So, where to begin?

You can go out and get a hamburger just about anywhere. Go out with someone to a fancy steak house, and there is pretty much guaranteed to be a burger on the menu. Go around the corner and there's a gigantic food factory hiding under a golden arch slinging the things a million miles a second. Up the road? Chain restaurants claiming to have the "freshest" and "realest" burgers when all they're really selling are ground beef hockey pucks hiding under a coating of their proprietary seasoning. Snack stands at baseball games sell them, food trucks street side sell them, every dad having a backyard BBQ has them handy, even pizzerias have them on the menu. Why? For the most part it's because they're cheap, a comfort food, and when large parties go out to eat there is usually someone looking at the menu who doesn't know what they want or doesn't feel like anything, so they say "oh well, I'll just have a burger".

 They tend to look like this.

For the longest time, I was that guy. I grew up eating them at diners with my grandparents, and restaurants with my parents. As I got older, I kinda kept up the habit. As time went on I accidentally fell into the culinary world, and my tastes grew. I started learning about foods: sauces, meats, vegetables, wines, cheeses, and so on and so forth.  So when this education in food started, the last thing I ever though of was just a basic burger. "Heh, kids stuff".

Fast forward five years later.

I work in a resort now where I have access to any kind of food I can put my mind on. If I can think it up, I can cook it and eat it. Well, not always eat it. Sometimes, being surrounded by all of those fancy, expensive foods and sauces you get a little... bored. You get tired of it. Yes, theoretically it would take years, even a lifetime, to try everything under the sun. But when you think about all of the work involved, the time it takes, the getting it just right, and did I mention the time it takes? I find myself, when hungry, sitting with one thought: "Man, I could really just go for a burger". 

It's a food I grew up eating, and a food I love. But the problem I find is that most places, at least where I've been, take absolutely no pride in their burgers. As much as I love them, it seems the people making them can't stand'em! They're a throwaway ticket. Something they can take out of the freezer, throw on a flat top or grill, and forget about until its gotta go on the bun to be served. Now I say "most" places, because there are a few places I run into every now and again that have a burger that actually grabs my attention. Sometimes I take a bite and my brain has me snap back and look at what I'm eating. "Wow, something's different here. In a good way. What is it?

That's what I would like to do with this blog. Find the places that are taking one of my favorite foods and doing it right, doing it different, but not necessarily "well" (I prefer my burgers rather pink, thank you). I'm hoping to use this as a space to blog about the joints I went to, the food I got. What's great and not so great. 

Sure, this won't be the first burger blog ever written, and sure as shit not the last. But, hell, I live in New York! A prime area for some of the greatest eats around, right? We'll see.....