Stand

After a successful trip to the Union Square farmer’s market on a Saturday afternoon, my friend Ariel and I went to Stand for a quick burger. Since the restaurant was completely empty, we were able to choose our seat and decided to sit by the window (so my newly purchased basil plant could get some sun).

Stand has an interesting looking bar on the left hand side (they serve beer, mimosas, bloody mary’s, and other brunch-type drinks). We weren’t in the mood for anything alcoholic since it was barely noon, but wanted to take advantage of the special (burger, fries, and a drink for $12, which is a pretty ridiculous deal). The menu said it was daily from 12-3, but the server informed us that they just changed it to Monday – Friday’s only and they wouldn’t be able to honor the discount even though the menu still had the printing error. BUMMER.

We decided to order cheeseburgers anyway and I ordered the classic:

One interesting thing about Stand – they make their own ketchup (but they also give you Heinz in case you hate their homemade ketchup because it’s too sweet and nothing like the ketchup you grew up on). The classic burger comes with beef, red onion, lettuce, tomato, white cheddar, and fried pickles.

The burger with fries:

And the medium-rareness:

The burger was actually a bit large for me (something I don’t think I’ve ever said about a piece of meat sandwiched between a bun). The beef was seasoned well, the bun was okay (similar to DBGB’s but since there was more meat, the ratio of meat to bun was a little more even), and the only thing I didn’t like was the homemade ketchup that they slathered on the bottom of the bun (I grew up in Pittsburgh so Heinz ketchup and I go waaay back.) The fried pickles were not my thing, either, but I think it’s because they were slightly sweet (and fried) and if something is going to be sweet and fried, it better end up being a delicious doughnut. The fries were a little on the thin side, but I couldn’t even finish those because of the huge milkshake I finished before I got my burger:

The highlight of our meal was definitely the toasted marshmallow milkshake. I blame this milkshake for my inability to finish my burger because I seriously couldn’t put the shake down! The milkshake has the perfect consistency; it’s thick, creamy, and I don’t even like marshmallows that much but I could NOT get enough. If you want to know what happiness tastes like, this might be it. I told Ariel to try it (even though he was hesitant because of the sugar and calories) but he agreed that the shake was ridiculously delicious.

The next time I go back, I’m going to make sure I don’t get any homemade ketchup on my burger AND make sure I go hungry enough that I can finish the toasted marshmallow milkshake, cheeseburger, AND fries.