In the course of planning our upcoming Meat Issue — oh, don’t even pretend to be surprised — we had a little planning sesh at the massive new Bill’s Bar & Burger that opened at 6 West 51st Street in Rockefeller late last fall. The place has a wall of TVs, a page-long list of craft beers including a nicely bitter number brewed specially for them by Sixpoint Craft Ales, and more importantly can — and does, daily — seats 400 people at one time. Here’s what we learned, other than the fact the sliders served only at Rock Center, are awesome — though food writer Josh already told us that, right here in this video. That is that we really enjoyed, for what may be for the first time in our lives (other than some drunken late night barbecue where post-sunset pickins were slim) our patty unadorned with lettuce and tomato and onion, or even mustard, or ketchup, or even mayo. In fact, a few pickles was all that graced the “classic” burger we devoured, and that was all we needed. Incredible meat, courtesy Pat LaFrieda’s famous beefy blend, a super-soft, grease-soaked sesame-seed topped bun, those pickles, and that’s it. Or “c’est tout!,” as the French tourists no doubt exclaim after they head into Bill’s to check out a damn fine specimen of un hamburguer Americain.
