But here it also contains mustard, making it less sweet over all. The menu description - two all beef patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, confit onions, special sauce - sounds strikingly close to the McDonald's Big Mac jingle (excluding those fancy confit onions, of course) but when you are confronted with the towering sandwich, its resemblance to an In-N-Out double double is clear.īeing inspired by California, the burger is suitably appointed with a "special" sauce similar to the classic Russian dressing used as the spread at In-N-Out. Neidich looked to the diners and the drive thrus of the same era, and came up with a double patty, griddle cooked burger that is pure California. But the "Happiest Burger" at the Happiest Hour turns out to evoke a different style. The bar is patterned on the mid-century beach resorts of California and Florida, the sort of places where one presumes a flame grilled burger, tickled by fire and seasoned by the salt in the wind would be the thing. While the bar has an accomplished chef in Thomas Lim, the burger is principally the work of Neidich, who spent close to two months exhaustively researching and developing it. The Happiest Hour is the West Village cocktail lounge from Jon Neidich of Acme and Tijuana Picnic and Jim Kearns, late of Pegu Club and The Nomad Bar. That's great news for Texans, but if a trip to the Lone Star State isn't in the cards for you, there's a better option right here in NYC: The Happiest Hour burger, which manages to combine the best of both places. But late last year in Las Vegas, and this week in Austin, TX and next year in Los Angeles, the two burger titans go head to head for the first time in the same market. The burger chains, from the West and East Coast respectively, have transcended food and become part of the popular cultural dialogue, and recently they've existed in separate universes. Some have circa (19)20s details for days and others would make a dramaturg’s stomach turn, but their semi-hidden entrances, Old New York decor and appearance of exclusivity are almost enough to make us feel like we’re about to light up a Chesterfield, sip some cold clear liquor and–what?–oh, we’ll Venmo you later.In-N-Out Burger and Shake Shack garner similar breathless devotion from their followers. See, just like we wouldn’t take a suborbital flight and call it space travel, we can’t really say we fully comprehend the sights, smells, tastes and heartbeat of erstwhile speakeasies.īut we do go to a lot of bars, and plenty of those are rather convincingly fashioned after speakeasies, but with better booze (fewer errant pest particles), improved air quality (no smoking), and modern conveniences like online reservation platforms, air conditioning and mobile payments to follow up with the moochers in the group. These newcomers aim to approximate Jazz Age style absent its inconvenient trappings. Any place popping up in the interim is simply speakeasy-inspired. Some of those bars, like 21 Club, remained open in various forms for many more years. That’s the year prohibition ended, and once that odd bit of wise legislation managed to pass, in spite of hidden entrances, decoys, and hooch-obscuring levers and pulleys, wowie-zowie, all those gin joints turned into bars! Although last year wrought quite the resurgence, the last of New York City’s real-deal speakeasies ceased operation in 1933.
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