October 9, 2011

Live from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! Starring Pop Burger Pub and special guest star Lex! And featuring the Ready For Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome, Lex and Pop Burger Pub!

My friend Lex is in town with her family and has a free night out, so she's accompanying me on Cheeseburger Saturday Night tonight. You may remember Lex from her appearance on 365 Bars and back in May on MAD. And we all know, when a guest comes to MAD Headquarters, snacks must be made. Tonight I thought I'd try a nutty mixture, here's the ingredients.

For this recipe you need two snackologist certified bowls.

The base is the Blue Diamond Jalapeno almonds.

Then slowly I add, shape, prune and mix in the other ingredients. As always, I want to warn you not to try this in your house, unless you are a board-certified snackologist. If you don't know what you're doing things can get messy and nasty real quick.

Three hours later the final mix is done. Now all we need is Lex.

And bingo-bambo, here she is, enjoying the snacks and a beer here at MAD Headquarters. Great to see you again, Lex!

Here's the cheeseburger destination for the evening, Pop Burger Pub in Union Square, a short walk from where I live.

When you walk in, there's a giant wall with a takeout window featuring the menu lit up all over it.

The words, "firm fries" were a little upsetting to both Lex and I, although we didn't really know why.

Lex poses with Christian, who's a busboy in the pub. A nice guy, the whole staff is friendly in here.

There's lots of wooden tables and seating in the spacious front room.

But Lex and I chose to sit at the bar in the middle of the pub.

Bartender Peter happily serves us up a beer and the night is underway!

The back wall features some of the bottled beers on the beer menu. Pretty impressive.

There's big wooden booths in the back, let's go say hi to these two women.

Here's Fayola and Jessica at their booth. They had just finished dinner and Fayola had the Superman Burger and recommended it, so that's what we decided to order.

We split an order of onion rings for an appetizer.

See?

The Superman Burger lived up to its name. It was huge and we split one, which was good, because I could never have finished a whole one.

Thanks to Lex for hanging out with me on Cheeseburger Saturday Night! Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Our Meal
At Fayola’s suggestion, Lex and I got the Superman Burger and it was...well...super! It’s a giant burger that comes dressed with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and crunchy bacon on a fresh toasted bun. It comes with fried pickles, but we had them on the side. We started out the meal with onion rings and they were crunchy and delicious.

There’s two other kinds of burgers available, Pop Burgers, which are two slider style burgers and the Invisible Burger which is a portebello mushroom burger. Other entrees include: baby lamb chops; fish and chips; lobster roll with tater tots and a steak sandwich with tater tots.

They have a large selection of draft, bottled and can beer and if you have a sweet tooth there’s hot doughnuts and chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies available.

Cheeseburger Rating
Three Wimpy’s, a wonderful cheeseburger!

Pop Burger Pub
83 University Place (Between 11th and 12th St.)
212-477-7574

Further reading: Grub Street, Steve Eats NYC and Go Craft Cans.

When we met I was sure out to lunch,
Now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

-----------------------------------

Bonus Photos by Gene Rubbico!

MAD pals and two thirds of the BBC, Gene and Smoopy are in Pittsburgh this weekend. Yesterday they visited the Flight 93 crash site and memorial, checked into a Bed and Breakfast and then visited 399 bars and had 2,947 drinks between the two of them. Here's some photos of their day and night. It starts out at the Flight 93 crash site and memorial, then the bed and breakfast and then onto some of the nighttime bar shots. Looks like a splendid time, thanks for the photos, Gene!