Brindle Room

Over the weekend, Ken and I were in the mood for a burger so we walked to Brindle Room, a bar and restaurant in the East Village. Brindle Room has nightly specials (Saturday is ribeye night) but we were there specifically for the steakhouse burger. The location is right next to my old hair salon, Fox and Jane, on E 10th:

It’s a very small restaurant but they were able to accommodate some large parties (a party of six sat down as we were walking in). They have bar seating, similar to Pearl Oyster Bar, so you don’t have to wait a long time if you’re stilling to sit side by side instead of across from each other. Ken and I decided to get two seats at the bar since we were both hungry and we seated right away.

Ken ordered the steakhouse burger, which comes with pickles and fries:

The burger comes with caramelized onions and your choice of cheese (we went with the chef’s recommendation, American), and also a side of fries. While the meat was really juicy (but not too fatty), the bun was crumbly and couldn’t sustain the caramelized onions, meat juice, or pickle juice. The fries were a bit on the salty side, but I love restaurant fries so I couldn’t complain too much.

A shot of their open kitchen area:

I ordered the penne Bolognese, which came in a very large bowl:

The penne Bolognese was a blend of two different types of meat (pork and veal) and was so rich and delicious that Ken couldn’t stop eating it! I also really enjoyed how rich it was but wanted to save some of it for Sunday lunch (and had to stop Ken from eating it so I’d have enough for a meal!)

After dinner, we were given our check and charged incorrectly (they charged us for a spaghetti that was more than the penne) but luckily I caught it before we paid. The service took a little long (especially to fix the check) but they gave us some doughnut holes after we received our check:

We’d return for the Bolognese but the burger isn’t on my top 5 list simply because the bun couldn’t withstand the grease and juice from the burger accoutrements. It would’ve been better to have used a sturdier bun (maybe a potato bun!) but we enjoyed the pasta and want to try others the next time we visit.