June 12, 2011

Live from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! Starring Joy Burger Bar, with a special guest appearace from MAD friend Lisa and featuring the ready for prime beef player, Marty Wombacher. And now, from the West Village of New York City, please welcome Joy Burger Bar!

If you follow this blog, you may recall that a couple of months ago I spent Cheeseburger Saturday Night up in Harlem at Joy Burger Bar and they served up a great cheeseburger. If you missed that post, check it out here: Joy Burger Bar in Harlem. Well, the folks behind Joy Burger Bar have opened up another restaurant and it's close by where I live. It's in the West Village right down the street on 6th Avenue. So it's off we go.

And here we are, Joy Burger Bar. Let's go in.

And here's Lisa, who was introduced to the MAD audience last Easter at the Mars Bar, she's tonight's guest of honor.

Here's Judy who served me up a cold beer. Everybody here is super-friendly in here and it's a great place to hang out at. Even though it's a new place, it's got a nice neighborhood feel to it.

And like their Harlem sister restuarant, a lot of the decorations are Coca-Cola related like this toothpick holder...

And this plane flying overhead.

And here's Nicolas behind the counter holding true to the Coca-Cola theme.

EnJOY!

A long shot of the front counter.

A shot of a couple of the guys working the grills in the back.

This shot's for you, Kari!

An ebony and ivory salt and pepper shot from a shelf on the wall.

And here's the cheeseburgers! Here's Lisa's...

And here's mine. I got carmelized onions, sweet chili sauce...

And an egg on top of everything. This is one great cheeseburger and it's equal to Whitman's.

Tommy, who's one of the owners stopped by our table and said hi. Here's me with him...

And here he is with Lisa. Tommy is a really nice guy and bought us drinks and we had a nice conversation about the restaurant, New York and various other topics. We ended up closing the place.

Before we left I stopped in the bathroom and was thrilled that they have the same Travis Bickle artwork that the Harlem Joy Burger Bar has. Tommy told me that the artist who painted this especially for the restaurant is Uri Shemesh.

And of course this has to lead to the obligatory bathroom mirror shot. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

My Meal
The cheeseburgers here come in three sizes: the munch, midi and maxi. I got the munch which is a three ounce burger served on a fresh bun. They have a large variety of sauces, cheeses and toppings here and I chose the sweet chili sauce, cheddar cheese and an egg on top. The burger was one of the best I’ve had and I’ll place it right up with Whitman’s Juicy Lucy. The fries here are cut fresh every day and are crispy and delicious. In addition to cheeseburgers, Joy Burger Bar offers up steak sandwiches, grilled chicken, schnitzel and salads. Sides including homemade fries, onion rings, chicken fingers and chicken wings. They have beer on tap and a decent selection of wine. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Wimpy Rating:

Four Wimpy's! A great cheeseburger and you should try it out when you're in NYC!

Joy Burger Bar
361 Sixth Ave. (Near Washington Place)
212-414-9500

Further reading: New York magazine, 89th and Broke and Fork in the Road.

You also might like: Huffing, Puffing and Blowing The House Down.

Other Joys
Joy Behar
Joy Philbin
Oh Joy
Rupert Pupkin’s card

Joy to the world, was a beautiful girl,
But to me Joy meant only sorrow.

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

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Joy Burger Bar / 9:19 pm
East Harlem
Live from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night! Starring Joy Burger Bar and featuring the ready for prime beef player, Marty Wombacher. And now, from East Harlem in New York City, please welcome tonight’s host, Joy Burger Bar!

And here we go, off into the night.

Down into the bowels of the New York subway system.

This guy was great! Love the Tokyo Circus and his "Your Smile is beautiful" sign.

Alright, there's a decent crowd down here, that means a train will show up at any minute.

And sure as shit on a shingle, here it comes!

Wow, it's surprisingly empty on here for a Friday night.

