Pop Burger

Pop Burger
60 9th Ave, b/w 14th and 15th.
Distance from Shake Shack: 0.81 miles
Travel Time: 24 minutes

of People in Line: 5

This place is way too hip for its own good, and you could walk by its meatpacking district location a couple of times before you noticed that it’s not just a club. In fact, there’s just a tiny blue “pop” stuck on the door and that’s all--incognito is obviously the cool thing to so. Wide-planked wood floors and exposed brick provide the older half of the modern-clashes-with-restored-vintage look; scratched-mirror tables and funky art on the wall complete it.  The vast rear of the place, presumably opening later in the evening, has swanky benches and a dance floor.  Oh, and do try the bathroom: they have one of those spiffy air hand-dryers with enough windpower to inflate a hot-air baloon in under a minute.

They specialize in little burgers, flame-grilled, topped with shredded lettuce, Russian salad dressing, and American cheese—two to an order.  They look like glorified White Castle sliders, but have about as much in common with those onion-laden bites as a bum has with the president of a hedge fund.  These little burgers are high class.

Brioche bun, and meat that still looks and tastes like beef.  The fries were a bit odd--tasty and fluffy, with adequate potato flavor, but battered very strangely, almost crumbly, like potato tempura.  Not a bad thing by any means.

A worthy alternative to Shake Shack, though quite a hike if you're not within easy access to the A, C, E subway line, and rather expensive.  I'm not really sure what to think about the whole little-is-cooler idea stemming from, presumably, the concept of tapas--but here it works quite well.  Except for the fact that in both cases, one of our burgers was overcooked, the other perfectly done.

Apart of Beating the Waiting Game: Alternatives to Shake Shack

Beating the Waiting Game, Burger, New York, Restaurants