The Experience: This Burger Adventure has a lot of history. It began in the summer of 2011, shortly after Burger Weekly began. I crashed a friend’s date after running into her in Madison Square Park. The gentleman courting her was a delightful young music producer who excitedly pointed me in the direction of the Ox Cart Tavern, a joint with a great burger near his home. At the time, I felt that Flatbush, specifically Ditmas Park in this case, was too far away to go for a burger when there were so many Manhattan burgers I still needed to try. Well all these years later I’ve long since shed my aversion toward travel for a great burger, so I trekked out to try it.
Unfortunately for me, the Q train wasn’t running in Manhattan that day, and it took me two hours to get there. C’est la vie, so I parked my rear in the adorable restaurant and told myself that as long as the burger was stellar, the trip would have been worth it.
Burger Ordered: The Alamo
The Taste: I was so hungry by the time I got to the restaurant that it would have been hard for me to be disappointed in my first few bites. As the link and image above illustrate, the Alamo comes topped with a fried egg, a huge onion ring, swiss cheese, and barbecue sauce. The hearty bun held up to the heavy elements of this burger, and once I cut it in half I was able to compress the thing enough to take a bite (a feat I thought might prove more difficult). The burger was stellar. The patty was cooked to a lovely pink color and wonderful texture. It was seasoned just right. The egg was flavorful, and the onion ring added a fantastic taste as well as a fun crunch. The barbecue sauce, poured within the onion ring, was far from lost in this sea of flavor.
The Verdict: Manhattanites should definitely brave the nefarious downtown Q train to eat this burger, and anyone living even remotely near Flatbush is doing themselves a disservice if they aren’t making frequent visits to Ox Cart Tavern.
Ox Cart Tavern is located at 1301 Newkirk in Brooklyn, NY.
