When you’re at Harvard, you have to make smart decisions, and mine was to never again order a cheeseburger with barbecue sauce. I arrived at that decision after eating at Mr. Bartley’s, a venue the Boston Herald describes as “Boston’s best burger, in cheerfully, post-hippie dorm surroundings.” I got into the barbecue sauce-on-cheeseburger habit back in my high school days, ordering the Rojo Burger at Chili’s. I thought it was a classy move, but not everyone agreed, including my prom date. (btw, “Rojo” is the Spanish word for “impossible to get out of Taffeta”).
This place has a fun student vibe, and I kept thinking I’d see Will Hunting sitting in the corner solving word problems.
I was on campus to speak about using comedy in social media to help put a face on the corporation. Below is a short clip of my PowerPoint disaster. And check our this review of Bartley’s from Billy Idol:
Behind a velvet curtain that reaches from the lobby floor up to the ceiling of the swankyLe Parker Meridien Hotel hides one of the best burger joints in Manhattan. And it’s completely unmarked, except for a neon sign of a burger. So I had to save this spot for a special night — when Ian and I went to the Team Coco Tour at Radio City Music Hall.
Complimenting this juicy burger was a glass of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon available in Manhattan in a box.
Here’s one of Ian’s recent productions. My favorite line in here (that Ian wrote on the spot) is “Violate: the color intermediate between red and blue.”
My doctor told me to cut back on dairy and red meat, which in layman’s terms means “write a blog about cheeseburgers.” I’m no food critic, and a pretty simple man in general, so most burgers will score a 10. This purpose of the series is not to offer useful information on where to find the best patty in NYC. It’s to provide a structure for sharing stories about the pursuit of comedy in Gotham, and a justification for the increased dining-out expense. My wife is a former Deloitte accountant, so I get audited every fiscal quarter.
I’ll date back to the New York Comedy Festival to mark the official birth of this series, giving me an excuse to re-post my photo with Ricky Gervais. Before the show, Ian Berger, producer for The Daily Showwith Jon Stewart, and I grabbed dinner at the Redeye Grill. The venue is not on my list, but Ian picked it for proximity as it’s directly across 7th Ave from Carnegie Hall. about a 60 second commute. Or approximately 90 secs in traffic. It was a little on the swanky side for my liking, but the burger was very good.
After a hilarious one-hour set which included an Elmo cameo, we went backstage to give Ricky a few notes on his Noah bit; chatted with the opener Todd Barry, also Janeane Garofalo, then headed off to the afterparty at the Empire Hotel rooftop bar, where they served some amazing Kobe beef mini-burgers that tasted even better than our dinner.
After much internal debate over the burger critique, I decided to give the Redeye Grill a 10.
Redeye Grill
890 Seventh Ave. @ 56th St.
(212) 541-9000
