Burger Birthday Time

No, not my birthday. Mark's birthday. Poor duck, his birthday landed on a Tuesday (yesterday). Not much to be done about that, but to make matters worse, it rained too. It was almost as bad, but not quite as bad as when we went to Philadelphia for his birthday two years ago. It was not only a Sunday, but it was pouring too, and we spent most of the day on the Chinatown bus (for all you non New Yorkers, the Chinatown bus is a insanely cheap bus that takes you to Philly, Boston, and DC, driven by people who speak no English but scream at you in Chinese anyway). On that bus we dropped two dudes off at a Bob Evans Restaurant, picked up a flat screen TV from someone's house, as well as a bed frame from entirely different house. A two and half hour bus trip ended up being six hours. Needless to say, it was a very unhappy birthday.

Despite the rain, we decided to give it a good go and keep it Brooklyn local. We decided to venture to Fort Greene to the cutest possible place to have the best burger of your life, Cafe Lafayette.

We first discovered this place, when we first moved to New York. Not knowing anyone and not knowing anything aside from what we saw in the movies and TV, we made it our business to explore a different neighborhood every weekend and to try the local cuisine. I actually ran around on these trips with my Time Out New York travel guide. I was a big nerd about it and it was a lot of fun. I should really try to take the time to do it again, because the thing about New York is that it is always changing. I had to check to make sure Cafe Lafayette was even open. Luckily for us it was and, even better, the night's special was a free glass of wine or beer with every entree. We classed it up and did the wine and started with the Mezze Plate which included hummus, a spicy red pepper spread, tabbouleh, and falafel. It was so tasty. I was kind of obsessed with the falafel and kind of made my own falafel sandwich with it throwing all the toppings on at once. It was really beyond good and I was such a piggy I was already full before my burger arrived.

Of course even though I knew I was full, I had absolutely no choice but to eat my burger. Look at it? How could I not?

Let me tell you something. I am not a burger fan. I can appreciate other people's love affair with the burger, but I am not one to order it. Like a smoker who never buys a pack, I usually bum a bite from someone else who orders it. I maybe order a burger once or twice a year. When I took a bite out Mark's Cafe Lafayette burger over three years ago though, it made me swoon. It was heavenly. I wanted one all to myself, I'm sure I had a sad salad or something. The burger was the whole point we decided to come there last night although  a very healthy pan-seared salmon called my name. Two burgers, please! 

As you can see, the burger was a monster. The bread was fluffy and the meat cooked medium enough to be cooked through yet still so juicy that its juices soaked through bread creating a soft soaked bread milieu of deliciousness. Combined with the tanginess of goat cheese and sweetness of caramelized onions it was amazingness that required no condiments. I ate about 3/4 of my burger and course Mark was a champ a defeated his entire burger--fries and all. 

There was no room for dessert of course. Stuffed as I was and even though it was not even my birthday, I thought I wanted birthday cake and not only birthday cake, but birthday sheet cake because let's be honest there is no better birthday cake than a  birthday sheet cake. Instead I settled for bourbon drink concoction at the Smoke Joint and yummy little bar and barbecue spot that specilizes in bourbons and whiskeys. We both got a Pumpkin Spice bourbon cocktail and boy was it strong like bull.

Cheers Mark. Happy Birthday my love. At least we weren't on the Chinatown bus! xoxo happy nibbling!