Saturday Night Cheeseburger At Fraunces Tavern

Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night Cheeseburger! Starring Fraunces Tavern with a special appearance by BBC member Gene Rubbico and featuring the Ready for Prime Beef Player, Marty Wombacher. And now, please welcome our host, Fraunces Tavern!

Gene's coming over shortly, so I thought I'd prepare one of my patented, special snack mixes for an appetizer before we head out. I've gotten four bags of snacks and a can of Easy/Sleazy Cheese for the mix.

And here's my snackologist certified mixing bowl to begin the preparation.

I'm starting with a base of the Brooklyn Flatbreads.

Now I start adding the other chips and pretzels, carefully pruning and shaping the mix. I've warned about this before, but if you're not a certified snackologist, like myself, please don't attempt this at home!

Four hours later the mix is ready for consumption and my buzzer is ringing. Must be Gene, perfect timing!

And here he is, BBC member Gene Rubbico, holding the sleazy cheese and a copy of Chris Erikson's new CD that he won by being the first commenter at this post.

Okay, after a few beers and snacks, it's time to catch a downtown train to the financial district.

It can be a little confusing down here, but luckily Gene has an actual GPS and instead of me walking around in circles for about two hours...

Here we are at the Fraunces Tavern and Museum. This is the oldest standing building in New York and it's where George Washington gave his farewell speech to his Lieutenants back in 1783. The museum is closed, but the restaurant and tavern are still open.

So let's get inside and get Saturday Night Cheeseburger underway!

Here's the restaurant.

It's nice in here with candle lit wooden communal tables.

Here's a painting of Georgey Boy himself.

The restaurant looked nice, but I think this is more suited to our needs.

It's a nice dark bar in here and kind of crowded, but Gene and I managed to get two seats at the bar.

The bartender was super busy, so I didn't get a chance to get his name, but I did get a shot of him in action.

Gene got a Magners and here it is resting at the bar.

Here's some of the other beers on tap.

Love these lit-up bottles behind the bar.

A shot of the wooden bar from the far end.

Comfortable fur banquettes and wooden tables to relax at are opposite of the bar.

Some of the whiskey flights that are available at the bar.

And when I get back to the bar, tonight's meal is waiting for me. I love it when that happens! Gene and I each got the slider sampler which consisted of a chicken salad slider, a mini cheeseburger and a crab cake slider.

They were really good, although I was a little disappointed in the cheeseburger slider. It was a little dry and didn't have much taste. The other two were much better, in my humble opinion.

After a beer for dessert, a quick glance out the window...

And I'm headed home as Gene continues to bar crawl. He's trying to hit 1,897 bars tonight and I hope he hit his goal!

My Meal
Gene and I both got the slider sampler and it was the perfect amount of food that didn’t leave you with that stuffed feeling. I really liked the crab cake and the chicken salad sliders, they were both very tasty, especially the crab cake. It was crispy on the outside and filled with soft and somewhat spicy crab meat inside. The cheeseburger was a little bland and dry and a bit of a disappointment though. The thing that saved it was the bakery fresh bun, really soft and just a tad on the sweet side.

In addition to the sliders burger they also have a Tavern Burger that comes with French Fries and four choices of cheese to top it off with. Other entrees include: Bangers and Mash with a beer-onion gravy; Pan Seared Salmon,  Fish and Chips and Pork Schnitzel with fried potatoes and wild mushrooms. Some of the appetizers offered are: Irish Cheese Plate with onion marmalade, Smoked Haddock Chowder, a daily selection of oysters and Whiskey Cured Salmon on Toasted Stout Bread.

Cheeseburger Rating
Two Wimpy’s, not the greatest in town, but not that bad either.

Fraunces Tavern
54 Pearl St. (@Broad St.)
212-425-1776

Further Reading: NY Times—City Room, ChowderKids and The Bowery Boys.

I’m hungry for that sweet life baby,
With a real fine girl like you.

Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!

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Bonus Links From JHwang!

TWM commenter, JHwang/Jason sent in these food links for Saturday Night Cheeseburger. The first is this preview of Pizza Hut's heart attack inducing cheeseburger pizza. And the second is this jello portion that he sent in for dessert, it's kind of hypnotizing! Thanks for the links Jason!