[HOT LIST] Burgers

iBurger. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

May is National Burger Month. While summer for some means trying to squeeze their pasty white Midwestern blubber butt into last year's bikini only to find that winter has not been kind to them, some of us (hi) have made (an uneasy) peace with the fact that maybe bikini season stopped for us a few years back, and this summer isn't looking much better. There is a certain freedom in realizing you're not Kate Upton, and with that freedom comes the ability to go on the summer #burgercleanse. (Use that hashtag on Instagram plz; trying to make it a thing.)

Perhaps you'll recall when just last week I noted that Detroit is still very much a meat and potatoes town. That being established, you can go ahead and assume that we know our way around a beef patty.  Now, you know all the old familiars -- the ones that have been written up in national publications, the ones that people will Instagram with words like "yum" and people will comment with "want" and "I love that place!" I'm talking about places like Red Coat Tavern and Miller's. Then there's the burger elite -- which, to just go ahead and reference myself again, I already covered them last week -- Vinsetta Garage, Roast, and burger n00b Monk. Iron Chef Michael Symon is also looking to expand his B Spot Burgers into the metro Detroit market, probably because we are a bunch of fat asses. Bottom line? We know some damn burgers.

For the purposes of making this list manageable, chains and fine(r) dining restaurants that serve burgers have been excluded. This is all bar burgers, diners, and straight burger joints. I've also ruled out sliders (sorry Green Dot) because that is a separate list. Also, I am a burger purist: while I concede the notion that burgers can be all dressed up and fancified for the betterment of burger enjoyment, I prefer to experience my burgers in their natural state -- beef, cheese, bun. Nothing more. All assessments have been made based on purely the plain old burger. (With cheese. Because it HAS to have cheese.)

#1 East Side Tavern Mt. Clemens
There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Marshall spends the entire episode on a quest to find the Manhattan burger that changed his life. A burger of such superior quality, that was so much more than JUST a burger but an experience, that it had become legen-waitforit... in Marshall's mind. A burger so transcendent that no other burger could ever live up to its impossibly high standard. A burger that is almost cultural mythos. The burger at East Side Tavern is that burger. But don't take my word for it. Take my word for it.

#2 The Bronx Bar Detroit
Take a giant burger the size of your head and throw it on a sizzling flat-top grill with all of its other burger friends in plain view of the bar (so close, in fact, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the burgers occasionally get seasoned with Jameson's). Then take a giant ciabatta bun, slather it in butter, and throw it on the grill too. For good measure, add a couple of slices of melty American cheese -- which, and I know I'm going to catch some flack for this, in my own very much experienced burger experience is THE superior cheese for burgers -- and a giant pickle on the side. And there you have the Bronx Bar burger. Simple. Magical. It's the burger you just can't quit.

The Emory. 

#3 The Emory Ferndale
The Emory's burgers are something of a local legend. It just goes to show that the secret to a great burger is all in the beef, and theirs comes from Eastern Market's Fairway Packing. (Note: For those who are not familiar with Fairway, their burgers are consistently the best in the business. Any restaurant that serves them is automatically among the top in town.) The big fluffy buns come from Royal Oak bakery Hermann's. And the best part? A burger and fries will cost you only $5 on Tuesdays, and the Emory also rocks a brutal beer list to go with your beef.

From @eatitdetroit Instagram feed.

#4 Good Burger Dearborn
Dearborn is not lacking for good burgers. People still love the shit out of Miller's. There's also Howell's, which some say has the better bar burger. Moo Cluck Moo just opened in Dearborn Heights and is looking to be a game-changer. But I have seen the future, and in this future gas station food is the new trendy pedestrian blue collar IT food that "foodies" will flock to. And it starts at Good Burger. Located inside a BP gas station on Ford Road just a few blocks off of I-94, Good Burger is perhaps the most efficiently-named restaurant in metro Detroit. Because you will leave saying, "Damn, that WAS a good burger." Everything is made fresh in-house -- condiments are made from scratch, fries and onion rings are hand-cut; grilled-to-order burgers are never frozen and served on either a pretzel roll or brioche bun sourced from local bakeries, and the meat itself is expertly seasoned. I told you my rule about eating burgers plain? With this one you won't even WANT to dilute the flavor with any other frippery. Burgers are served with perfectly-crispy (and made to order) seasoned shoestring fries, and they also deliver.

