<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=17Zt90_1GblDJg800" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=17Zt90_1GblDJg800" width="1800" height="1200" ><figcaption>The White Burger at Lions Den with dainty cup of fries, ketchup, and pepper-coated pickle. Brian Reinhart</figcaption></figure>It’s called the White Burger. The name is not a literal description but a multivalent pun, referring to the “white label” custom blend of beef cuts used, the slice of white American cheese, and the chef, Michael White. White has been serving his burger in New York, London, and Washington, D.C. for years now, a casual calling card for a career that also includes Michelin stars at his past restaurants Marea and Ai Fiori. Both remain open, but White left in 2021 to consult on restaurants in New York, Miami, the Bahamas, and now Dallas.Lions Den is a hideaway Italian restaurant in the back of the Stoneleigh Hotel, with wallpapered ceilings, comfortable banquettes, discreet service, and no apostrophe in its name. At night, it serves veal chops, Dover sole, crab bucatini, and oxtail agnolotti. At lunch, it has the $31 White Burger.Here’s what you get. That custom-blended patty is about as thick as a deck of cards, cooked to a textbook medium with pink running through the center, then blanketed with white American. It’s topped very minimally: just caramelized onions and a Dijon-mayo blend at the time of writing. (In summertime, a bacon mushroom marmalade was the condiment of choice.) The bun gets toasted until genuinely crisp—you’ll feel it between your teeth—in contrast to the soft umami pillow of meat, cheese, and onion within. On the side, a pickle has been so thoroughly coated with espelette pepper that it looks like candy. Fries, super-crisp and salted just right, come in a dainty metal cup.This isn’t one of those throw-five-flavors-at-you burgers. It doesn’t need bacon, and it sure has no use for lettuce. It locks in on one ultrasavory frequency of righteous umami beef and cheese, and doesn’t let up.It’s also $31. Yes, it comes with a generous amount of beef. Yes, that beef is wagyu, but the term “wagyu” means less than you think and butchers can get the desired fat content for a burger patty from any breed of cattle. The fries, bun, and caramelized onions speak to a well-trained kitchen brigade, so there is plenty of labor cost on display in the finished burger.But everyone has their own standards of value. Many of this magazine’s readers won’t blink. Good things are worth paying for. Others will see the $31 burger as a sign of impending apocalypse.Whatever your view, I can assure you of two things. First, it is not a total reinvention of the burger genre. It’s not bedazzled with truffles, gold leaf, or caviar, nor is it overengineered with cheffy sauces. If you can find a good $17 burger that scratches the same itch, go for it. Second, however, this is a good burger. Maybe you’ll be in Uptown one lunch hour and you’ll be offered free lunch from a generous friend, or a friend who recently spilled a drink in the back of your car and is harboring feelings of guilt. Times like these call for the White Burger.Full disclosure: Lions Den recognized me and presented me with a bill for $0.01. I left a $39.99 tip, which the restaurant processed. If the restaurant had not allowed me to pay, I would have been ethically barred from writing about the meal. I’m glad they did, and I imagine my server is glad, too.Lions Den, 2927 Maple Ave.</div></body>

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It’s called the White Burger. The name is not a literal description but a multivalent pun, referring to the “white label” custom blend of beef cuts used, the slice of white American cheese, and the chef, Michael White. White has been serving his burger in New York, London, and Washington, D.C. for years now, a casual calling card for a career that also includes Michelin stars at his past restaurants Marea and Ai Fiori. Both remain open, but White left in 2021 to consult on restaurants in New York, Miami, the Bahamas, and now Dallas.

Taste Test: Uptown’s $31 Burger

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It’s called the White Burger. The name is not a literal description but a multivalent pun, referring to the “white label” custom blend of beef cuts used, t

Taste Test: Uptown’s $31 Burger

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