Sunday, May 30th, 2010—Bar 140

Day 140—Saturday, May 29th, 2010
Black Iron Burger Shop
It’s Saturday and that can only mean one thing: Cheeseburger Saturday Night! On most Saturday’s here I go to a bar and get a cheeseburger and chill out a little bit. Today while googling bars and cheeseburgers I found this place, The Black Iron Burger Shop. Now any place that puts the word “burger” in the actual title of their joint is a pretty bold move, so let’s go and see if their burger lives up to their name.

And tonight we have two special guest stars appearing in the bar crawl. Tim and Colleen Carey are in town from Peoria, Illinois celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and tonight I’m thrilled to have them as special guest crawlers (they will probably be guest crawling the next couple of nights, stay tuned.) Tim’s family has a pizza business in Peoria and they produce some of the tastiest pies in the world. They are available in stores and a lot of bars in the area serve them up as well. You can also order them online. Check out Butch’s Pizza here and dig the pig: Butch’s Premium Pizza.

And before I begin the bar crawl, I’d like to send out a special bar crawl toast to my Baltimore Bar Crawling buddy, Gene Rubbico. Gene’s deployed in Afghansitan and I wish him lots of safety and a speedy return trip home. He, Smoopy and Terry will be back here on the bar crawl in October and I look forward to that. Be safe, Gene and good luck, my friend!

Tim and Colleen are staying at the New Yorker hotel. As usual, I'm early, so I'll mill about on the street for awhile.

If you're looking at this shot, Steve Jobs, the donation button is over there at the top right.

Okay, here we are at Tim and Colleen's room.

And here they are in their room, tonight's special guest stars, Tim and Colleen! Woo hoo!

And here I proudly accept the new, official bar crawling, Butch's Pizza pen! It smells like pepperoni and I love it! Thanks, Tim!

Okay, we're at Penn Station taking the train to the East Village.

And here's our train. All aboard.

And after a bit of a walk (okay, I got us a little lost, I'm directionally-challenged), here we are at the Black Iron Burger Shop. And not a moment too soon, I'm starvin' like Marvin over here.

The bar is crowded, but this nice couple moved down so we could sit at the bar and do the crawl proper-like.

Scott's the bartender and manager here and he was friendly and knowledgeable about the craft beers and burgers and was more than happy in assisting us in ordering from the menu.

And here we are, a trio of hooligans out on the town.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, could this be the greatest cheeseburger on the crawl?

I leave Tim and Colleen to crawl around the bar and meet some of the other patrons.

Peter, Milan and Jeremy were enjoying burgers in the corner of the bar.

Here's Becky flashing the 365 card. Becky's one of the cute waitresses who serves up the tasty delights in here.

Ketchup!

This quartet had already enjoyed their food and were having some beer for dessert. From left: Sonja, Lester, Chelsea and Michael.

And here's chef Favian preparing the food. Hey, I need to get back to the bar to see if my cheeseburger is there.

And here it is all of it's cheesy gloriousness. I had the Black and Blue burger with grilled onions. It looks delicious.

It's one of the best burgers I've had on the bar crawl!

And Tim and Colleen agree.

And here's the man who cooked up our tasty dinner, Favian pictured with Hillary who's the other cute waitress in the bar.

The cheeseburger was so good, we got a couple bags to go. Goodnight everybody!

Review
Black Iron Burger is a cozy and friendly burger bar. Even though the bar is just over a year old it has old school wrought iron and wooden ambience with a mirrored back wall that has the entire menu and craft beers for your perusal. The bar seats just over a half a dozen and there's comfortable wooden tables and stools lining the walls and small back room. The griddle is located right next to the bar, so you can see the burgers as they’re being prepared. The staff is friendly and the patrons are mainly locals from the East Village neighborhood.

There’s a full bar and the beer on tap is craft beer. If you’re not a craft beer aficionado, the bartender and staff are happy to help you with your choice. The name of the joint is Black Iron Burger Shop, so the emphasis is on the burger and they offer up eight varieties including: The Black & Blue Burger which has blue cheese and Cajun seasoning; The Iron Horse which is a double patty with horseradish cheddar & grilled onions and the Black Jack Burger which is built with Monterey jack cheese, chili and jalapenos. I had the Black and Blue Burger and it was one of the best Saturday Night Cheeseburgers I’ve inhaled on the bar crawl so far. I highly recommend it.

In addition to the cheeseburgers there’s specialty appetizers and sides including: Fried Pickled Tomatoes, Chicken Wings, Onion Rings and the milk shakes are rumored to be superb. I wouldn’t know, I knocked back come of the excellent craft beer during my visit. Check out Black Iron Burger Shop, a real contender in New York’s cheeseburger wars.

Black Iron Burger Shop
540 E. 5th St. (Near Avenue B)
212-677-6067