#5 iBurger Dearborn
It would seem that metro Detroit's REAL cheeseburger paradise is Dearborn. Dearborn is just great. I love Dearborn. Have I told you how much I love Dearborn? Such a cultural mish-mosh and I LOVE that. Black people, white people, Arab people, Mexican people -- if you want diversity, it's all in Dearborn, and it's actually properly integrated instead of the street-by-street segregation you find in other "diverse" cities. Now, with a large population of ethnic Arab Muslims, this also means that you'll find a lot of halal restaurants. They're not all Mediterranean, either. You'll find halal Mexican, halal Italian, halal fried chicken, halal pizza, halal sushi. America! Bless you melting pot, and bless you fatass Midwestern eating habits and cultural assimilation. iBurger is a halal burger joint, and, you know, maybe it's because Muslims don't eat pork and can therefore put ALL of their energy into the beef (even the bacon is beef) instead of being distracted by the temptations of pig parts, but damn this is a tasty burger. Read more about it here. They also serve raw juices and ice cream. Raw juices at a burger joint (and they're not talking about the burgers, though those are plenty juicy too). Don't you just freaking LOVE that?

Bubbling under The Detroiter Bar (Detroit), One-Eyed Betty's (Ferndale), Red Hawk (Ann Arbor), the Avenue Pub (Wayne), Cutter's (Eastern Market), McShane's Pub (Corktown), Rosie O'Grady's (Ferndale), Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger (Ann Arbor), Nemo's (Corktown), Mae's (Pleasant Ridge), Greenwich Pub (Detroit), Sidetrack (Ypsilanti), Clubhouse BFD (Rochester), Jay's Stuffed Burgers (Plymouth), Honest John's (Midtown), Doyle's Tavern (Plymouth), Brownie's on the Lake (St. Clair Shores)

[EID Feature] iBurger: Hamburgers Gone Halal

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

In Dearborn, there are plenty of places to get a good burger. There's Miller's Bar, which Food and Wine just ranked among the top 25 burgers in the country. Then there's Howell's Bar, which anybody whose anybody knows has a better burger than Miller's (some girls just get ALL the attention; what can you do?). The Biergarten also gives gimmicky Miller's a run for its meat. And now, there's iBurger.

iBurger Lounge is the new kid on the block. It opened about a year and a half ago in the West Village Commons. Everything they serve is homemade, organic and halal-certified, in response to the dietary needs of the area's Muslim population. For your reference, a McDonald's restaurant began serving a halal version of its Chicken McNuggets in Dearborn in 2000. Sales were so strong that they expanded the offering to a second Dearborn location, and later to select stores in the U.K. and Australia. When such a significant number of the population requires such specific dietary needs, even the world's largest hamburger fast food chain pays attention, which just begs the question - why did a place like iBurger take so long?

Owners Hassan Aoun and Houssam Aoude decided to open iBurger - a burger joint in a city with an already disproportionate number of burger joints - so that the area's Muslim clientele could enjoy this classic American food too. Manager Mariam notes that, despite the popularity of places like Miller's et.al., the Arabic (specifically Muslim) community did not have something like that for themselves - most of the halal restaurants serve Arabic food, with very little variety.

But iBurger isn't JUST a halal burger joint. They serve gourmet certified Angus beef burgers; a leaner, juicier beef. "This is something new," Mariam says. "We're offering something entirely different to the area." Their burgers are also less wax-paper-and-ketchup and more gouda-and-arugula. They have 15 signature burgers, like the "Pesto" with tomato, onion, fresh mozzarella, homemade pesto dressing and arugula; and the "Boss," made with two half-pound steak patties, cheddar cheese, beef bacon (Islamic law forbids pork consumption), golden onions, tomato and shredded lettuce. The buns are all firm, hearty artisanal buns. The rest of the menu is rounded out with a large selection of salads, wraps, paninis, classic appetizers, and gourmet thin crust pizzas (try the Filet Mignon pizza, a house specialty).

Phase 2 of iBurger Lounge will be opening in September. The restaurant will expand with more seating in a more comfortable, lounge-like atmosphere, and will have a raw juice bar, a full ice cream shop, and will also offer their full menu and homemade desserts.

Because it is a halal restaurant, they do not have a liquor license nor will they apply for one. They are, however, open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. (3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays), so this is a great place to grab a bite to eat after a night out, or just hang out with some friends for a late afternoon lunch on the patio.

Halal [HOT LIST]

Chicken Tikka Pizza from Halal Desi Pizza. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Sunset today marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, and the beginning of Eid, the two-day Muslim holiday following Ramadan. Here in metro Detroit we have an estimated population of over 200,000 Muslims, and we also have the highest concentration of ethnic Arabs outside of the Middle East. To honor our Muslim friends (truth be told, Dearborn is one of our favorite cities in metro Detroit), we bring you this Halal Hot List.

