were key as were the polite pauses in conversation offered by the server who told me about his family in Sao Paolo and his impressions of Philadelphia after having only been here a short time.

In a year where so many great burger joints have opened in the City, the arrival of Picanha Gill Lanchonete has gone completely unheralded.  Nary a tweet, yelp or peep from a chowhound has tipped off the masses to this joint, and that is a shame.  I hope you’ll stray from your comfort zone at least once to test this place out (or their new location when it opens) because your perception of what makes a great burger will be changed forever.

Additional thoughts…Fries With That Shake’s friend girlscantell needs to diagram this thing for her next set of placemats….the roll at Hamburgao in Newark is a bit different and much better, but it is about an hour and a half away and will set you back $20 in tolls to get there so I am willing to forgive…I was in the area for business and to test out the kosher burger at Holy Land Grill (located just a few doors down).  Not sure if I will ever actually make it there…yes, it is called a hamburger but it has cheese on it, I think cheese is just a given.

Filed under: Big Burgers, Brazilian Burgers, Burger, Burger Perfection, Cheeseburger, Fried Ham, Hamburger, Marc Sanders, Meat On Meat, Newark, Weird Burgers, Where Have You Been My Whole Life?

Philadelphia, PA: P.Y.T.’s “P.Y.T. Burger”

P.Y.T.
The Piazza at Schmidt’s
1050 N Hancock St
Philadelphia, PA 19123

(215) 268-7825

A few people are talking about this place online…just a few – read here, here, here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here (the rest of the world still has Crystal Pepsi?  Seriously?  Damn!), here, here, here, here and oh, here.   Holy word of mouth!  Well, if there is one thing legendary Philly party-promoter Tommy Up knows how to do it is get people talking and with his latest venture, the uber-hip restaurant/lounge P.Y.T., it is clear another thing Up can do really well is run a burger joint.

Self-described as a California style burger bar, P.Y.T. as a concept is well thought out and its location in the middle of Bart Blatstein’s Piazza At Schmidt’s is both ideal and logical.  Indoor seating in stylish booths and at the sleek bar will be more popular in colder months, but on a gorgeous day like we had (a rare example of the idea that it is “Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) the piazza-side tables with lime green umbrellas were the place to be.

I modified my P.Y.T. Burger (toppings are key here) and was able to snap a few pics before eagerly diving in to devour  the 1/3 lb.(ish) of beef blanketed (but not buried or overpowered) with a fried egg (preparation nailed – just the slightest bit of yolk ooze), bacon, lettuce, tomato (bright red!), onions, cheese (great melt) and a devilishly sweet onion & mayo secret sauce (note to Colgate – this would make the perfect toothpaste flavor).  The burger was heavily seasoned and cooked around the range I requested, not pegged, but to the rarer which is a 1000 times better than going too far.  The completed burger stacked pretty high, but everything squished together well and was pretty manageable to eat in mixed company.

As good as the burgers are, the P.Y.T. sign also promotes two other strengths of the restaurant.  If the “T: thing” is the burger and the “Y:young” is the music (djs, Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne” was playing as we were leaving – probably not stereotypical but it worked for a Sunday), then “P: pretty” is a really great way to describe the drinks.

Filed under: Bacon, Big Burgers, Blogroll, Burger, Burgers & Booze, Cheeseburger, Fries, Hamburger, Marc Sanders, Martin's Potato Rolls, Meat On Meat, Philly Burgers

Words Cannot Describe: The Baconzilla from Checkers

Filed under: Bacon, Big Burgers, Blog Post Without Words, Burger, Checkers, Cheese Whiz, Cheeseburger, Coronary, Fast Food Chains, How Am I Not Dead Already?, Marc Sanders, Meat On Meat, Mmmmm Chemicals!, OMFG, Philly Burgers , Shhhhh! Don't Talk...

Wynnewood, PA: Elevation Burger’s Cheeseburger

50 E Wynnewood Rd
Wynnewood, PA 19096-2013
(610) 645-7704

I first posted about Elevation Burger way back in February so needless to say the anticipation has been building for a while on this one…and I am happy to report that Elevation Burger did not disappoint.

With a mantra of “Ingredients Matter,” what many have dubbed the “healthy Five Guys” opened their first store here on the outskirts of Philly over the 4th of July weekend.  It took me a whole 2 days to get down there thanks to holiday festivities but lunchtime Monday was destined to be all about Elevation Burger.

Four of us from work headed over and I was not surprised to run into another burger-loving friend already waiting in the short queue ahead of us.  Word seems to have spread fast as they had a decent lunchtime crowd already for their first work-day service.

