Gone, but not forgotten
April 2014
Living in Brixton, Honest Burgers have always held a special place in our affections, given their beginnings in their quaintly ramshackle unit in the Village. They were at the forefront of the burger-explosion that took off a few years ago, and we've always found something immensely pleasing about the 'Honest Burger' and its monster big brother, the 'Federation' (although the appeal of that has waned since they actually started listing it, rather than it being an off-menu item and it therefore holding a slight – and probably quite twatty – 'in-the-know' thrill). We like the fact their food represents a very British take on the American classic. And their rosemary-salted, triple-cooked chips are the kind of thing dreams are made of. If you dream about chips. Which we don't. Yet.
But it has to be said, since they have launched a Byron-esque quest to take over London (current count is six branches), they have faced accusations of spreading too far to be able maintain standards. And I was starting to buy into that theory; I had two burgers in a row where the buns were very dry - bordering on stale - and that totally tempered my enjoyment of them. In the early days I found the buns had a tendency to disintegrate under the full-force juice-assault, but if anything that's because they were too soft. These were dry and unpleasant, and I was starting to worry.
But then last month they totally won us back over. Teaming up with London street-food stalwart and hot-sauce hero Mark ‘The Ribman’ Gevaux, they introduced ‘The Ribman Special’. With the possible exception of the ‘Tribute’ (their take on an American cheese burger, which is a lovely, mustardy masterpiece now permanently on the menu in Kings Cross, Notting Hill & Oxford Circus), I've always found the specials to be slightly disappointing when compared to the Honest (try it with stilton – you can thank me later). I'd missed the Christ-on-a-Bike special back in February (one friend's verdict was that it was just ridiculously hot and you couldn't taste anything else. That sauce don't play.), but this one sounded way more exciting: Ribman rib meat, one-off special Honest-to-God BBQ sauce, cheese, pickles & lettuce. Before I first went, one friend (the same guy that introduced me to Tweat Up) described it as “one of the best collaborations of all time.” And when you consider there is an episode of Diagnosis Murder with Quincy in it, that's a big statement.
But he wasn't lying. Holy f*ck (see what we did there), this was good. The smoky flavours of the soft, super-slow cooked pork and the sauce were the perfect accompaniment for Honest’s medium-rare aged beef patties. Every bite was a meaty revelation. Those pigs and cows did not die in vain, they ascended to glory... Hyperbole aside, this is easily the best burger we've had out of Honest. If we were going to change one thing, we would have had the sauce a little hotter – it had a little kick to it when tried on the chips, but that was lost somewhat in amongst the meat and cheese, leaving just the sweet and smoke. But that’s nit-picking. It was still banging.
And having tried it at three different branches over the space of about 10 days, Mr. Eatings can safely say that no buns were dry.
Of course, it’s gone now; the final one was eaten on it’s last day. Thus it came with a minor side of sadness (as well as some awesome onion rings), accompanied by the thought that it may be the last we saw of it. Which is somewhat of a tragedy. Like a good holiday romance, it burned bright, burned briefly, and will live long in the memory.
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| …a dark day |
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