Let's go get a burger... Not

The other day I was walking through Greenwich Village with a friend of mine and he wanted to go get a burger for lunch, he walked up to by Chloe and I silently giggled to myself. This place is so cleverly... disguised, I'll say, as a place that looks like it's serving hamburgers. I'm certain many carnivores have waltzed right into this place thinking they are going to get their meat fix...

He asked what I was laughing about and I let him know that he wasn't going to get a hamburger here, its a vegetarian restaurant. Actually, go a step further, its a vegan restaurant. Meaning, it's all plant based food.

No meat, no dairy, ergo, no cheeseburgers to be found here. As this place ALWAYS has a line out the door, rain or shine, we decided to take advantage of the unusually small line and go for it. Knowing that I was entering a plant based restaurant, I succumbed to the fact this meal would be without Diet Coke. I'm pretty sure I sound like an addict here, it's ok, judge me, I do everyday.

I ordered the classic burger and to be honest, the description got on my nerves. Tempeh just sounds like an obnoxious ingredient. I imagine tempeh is like the "cross-fit" of ingredients, it's always announcing all the glories that is in tempeh to all the other ingredients. It gets even more obnoxious.... the burger's description is a "tempeh-lentil-chia-walnut patty". As a pretty dedicated meat eater, reading this makes me want to smack someone in the face with the afore mentioned patty.

It comes with pickles, onion, beet ketchup and special sauce on a potato bun. All good things, but the beet ketchup sounded very suspect. The familiar words "special sauce" was the one redeeming quality for this burger for me. It was followed with that horribly annoying GF mark letting the world know it's gluten free. Great. I just happen to not only tolerate gluten, I enjoy gluten. If I could, I would inject gluten free items with street grade gluten.

Like a boss.

I also ordered the "air baked" french fries, which sounded like the saddest kind of fires I've ever heard of. I got the seasonal peach lemonade to rinse down all this GF food.

We managed to find a table, which is pretty amazing, as this place is always crowded, even when it's not crowded.

I looked around at everyone and what they were eating. For New Yorkers to wait in any line, says a lot. For New Yorkers to wait in line for food, says even more, this city is full of some pretty delicious food. For New Yorkers to wait in line for plant based food that is so good for you and the planet, there are nothing short of miracles going on in here, say's a great deal.

So much more often than not, whenever there have been attempts to disguise healthy, sustainable food, into that wonderful world of naughty food that we all know we shouldn't eat, but do anyway, is usually a screaming reminder that it's healthy and leaves, oh so much to be desired.

This place has gotten so much press from so many various outlets, I've often wondered if it's a fad and it's just one of those places that people want to go eat at, just to say they ate there.

I am here to tell you, I loved every bite. The consistency of the tempeh burger was seriously perfect. It was juicy and so damn yummy. Taking a bite out of this burger was beyond satisfying, it was glorious. My god, I'm talking about GF plant based food here.

The lettuce, onion and pickles were so fresh, giving that perfect crunch you want from a back-yard BBQ burger. The beet ketchup and secret sauce, lent that wonderful "messiness" you get from a really naughty burger. The messier the burger, the better it tastes, thats just science.

The air baked fries were so good it got annoying. Anything that should usually be fried and isn't, has a lot to live up too.... and they do. Oh sweet love of Buddha they really, really do. They serve it with sides of the beet ketchup and secret sauce for all the dipping you need while eating fries.

Bite after bite, I was feeling that feeling you get when you are eating something so indulgent, my god, my god, my god, it's so good! I don't want it to end! But it's even better here, so much less, next to no guilt. No self loathing, no self hate for being weak for eating such naughty food. It's really a whole new way to enjoy food and I will be back. A lot. They will know me there....