Original Brooklyn Pie Co.

Original Brooklyn Pie Co.

8127 Mesa Dr.  B-202

Austin, TX 78759

I was out one day wandering, which I tend to do in my car, when I say this near a burger place that I intend to review sometime in the future.  It's in a strip mall, which isn't always great, but you never know, so in I went.

It's a small restaurant, not pretentious, but not bad, very casual.  I arrived after 1pm and they were doing a steady business without being full.  They have wireless, but they also have a network key that is 26 characters long.  That seemed a bit much and the waiter had to bring it to me on a piece of paper.

I ordered a slice, but it was a really big slice, about 1/4 of a large pizza.  With one topping, a drink and tax it came out to $7.08.  How do I say this without making it sound like I thought it was too expensive?  I don't consider that a budget price, but it was okay.  It was less than a most places for a sandwich, chips and a drink.

I chose Italian Sausage for my topping, but it turned out to be sweet, and I really prefer hot.  I could have gotten pepperoni and saved nearly a dollar, but I think that was the deal of the day.  It's a thin crispy crust, with plenty of toppings, but do yourself a favor and grab a knife and fork.  You may not want to eat your pizza that way, but it would take the skills of a native New Yorker to fold that giant slice.  The crust is foldable in the best New York tradition.

Actually, I should point out that I have never been to New York, and I don't know any New Yorkers, so I do not really know what a New York pizza should be like, and I have never eaten one that I could verify was authentic New York pizza.  Everything I know comes from TV.  Based on that information, this seems pretty authentic to the New York pizza tradition....but, I don't know for sure.

The pizza was very hot when brought to my table and it was very good.  It wasn't a drippy pizza, all the parts of the pizza could be tasted, nothing got lost in the mix.

The Original Brooklyn Pie Co. is a little out of the way, up on Mesa Dr.  It seems more like a neighborhood pizza place, which may fit very well with the New York tradition.  I cannot say that I would drive out of my way if I were hungry for pizza, at least not just to get to the Original Brooklyn Pie Co., but it is good, and if you want a place with a nice, casual, neighborhood feel, and good pizza, you could do much worse than the Original Brooklyn Pie Co.
 

Bread, the Missing Element

If you do a tour of American Sandwich Shops and Burger Joints, you could easily come to the conclusion that the only reason for bread is so that you do not have to handle the meat and cheese with your fingers.  Rather than being an important part of the sandwich, they seem to have become little more than the delivery system.

Burger Joints were probably the first purveyor of this tragedy.  Of course, that might be because most of the big burger chains got their start in the 1950s, when Wonder Bread was king.  Wonder Bread, and most buns seem to be mostly flour and air.  They have no body, or true texture.  They add nothing to a sandwich, except something to grab it by.  Very occasionally, you will see somebody try putting a burger on better bread, but the big chains never get the message, and so none of them are any different from the rest.

Some get the idea, like Schlotzkys,  Their sourdough roll is a joy, it has bite and flavor.  I sometimes wish that I could just buy the rolls, and it is even better as a pizza dough.  I keep wondering why no one has stolen that idea.

Some don't get the idea, but they try.  Subway offers a selection of breads, but no matter what you order, you are getting Wonder Bread with flavors added.  It tastes good, but there is no body, no bite, nothing to chew.  It's a little sad really.

Even good sandwich shops can suffer from this problem.  They take the time to find the best meats, and good cheeses.  They procure good, flavorful condiments, and then when it comes to bread, they seem to think any old thing will do.  Even when the bread isn't bad, like at Jimmy Johns, it isn't really good either.  I will take Jimmy Johns over Subway any day, because they are a little better at each and ever aspect of the sandwich, but not enough to make me go out of my way.

So, to all you sandwich makers out there, give a little more thought to your bread.  I have some ideas too. 

Pretzel Buns might be nice, but remember to get a really chewy pretzel dough if you are going that direction.

How about a Rye Bun?  I think this would be phenomenal with a good Hot Dog.

Bagels anyone?  They are already round, just like your hamburger buns.  I would suggest a bagel on the lighter end of the spectrum.

Ciabatta's been used, but it would be better than Wonder Bread...much better.

So, be creative, make your sandwich something unique.  Don't follow the present trend of putting meat and cheese between two pieces of cardboard and hoping people don't notice.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Hatcreek Burger Co.

Hatcreek Burger Co.

5400 Burnet Rd.

Austin, TX  78756

I've been doing the Great Austin Burger Hunt for a while now, and to be honest, I have been pretty disappointed.  You may have seen my ranking of the first ten, but so far I have really found a burger that wowed me.  I've had some good burgers and some a little better than that, but nothing that I would call great.  I don't know if I think this one is great, but it did give me a wow.

I ordered the Big Hat Burger with two patties, and cheese.  I did my usual and had them leave off the onions, pickles and tomatoes, and then I went and sat down.  Like Whataburger, they will bring you your burger when it is ready, only instead of giving you a number, they ask for your name.

My burger came quickly with a big tied bag of fries.  I took one bite and....WOW! and definitely a good wow.  Just about the first thing I noticed was the cheese.  Now, that is a surprise most of the time.  Usually, it is hard to tell a cheeseburger from a hamburger.  There was nothing really special about the cheese, it seemed to be cheapo American Cheese, just like you get most other places.  I cannot really say exactly why the cheese was so noticeable.  I don't think there was more than you get elsewhere, and it wasn't special cheese, but it really stood out.  I think they did a better job of getting it melted, but I just cannot say for sure.

The meat certainly did its part.  It was spiced differently, but it was good.  This was something else that Hatcreek did better than other burger joints, and yet I cannot say exactly what it was.  The meat really tasted good, and the burger was juicy without being too messy.

They use Iceberg lettuce, but in whole leaves.  One critique is that they use all of the leaf down to the big thick woody part of the base of the leaf, which is a less than wonderful experience.  Which leaves only the bun, and here is where they let me down.  When are American sandwich shops, and especially burger joints going to learn that the bread needs to more than something to separate your fingers from the meat.  Nothing wrong with the bun, just nothing really right about it either, so while they get a very high score, it isn't a perfect ten because of lackluster buns.

So, on to the fries, which were plentiful.  They were well cooked, in fact a little too well cooked in my opinion.  They looked pretty awful, and I was expecting them to be rather greasy and lifeless.  Well, I was wrong, they were crunchy and quite tasty.  They were skin-on fries, which I don't mind, except that it looked like about 2/3rds of my fries came from the outside of the potato, and most had one long side that was skin.  I don't mind potato skins, but this was a bit much.  I expect my skin-on fries to have a ratio of one-side skin-on fries and end skin-on fries to be about equal to a large potato.  This looked more like they gave the center of the potato to someone else and gave me all the ones around the outside.  They also had good legs.

So, I would have to put Hatcreek Burger Co. right at the top of my burger list so far, but there is still room to improve.