Halal means "lawful," referring to food (and other items) that are permissible in accordance with Islamic law. Islam forbids the consumption of pork, alcohol, carnivorous animals and birds of prey, and blood, as well as any food that may be contaminated by these products. "Halal" also refers to a specific method of slaughtering (the Jewish "kosher" is very similar to the Islamic "halal"). A restaurant that is certified halal will serve none of these outlawed items and will prepare everything in accordance with Islamic law.

There are certified halal restaurants all over metro Detroit, from Dearborn to Garden City, Hamtramck to Sterling Heights. They are Iraqui, Yemeni, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Lebanese (we'll look specifically at these ethnically distinct restaurants in future posts). The five restaurants featured here specialize in five very different kinds of foods. "Halal" doesn't have to mean Middle Eastern or Indian food ... it also means burgers, tacos, pizza, and rotisserie chicken; a little something for all palates (including wholly Midwestern American ones). And to our Muslim friends during this holiday, Assalamu alaikum.

#1 Halal Desi Pizza (Hamtramck)
If you've ever driven down Caniff off of I-75, you've noticed Halal Desi Pizza. It's a box of a building at the corner of Lumpkin and Caniff, covered in signage announcing their pizza, gyros, burgers, chicken wings, Chinese food, and Mexican food. Yes, all of those things. This Bangladeshi establishment serves a variety of popular catch-all American fast food items, and every last one of them is certified halal. The pepperoni for their pizzas is made from beef and they also serve a lot of lamb (their New York-style gyros are a bestseller, and they also have a lamb burger for only $5). But the chicken tikka pizza makes a journey to Hamtramck for pizza alone entirely worthwhile. Chicken tikka (marinated and seasoned tandoori chicken) baked crispy on the edges and bright red with seasoning, along with green peppers and onions on chewy, traditional round crust (do yourself a favor and say "yes" when they ask if you want the crust buttered and sprinkled with parmesan). Alhamdulillah, we love a good melting pot!

#2 Al-Ameer (Dearborn, Dearborn Heights)
We couldn't NOT put a straight-up Middle Eastern restaurant on this list, and this is the most famous of all. At Al-Ameer, you get the full Lebanese-Muslim experience: lamb, lamb, and more lamb; skewered, marinated meats (like lamb; also chicken); and also plenty of light, flavorful vegetarian dishes like fattoush salad, hummous, baba ghanouge, tabbouli, falafel, labneh ... and then lamb. "He don't eat no meat? That's okay. I make lamb." Etc. The baked kebbie is tasty, but the raw kebbie is where it's at. (Hint: it's lamb.) But if you only ever order one thing here, the buttery-tender stuffed lamb with labneh should be it.

#3 Fuego Grill (Dearborn)
There is perhaps no other country on earth that loves pork more than Mexico. Except America. So opening a certified halal Mexican restaurant is certainly not without its challenges. Fuego Grill is the only certified halal Mexican restaurant in the state of Michigan: that means no carnitas, no tacos al pastor, no tripe. But the food here is fresh, all made in-house from scratch, and they do what they can with what they have. They make a chicken-based chorizo with vinegar, cumin, and a dried pepper paste that could easily pass for "the real thing" (and even if not, it's still damn good). They also serve excellent tender, juicy steak dishes (like the braised beef tips).

#4 Zayeqa (Farmington Hills)
It's Chinese food done in Indo-Paki style, the end result of Chinese diaspora into northern India. What this means: it's spicy. It has flavor. There's a lot of curry. And it is better than most other Chinese places you will eat; spare us the almond chicken and egg foo young. The menu is a melding of Hakka, Indian and Pakistani items; we recommend the hakka noodles and every last one of the chicken dishes. But take note: this is legit Indo-Paki food, which means it is H-O-T. If your palate is most comforted by Choose-Your-Meins, this might not be the place for you.

#5 Golden Chicken (Dearborn)
You want chicken? They got chicken. Chicken shawarma, shish tawook, chicken and rice, etc. But if you order anything other than the rotisserie chicken you are doing both yourself and this restaurant a disservice. It would be like going to Roast and ordering a vegetarian dish. You haven't actually experienced this place and are out of your element in all discussions of it. Beautiful, golden, juicy chicken cooking on a spit until it's charred up crispy on the edges; this is what Golden Chicken is about.

Bubbling under Al-Ajami (Dearborn), Byblos Cafe and Grill (Detroit), Al Sultan Restaurant (Garden City), Tawaa Cuisine (Garden City), Najeeb Kabob House (Warren), Sheeba Restaurant (Hamtramck), Aladdin Sweets and Cafe (Hamtramck)