I opted for the Cheeseburger, as opposed to the Elevation Burger (1 patty vs 2 patties) and was presented with one of the best upsell attempts I have ever heard…”We find men are more satisfied with the Elevation burger (double) as opposed to just the single.” Ah-hem.  Innuendo aside, I still stuck with the single burger (a rare show of restraint) in order to justify getting a side of fries and a soda.

As you can see from the picture, the burger itself is aesthetically pleasing.  It is clear that they spend a lot of time training their staff to present the product well and I appreciate when a burger joint does that (ex: Shake Shack or In-N-Out) as opposed to just slapping together ingredients.  I ordered my burger with lettuce, tomato and “Elevation Sauce” which I was told was a creamy, light tomato sauce.  Either an homage to INO or even Big Mac sauce, I found that the sauce really didn’t add too much flavor to the package.  It didn’t distract or ruin the taste, just didn’t add that much. To be honest, that is my only complaint.  The burgers at Elevation are 100% organic, grass-fed and free range and you definitely can tell that something is different about the patties.  Well seasoned and served on a squishy bun with a nice hunk of cheddar cheese (non-processed!) my cheeseburger was a winner.  The best part may have been the complete lack of that icky, weighed down feeling (strangely enough this was a negative factor for my co-workers).  The absence of greasiness meant no strong desire for an afternoon nap which could help productivity back at the ranch.

As good as the burger was, I have to say the fries are even better.  Fresh cut shoestring style and crisped up perfectly in 100% olive oil (no trans or saturated fats), these were probably the best fries I’ve had in a long time and everyone in the group agreed they were the highlight of the meal.  A side order was enough for 2 of us to split, though in the future I’d easily order one side just for me because they were that good (perfectly salted, each one tasted like that idealized vision of a McDonald’s fry we conjure up but have only ever experienced maybe once or twice in our lives).

Bonus points for Pibb Xtra as a fountain selection.  Having spent time growing up in the south, seeing Pibb Xtra, which is the “new” name for “Mr. Pibb,” triggered lots of nostalgic memories.  And despite Mitch Hedberg famously maligning Pibb’s lack of advanced education (“Mr. Pibb is a poor imitation of Dr. Pepper. Dude didn’t even get his degree.”) I’d choose it every time over the much fizzier Pepper.

The menu also features fresh-scooped ice cream milk shakes made with Blue Bunny ice cream.  I didn’t have one, but they were hand-dipping a lot of them and I am sure I’ll get around to that at some point (maybe Jess @ Fries With That Shake will beat me to it).

Located half-way between my work and home I am going to have to try hard to avoid filling up one of their “7 Club” cards each week.  Congrats to the team that has been working so hard on getting this location open and good luck to them keeping the steady stream of people coming.  Keep delivering a good product and they will (and the demos of this area seem ideal with a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s in short driving distance the health-concious bent should play well).

Filed under: Big Burgers, Burger, Burgers In The Burbs, Cheeseburger, Fast Food Chains, Fries, Grass-Fed, Hamburger, Healthy, Main Line, Marc Sanders, McDonalds, Narberth, Organic, Philly Burgers, Wynnewood

Home Cookin’: Buffalo Bill/Dabney Coleman BBQ Bacon Cheese Burger

Sunday night is burger night around the house and this weekend’s version was inspired by a viewing of a PBS The American Experience episode about Buffalo Bill Cody, which when trying to cook and tweet at the same time somehow morphed into a reference to Dabney Coleman’s early 1980’s sitcom Buffalo Bill (see tweets here – heck, sign up to follow if you wish).

What made these burgers even more special was that the beef and bacon were procured from our local farmers market.  In most parts of the North East farmer’s market season has just kicked off and that is great news.  Within walking distance of our house are a bevy of delicious, seasonal options produced and sold by the person behind the till.  Stories, suggestions, recipes and heart are all within easy reach of the consumer and we are all a bit better for taking the time to slow down and interact on a more personal level with our food and those that grow it.  Of course these markets are famous for their veggies but we have found that many offer great quality meats as well.  Whether “farm-raised,” “grass-fed,” “organic” and/or “natural” meat, options abound and include not only beef from cows, but good quality bison and small-batch bacons.

Not so much a recipe on this one…more a parts list:

85/15 all-natural ground beef

Thick-cut all-natural bacon

Ultra-sharp cheddar cheese

Onion rings

BBQ sauce

Whole-wheat Telera rolls

Bobby Flay calls his version a Cheyenne Burger.

