by Brian Grill, Resident Griddleman, GBC

Back in July, The Grills went to NYC for a Star Center theater trip.  Rachel and I dropped our daughter Olivia off at her camp and what started as a dreary first day in Manhattan soon turned into a beautiful stroll around the city. We hopped on the subway to head downtown with the intention of getting off in the West Bank. Well, I missed our stop and we had to trek back north after getting off on Chambers Street. 

I looked on my map app and saw we weren’t too far from the famous Ghostbusters fire station. So we moseyed on by to snap a photo. You know what else I saw on the map? Hamburger America. I had a new goal. The walk was right through the Lower Manhattan SOHO area, which was pretty cool. We found a great little place to rest our feet in Tribeca Park, watching the Pigeons and listening to the city sounds.  We meandered around the area for hours, sitting in other cool parks, working up an appetite….until…. 

Finally, we arrived at Hamburger America. We stepped inside and were greeted with patrons sitting at the grill top watching burgers being smashed and griddled. 

Drool ran down the cheeks of those waiting to place orders as they watched the lucky ones who’d already had burgers delivered stuff their faces. A middle aged woman happily greeted us and asked if we wanted to put our name in for grill-top seats. It would only be a few minutes, she told us. Just a few steps up from the grill-top seats were more small tables. But we wanted to really see how the sausage was made.

While we were waiting, Rachel went up to check out the merch and the rest of the restaurant. But just five minutes later we were seated at the grill top. We were happy to see that the same friendly woman who sat us was also our burger server. 

The menu was simple, as it should be. And there was really no other option for me than to order the fried onion burger. Rachel, grabbed a side of fries and a slice of cake to share. 

The burger server (man, I wish I remembered her name) was arguably the sweetest New Yorker I’ve met – just a real treat. We watched burgers being smashed and smashed and smashed and then the moment we’ve all been waiting for…We were served our burgers. 

Simple, wrapped in wax paper, pickles on the side. Ope, hold on….the fries. Yeah , no. Not my cup of tea. But back to the burger – double patty, double cheese, lots of onions smashed in. I noticed the smasher would scrape the onions off if they were too soft and make sure they all got really charred up.  The smell was great, the anticipation of the famous George Motz burger was even more. 

My first words after biting into this burger (and they’d likely be yours, too) were, “Hey, that’s really good.” From me, that’s a real compliment. It was, in fact, a really good burger. Seasoned well, charred onions, good bun. It was delicious. Though, I was left, I don’t know, expecting more?  Not really sure how else to put it.  Maybe my expectations were too high?  I dont want anyone to read this thinking the burger wasn’t good, it was….but I wasn’t blown away like i thought i was going to be?   Let it be known, we had a very nice time.   I admit, I didn’t grade it officially, but it would have gotten a high ranking.  I gotta give it up to Mr Motz for doing what he has done to the burger community!   Ok, back to our day.  We settled up on our bill and left feeling pleased that we split the food so we could continue our venture around NYC.