It’s been awhile since I did more dedicated posts on a particular “dish”. And quite awhile, like… four years, since I offered up a dedicated burger post. There have been plenty of burgers since, but mixed in to my various Bite Marks posts. It’s time I showed a little dedication, no? Because I’m not eating out as much as pre-pandemic… even though here we’ve semi-officially moved on to endemic covid… I’ll keep these shorter, probably just 3-4 entries each time. Makes for a quicker read for you guys too.
Almacen 208, Agüero 1918, Recoleta – A takeout only spot that opened up last year here in the ‘hood. I don’t know what the 208 stands for and I didn’t think to ask at the time. There’s a small family grocery store by the same name up in Chaco province, and again, the 208 doesn’t seem to relate to the address or phone number. Someone linked their Instagram to me as they thought I’d like the look of their burgers. And, indeed, their burger photos look pretty impressive. Perhaps a touch more impressive than the reality. Still, they’re not bad burgers.
The one I tried, the eponymous 208 Burger, comes with a 165gm, well seasoned meat patty, cooked well into medium territory, but still reasonably juicy. It’s topped with pategras cheese, mashed avocado, caramelized onion, bacon, and pickles… well, I didn’t find any pickles on my burger, but the rest was present. The fries aren’t bad. A side order of nachos was a small envelope of corn chips accompanied by a mélange of ground beef, black beans, and cheese, all as a dip. The flavor was okay on those, but I wouldn’t rush over for it. There are better burgers in the neighborhood, but there are also a lot that are not. I give it a “good” rating.
Cobra, Libertador & Paseo de la Infanta, Arco 15, Palermo. A recent article in local paper La Cronista reviewed some of their favorite casual dishes in the Arcos de Rosedal complex of restaurants. Two burgers, plus a veggie burger, made the cut – so far I’ve tried one. At Cobra, the choice was their Sweet Island Burger, with two patties of beef, cheddar, crispy onion shreds, caramelized bacon (!), and thousand island dressing. The patties were a a little under-seasoned, but the toppings were plentiful, and did I mention caramelized bacon (!)?
The thousand island dressing was a bit disappointing – clearly not thousand island – a bit more like the local salsa golf, a combo of mayo and ketchup, and not much more. Thousand island has that as a base, but adds in mustard, citrus juices, Worcestershire sauce, sweet pickle relish, chopped hard boiled eggs, and often other add-ins (the thousand islands mucking about in the dressing, you know?). Still, a pretty good burger and decent fries. Given the island theme of the burger, I ordered up a Goose Island IPA to accompany it, and not a bad lunch all around.
Burger Couple, Fitz Roy 1970, Palermo. A year-old three locale chain (the other two appear to be in Boedo and Villa General Mitre). Now, I’m probably not the best one to judge this burger, as, in general, I’m not a fan of the “smashed patty” style. I like my burger patties thick and juicy, and that’s not going to happen here. On a menu of over a dozen combination choices, each burger is noted as available with either one or two patties, though based on their Instagram account, you can add pretty much as many patties as you want. Each probably weighs in at about two ounces, or less, and is splayed out to about a 1/4″ thickness, and cooked until the surface and edges are crispy, but not dried out. While flavorful, it just doesn’t provide the meatiness I want in a burger. Of course, stack up three or four of these and, perhaps it would?!
The particular choice I went for was the Guido Su (all the burgers are named after local celebrities, Guido Süller is a former architect turned gay TV diva, known for caustic commentary and starting on air fights with other celebrities on gossip shows). Under the patty are a generous amount of onions and pickles, and atop, a slab of cheddar, crispy bacon, and roasted garlic mayo. It’s actually pretty damned good. I can’t say I’m fond of the slightly sweet, brioche type bun, but at the same time, it held up. Whether it would have sandwiching a juicy, dripping thick patty, I’d question. I asked if they could sub in onion rings for French fries and they were happy to, though obviously a small quantity (given that a side order of onion rings costs double that of a side order of extra fries) and sort of commercial, maybe frozen processed type rings, unfortunately. For those who like smashed patty burgers, this is pretty good, albeit not up to my one truly liked smashed patty place, Tierra de Nadie. They offer a selection of half a dozen beers on tap, of an unspecified brewery, the Red IPA was quite good.
