Are upscale burgers a sign of the apocalypse?
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Doubt it, but the article is sad. I know things change, but this seems like a negative direction to me as a 60 year resident of the Bay Area.
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You’ve obviously never been to Zurich, Switzerland… 
I remember eating 30 dollar burgers there even 6 years ago, in just an ordinary joint (in Seefeld though).
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I don’t think $30 for a burger in an upscale Bay Area restaurant is all that out of line (given the fact that I have seen burgers at $19 in Sac, Folsom upscales).
But by the look of it, I think I’d prefer a Double-Double with grilled onions, a Superstar, or a Wendy’s double for a fraction of the price.
I invested a lot of time grinding my own from short rib, sirloin, and chuck… and if you want a half pound medium-rare burger I guess that is best… but give me supermarket 80/20, heavily seasoned with two 3oz patties smashed fried/charred, both covered with deli american slices on a butter fried bun, with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mayo, ketchup, (sometimes chili) and the results are stunning!
Another fav is teriyaki, pineapple, pepperjack, caramelized onions, lettuce, mayo.
Given that there is no longer a single spot within ten miles of where I live that can do a decent burger, I don’t go out for them anymore.
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Burger prices other then the fast food chains are running around $15 w/ fries & lettuce & tomato all across the U.S. Every time someone puts up a restaurant link here I’ll look at it & the prices and burgers are always on my radar. (annoyingly more & more prices are being left off of menus.) Our fav local pub (Rosie’s) has gone way pricey imo at $19 w/ chips-- fries is a $2 upgrade. It’s a good even excellent burger but not worth that much.
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It seems like it was cromulent, if not any more than that. That patty looks too compact and overworked. I have questions about the bread to meat ratio. Ciabatta can often be a little too chewy for a burger, as well. Fries look well executed.
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Eh, I don’t think it symbolizes much other than there’s some really rich people in SF who are willing to pay $30 for a burger. Coming from NYC, I don’t feel the spirit of the city changed all that much when Minetta Tavern launched its crazily priced (at the time) burger, in the sense that yeah, part of NYC obviously went really upscale from there on out but much of it retained its more humble roots that I continue to love to this day.
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It’s an $18 burger plus $2 for every extra staff member standing around waiting to fawn over you.
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On my bucket list louis’ Lunch . The original burger sandwich…
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$30 a burger isn’t very outrageous when you have $5000 burger in Vegas.
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The picture shows a bizarrely shaped burger, under-ripe tomatoes, and a too small serving of fries. Of course, there are no truffles in truffle fries (unless it’s $100 per serving) so they had to have used the abominable artificial trufflish chemical that passes for truffle flavor (not!). Another proof that some people have too much money and too little taste, surrounded by other people eager to correct the first problem.
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Although I’ve never been to San Francisco, I can tell that the burgers there are incredible. However, you should also taste our burger at Saros Bar & Dining in Victoria, Australia’s Moonee Ponds. You love that, we bet.
My French Onion soup, a small salad and small chocolate mousse in Geneva came to $60 in 2015. Same meal must cost closer to $100 by now. In terms of what you get for what you pay, Stockholm and Geneva have been the most expensive cities I’ve visited. I stayed with family in Zurich , and we are at home, so I didn’t have to pay for meals out while I was there.
The $30 fancy burgers in North American big cities have been going on for a long time! I haven’t paid more than around $25 myself, mostly because I don’t tend choose upscale burgers when I travel.
My favourite upscale restaurant burger in my midsized Canadian city is running around $25.
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A fast food burger meal (fries and drink) in west central Florida will set you back $10 more or less.
A burger at the local beach dive will be $15-18. With fries but no drink.
Doesnt surprise me at all that some self important place that thinks its some kind of burger mecca would slap a $30 price tag on their halfassed plate.
At least it serves to bait the influencers away from the actually good food.
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Just to clarify my point as a long-time Bay Area person. It’s not the price of the burger that I think is sad. There are plenty of overpriced restaurants around here. What I think is sad is that Restoration Hardware has one of their huge pretentious stores in one of the last old-school San Francisco neighborhoods - Dogpatch. Restoration Hardware, now “RH”, started out as an interesting quirky store that carried all kids of fun weird stuff. Now it’s morphed into a monochromatic collection of bulky upscale furniture. Dogpatch used to be a rough-around-the-edges neighborhood that exemplified the interesting quirky city that used to be San Francisco. The transformation of San Francisco is a shame, I think. I’m not against change per se, but, as I said before, I think this kind of change goes in the wrong direction.
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One of my fav beach dive’s (when I lived in So. CA) was The Shack in Playa Del Rey. A “Shack Burger” was always ordered, which comes with all the fixin’s, topped with a Louisiana Sausage Link… Yum!
After 50 years, they’re STILL there… and twelve bucks for it with cheese and fries. Good for them! And highly recommended for any of you in the west L.A. area.
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How much did Hippo Hamburgers cost? That was my first fancy burger.
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SFGate had an article about Dogpatch today. One of the "coolest [neighborhoods] in the world?
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“Cool” in this context usually means chic and expensive. Businesses like RH follow the money. And Dogpatch hasn’t been cheap or run-down in many years.
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