This ad has me obsessed. First off, what's with the grammar? If this weird kid is so excited about ordering burritos online, shouldn't there be an exclamation point after the word, "Fantastic?" I'm not a fan of over using exclamation points, but when you use a word like, "fantastic," it's almost a given. Next, why is he wearing a tie around his head? Is this the reason that he's so fucking thrilled about ordering burritos online? Because he's never learned to dress in a manner that's socially acceptable, thereby making him terminally housebound? And look at his eyes. Those are Manson Woman eyes and they are screaming, "Helter Skelter." And the father and daughter are doing some sort of weird F-Troop dance. Plus, look at the daughter, one half of her left leg is cut off and she has no hands. How frightening is that? And the mother is escaping out of a box in the back. This is one fucked up ad campaign, and weird family, but it made my 10 stop subway ride go by in a breeze.

See, we're here already.

Just a few blocks and we are there.

That's one cheap-ass chicken!

And irony unbounds as I see it's sold at the Pioneer Supermarket. Whenever I see the word, "Pioneer," I think of the genius lyrics in Warren Zevon's song, "Carmelita." "Well, I pawned my Smith Corona, and I went to meet my man, he hangs out down on Alvarado Street, by the Pioneer chicken stand." I love that song.

And here we are at the Joy Burger Bar, let Cheeseburger Saturday Night begin. Would someone please sound the trumpets? Oh, the horn section called in sick tonight. Sorry.

I decided to start out with a beer and Frank happily served up an ice-cold Corona.

There's tables in the front area of the burger bar.

And there's stools over here with a window's view of the neighborhood available as you eat.

But I chose to sit up at the bar, close to where the action is.

Here's Frank and his front-line crew, making the burger magic happen.

Lots of action is going on here. He's taking a bowl of freshly cut fries...

And turning them into individual orders.

These two heard me telling Frank about my blog and came up to say hello. From left: Hisham and Moa, nice to meet you, guys!

Here's a vintage Heinz Ketchup ad on the wall. I'm guessing Kari will like this.

Here's the beers available at Joy Burger Bar. Hey, what's that card in the holder?

Huh, how'd that get there? Golly-gee willickers.

Condiments!

I'm starvin' like Marvin over here. I hope that's my burger being fried.

Ask and ye shall receive! Here's my burger, I got cheddar cheese with chimichuri sauce.

It's one tasty burger!

After my dinner I met Trey and Jonathan who were waiting for burgers.

They have a Travis Bickle painting in the bathroom. You talking to me? I'm the only one here.

Okay, time to hit the road. Over and out. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Review
Joy Burger Bar is a comfortable and casual burger restaurant in East Harlem.There’s tables up front, stools at a window bar overlooking 101st Street and a small bar in the back near the kitchen and grill. You place your order and pay at the register here and you’re called when your order is ready. The staff are friendly and efficient and happy to explain any questions about burger options or anything else on the menu. The decor is vintage Coca Cola and Heinz ketchup art on the walls and a giant menu hangs over the grill. There’s piles of paper menus as well, if you’d like to get a drink and study them at your table or stool.

There’s a couple things that make Joy’s Burger Bar unique. One is they offer ten different kind of sauces to top your burger with at no extra charge. The second is that the burgers come in three sizes. The Munch is a three ounce burger, The Midi is five ounces and The Maxi weighs in at 8 ounces (save your Kotex jokes, fork in the road beat you to it, see “further reading,” below.) Some of the sauces available include: garlic mayo, bbq, chimichuri, pesto, sweet chili and spicy mango chutney. The fries are hand cut and the onion rings are as big as Rosie O’Donnell’s head.

There’s five beers available as well as shakes, smoothies and fresh lemonade. Happy, happy, joy, joy, burger, burger, burger!

Joy Burger Bar
1567 Lexington Avenue (Between 100th and 101st)
212-289-6222

Further reading: NY Times, fork in the road and 89th and Broke.

Nightcap

I'm a man of means by no means,
King of the road.

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