Carl’s Jr.’s call it a Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

Dabney Coleman Fever movie on YouTube (kiss 8 1/2 minutes of your life goodbye before clicking)

Filed under: Bacon, Bad TV, Big Burgers, Buffalo Bill, Burger, Burger Recipe, Burgers In The Burbs, Cheeseburger, Dabney Coleman, Family, Food Network, FoodTV, Grass-Fed, Hamburger, Healthy, Marc Sanders, Meat On Meat, Organic, Recipe, Recipes, Twitter

Home Cookin’: The Burger Explosion

More than a little hat tip to the gents over at BBQ Addicts whose invention, the “Bacon Explosion,” was the creative jumping off point for this monstrosity.

No shot of getting this thing in the New York Times, but my concerns (and those of our crew of culinarily curious friends) were in getting this in our bellies.  The idea just seemed like the logical next step and although it took about 3 hours start to finish, it is more than worthwhile trying it out at home for your next get together.  This one is guaranteed to stop people in their tracks.  As always, I will note that I am not a professional chef and though these directions worked for me, they may not work well for you.  This recipe is fairly forgiving so as long as you are certain to cook these beauties all the way through I can see little danger in making a minor misstep (and tons of upside in creating your own variations).

I actually made a Bacon Explosion alongside the Burger Explosion for comparison’s sake.  The recipe for the “Bacon Explosion” which is packed with pork sausage is best picked up at BBQ Addicts, though I will note that I tweaked that recipe a little, swapping out the bbq rub for a home spun mixture of salt, pepper and rosemary.  The rosemary worked out very well.

Burger Explosion (serves 8-10)

1lb 80/20 ground beef

4 slices of white American cheese

9 slices thick cut bacon

3 slices of regular bacon

1 butt of whole grain bread – toasted

1 large egg

2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce

1/3 cup BBQ sauce (any kind will do)

Step 1 – Fry up the 3 slices of regular bacon on a griddle as you would for morning breakfast, when done remove from griddle and pat dry (don’t worry about getting too much grease off, this ain’t health food!)

Step 2 – Take the butt end of the whole grain bread and sop up the rendered bacon fat from the griddle.

Step 3 – Place the bread into a food processor and whir it up for a few seconds to make breadcrumbs (yes, even the breadcrumbs are gonna taste like bacon!).

Step 4 – Put your ground beef, egg, oyster sauce and 3 tablespoons of the bacon-y breadcrumbs into a bowl and mix thoroughly by hand.

Step 5 – Make a 4×5 lattice pattern with the bacon (this may be the most fun part of the recipe)

Filed under: Bacon, Burger, Burger Geek, Burger Recipe, Burgers & Beer, Burgers In The Burbs, Cheeseburger, Family, Hamburger, Home Cookin', Marc Sanders, Meat On Meat, Opportunity Of A Lifetime, Recipe, Recipes, Twitter, Where Have You Been My Whole Life?

Bryn Mawr, PA: Hospital Cafeteria Cheeseburger

Bryn Mawr Hospital Cafeteria

130 S Bryn Mawr Ave

Bryn Mawr, PA

.

Babies don’t come out in real life as fast as they do on TV, so with a few minutes of time on my hands in between contractions, an epidural and the blessed event I figured I’d post about the cuisine here at Bryn Mawr Hospital.  This being a hospital and all I was a wee bit concerned about the offerings in the cafeteria (would it be nothing but healthy stuff?), but clearly they are catering to a wide audience with their extensive offerings (salad bar ->nachos bar -> deli sandwiches -> pastries).

Was very happy to see (4) burger options on the menu, advertised as fresh from the grille sirloin.  I opted for the cheeseburger (white American), and as you can see from the above it came wrapped a la your typical fast food burger.  A self-serve toppings bar was available with some bright red tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sliced onions, pickles and bacon as options.  I actually skipped over the bacon (just seemed odd in a hospital – bacon will probably bring me back here sometime soon enough) and loaded up with a few tomato slices.

End product was about 1/3 lb (maybe even closer to 1/2 lb) cooked medium + all the way through and was served on a decent quality kaiser roll.  With some ketchup and mustard this baby doctored up to be pretty decent with a very strong beef taste.   No doubt this was a Sysco or similar food service burger, frozen until just recently but prepared well for the lunch time rush.

Wife can’t eat anything but ice chips and freeze pops (and nurse wondered what the smell was in the room in a manner that clearly said “who the heck is eating fast food in here!”) so I couldn’t get another opinion on this but it might be the real deal.  Not sure how many folks would stop by here for a casual lunch, but if this labor continues any longer (nurse mentioned someone in labor for 3 days…) I might convene a meeting of other burger lovers for further sampling.

Thanks for all of the well wishes to date (have been posting some on Twitter though promised wife I would not “live Tweet” the birth).  The world will welcome another burger lover very soon.

UPDATE:  More burgers will have to wait…he’s here!

‎

Filed under: Big Burgers, Burger, Burger Geek, Burgers In The Burbs, Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Hospital Food, Main Line, Marc Sanders