Mikey’s Burger

Why does Mikey’s Burger only have two reviews on Yelp? Zero on Menupages. You would think there’d be more customer buzz outside of the PR buzz I’ve seen online. And this new burger joint coming from the mastermind of the Baoguette empire. It doesn’t make sense to me. My curiosity led me to the LES.

Lunch on a weekday. Just two older construction workers eating at the counter. I got the Mikey’s (topped w/ corned beef, onions, pickled mustard seed). They take out a ball of meat and smash it on the hot griddle. Placed on a toasted Martin’s potato roll. For some reason, I was thinking corned beef hash when I ordered it. That’d be an interesting burger topping. But this Mikey’s had just bits of corned beef with the onions. It did come with lettuce, tomato and pickle on the side –and there were bottles of Sriracha cock sauce and spicy ketchup, but I think this burger needed to be left alone as is. It was a good burger for the price ($5.50).

The fries are the star of the show. Crisp and perfectly salted. These also needed to be left alone (sans sauce). $3 for a good portion.

I actually was hoping to try the fried tilapia fish sandwich with caviar, but it’s now off the menu. They said they had trouble using the fryer for both the tempura batter and fries. It’s unfortunate. It looks so good. This is the best photo I can find. There was a more awesome photo that existed, but now it’s lost in cyberspace. I think I just want to try a sandwich/burger with caviar on it. I wish they had the option to put caviar on my burger.

Instead of the tempura tilapia, they plan to put out a veggie and turkey burger soon. I think this week. BTW, the chef’s recommendation is the lamb burger, which does look good.

Now why hasn’t Mikey’s caught on the same way as Baoguette? It has the man behind the plan and the PR machine to back it. I’m in the middle of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. I hope it can shed a few ideas. Maybe all it needs is caviar.

[update: Okay, now there is one review on Menupages. Will this start the tipping point?]
[update2: So the menu slip I took home did say corned beef hash. There’s no comma, so maybe it meant “corned beef, hash onion…”?]

Mikey’s Burger -134 Ludlow St (btw Rivington & Stanton St) New York, NY 10002