Blue 9 Burger: A clean and affordable cheeseburger in NYC.
My daughter goes to art school in New York City, so I travel to the Big Apple regularly. People assume that my visits to New York include great restaurants, but let me set them straight: Mostly, I help my daughter move, visit her grandmother, and buy groceries at Fairway in Red Hook. Occasionally, I get to eat at lovely restaurants. Mostly, I eat burgers.
On a visit earlier this summer, I had the best burger of the past few years at Five Leaves in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Last weekend, I downsized a bit, squeezing in a stop at a Blue 9 Burger location in Midtown Manhattan, a frequent stop for the college kids because $8 buys you a drink, fries and cheeseburger that tastes a little like a Big Mac, only better. (They make their own Thousand Island sauce.) There are other locations, including restaurants in Union Square and the East Village.
Since it’s difficult to know where to eat in NYC when you’re on a budget, remember this: If you see a Blue 9 Burger and you’re hungry, drop in. The chain bills itself as fast food made from scratch. That means the potatoes are peeled and diced in-store, and the shakes are handmade. Anna and Ally love the cheese fries, but they are too much for me.
There also are many shake choices (pistachio, mint chip, peanut butter and coffee), but I went with strawberry. It was so authentic I tasted bits of fresh strawberries slipping through the straw.
In addition to shakes, the restaurants sell smoothies (cherry berry and mangolicious!) and fresh juice combos such as apple, beet and ginger and carrot, orange and lemon. And, since it’s New York, there are many other beverage choices: Pellegrino, Muscle Milk, Smart Water and Yoohoo.
