Al Fresco Dining in Philadelphia
Foobooz's 2011 Top 50 Bars
Philly's 20 Best Drinks
2011 Best of Philly in Food
The Very Best Pizza in Philly
50 Best Places to Eat in Philadelphia
The Windsor Dies on Thursday!
Posted by kirsten henri on October 4th, 2010
If you’re on the beef beat at all — and trust us, with the burgermania of the past two years, we haven’t missed a minute of meat news — the name La Frieda will be very familiar to you. If not, here’s a little backstory: La Frieda Meats is a New York-based meat purveyor that has made its name whipping up special proprietary blends of ground beef for Manhattan’s most noteworthy burger havens, like Spotted Pig and Shake Shack (for the long version, read this New York magazine profile). La Frieda also sells their own house-blend burgers (Update: we hear both Continentals have been using La Frieda burgers for six months now), but no one in Philly has signed up for a custom-blended La Frieda burger. Until now.
Jonathan “Jonny Mac” Adams, chef-owner of Rittenhouse’s Pub & Kitchen tells us that after a year and a half of negotiating, wheedling and, eventually, tasting with Pat La Frieda, he’s finally landed his own custom ground beef blend for Pub & Kitchen. He invited us over to P&K for a sneak peek of the newcomer, which will be known as: THE CHURCHILL.
It is 8 ounces. It has dry-aged beef in it and that’s all Adams is going to tell you about the beef blend. It is glazed with bone marrow butter, topped with fried onions and served on a Metropolitan brioche. And it is replacing the Windsor burger, which has many, many fans: in the two years since Pub and Kitchen, opened, they’ve sold over 30,000.
The price: $18. Adams is offering a second burger, also a La Frieda blend (but not the P&K signature blend) for $11. This blend has brisket, short rib and clod (which we just learned is part of the chuck, thanks to Aliza Green’s indispensable Field Guide to Meat). For that burger, you can add your own toppings (cheese, egg, bacon, etc.). “Everybody likes their burger a different way,” says Adams, “so we’re giving them that option.”
What does it taste like? It’s rich, tangy (that’s the dry-aged beef) and … fluffy. The meat is loosely packed (thanks to a signature La Frieda technique called feathering) and breaks apart in your mouth, just so. But it maintains its structural integrity on the bun.
If you want to try it for yourself, it will be on the menu starting this Thursday, October 7. As Adams says, “The Windsor dies on Thursday.”
Long live the Churchill!
Pub & Kitchen,1946 Lombard Street, (215) 545-0350, thepubandkitchen.com
*Photo courtesy Kirsten Henri
- None Found
October 4th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Sounds and looks like a truly wonderful burger – until you get to the $18 part. Sorry folks, but NO burger is worth that money, even with a linen table cloth and grandma’s sterling.
October 5th, 2010 at 8:32 am
A burger has whatever value you place on it. If I had this burger, and I enjoyed it, and was willing to pay $18 again for it, guess what? It was worth it.
October 5th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Its got dry aged beef in it. who does that? that is why it is $18. you don’t get dry aged beef at the ac-a-me.
October 5th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I had the Churchill at P&K this past weekend and it was well-worth the price tag. The servers should be instructed not to refer to La Frieda as a “butcher from New York.”
October 5th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
So how is this different from the Minetta Tavern, Black Label burger? Oh, that’s right, it’s P&K’s custom blend. This gimmick can stay in NYC where people have more money than brains.
October 5th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
bone marrow butter?
October 5th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
@14thandBroad, right on, brother. The whole restaurant feels like an NYC gimmick.
October 5th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
First, let’s set the record straight – people from NYC tend to ACT like they have money. Second, how is this any different than the Whiskey King at Village Whiskey or that monstrosity of a burger at Ladder 15? Third, while I agree P&K may have lifted some ideas from popular NYC eateries, how many other gastropubs in town have subsequently lifted ideas from this so-called “NYC gimmick” of a restaurant? Sorry, deviled eggs didn’t exactly appear on menus here until after P&K opened.
October 6th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Gregg, by NYC gimmick I meant that is feels like a Disneyland version of a hipster gastropub. Attractive but unfriendly and poor staff dressed as hipsters, food prices way out of line with the quality and consistency of the kitchen, a lame and expensive beer list, and an annoying crowd willing to pay the high prices to reinforce to each other that the food is actually worth it. Add to this a tense, crowded atmosphere and the fact that I always have to wait for a table and I feel like I’m at some trendy place in NYC. Brand name beef and good PR to justify an insane price for a burger fits in perfectly.
I am pretty sure Supper started doing doing deviled eggs around the same time as P&K. In any case, P&K is an unrelaxed and expensive version of places like Standard Tap, Royal Tavern, and South Philly Tap Room (all of which predate P&K by many years), polished up for the Rittenhouse crowd; it is not innovative though some of the dishes can be interesting if the kitchen doesn’t screw them up.
No one was favorably comparing Village Whiskey or Ladder 15 to P&K so I don’t know why you brought that up. Both of those places have many of the same qualities, but at least the service and food is good at one of them.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Hey, barryg, at least you agreed (seemingly) with my opinion that people from NYC act like they have money!
October 6th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
When I say “gimmick,” I’m referring to the somewhat recent and fashionable trend of fussying up a hamburger and charging a premium for it. There was a time when Craftsteak NY was open, and you could pick corn-fed, grass-fed, where your beef came from, how long it was aged, wet or dry aged, etc. While somewhat stupid, it was more reasonable with steak, considering you generally eat steak BY ITSELF (hey moron with the $120 wagyu, put down the A1) and could probably taste the difference, and that steakhouses are already ridiculously overpriced and targeted to the wealthy and expense account budgets. But look, Craftsteak NY is gone and I don’t think they are doing this at the other branches either.
A burger is still ground meat. You want to sell me an expensive and excellent burger? Fine. But make it the only one you’re willing to serve, a la Butcher & Singer. There’s just something inherently prickish about selling what amounts to a bourgeoisie burger and a pleb burger at the same time. Even more so in Philly.
IMO, the Whiskey King burger is stupid too, and I would never buy that either. If I want foie gras, I’ll eat foie gras, but not on a burger. Nor would I bury the taste of one of the best blue cheeses around under the foie gras and the fatty burger. Just like I wouldn’t buy a pizza with caviar on top. Or a kobe hot dog.
BTW, it’s not that I’m angry (well maybe just today a little), I’m just from Philly.