The 15 Best New Burgers of 2015

Lupulo

George Mendes's Flatiron Portuguese restaurant Lupulo serves a lunch and late-night burger featuring a flame-grilled double patty stack that evokes Burger King's Whopper. The meat is cooked on a massive charcoal-powered Grillworks grill, which puts a hellacious sear on the beef and adds a pronounced smokiness to the double patty stack. [Full review.]

835 Ave of the Americas, New York, NY 10001

The Polo Bar

Eater NY Editor Greg Morabito recently described the soon-to-move Union Square Cafe as a "country club restaurant," one that occupies a different, and broader, cultural space than the ones we at Eater tend to obsess over in 2015. I think the same is true of The Polo Bar, a restaurant that might be dismissively thought of as a vanity project, but that actually serves food that is really rather good. Take the cheeseburger. This eight-ounce patty is fabricated from a bespoke beef blend from DeBragga, and it's classically attired with Nueske's bacon, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. The stylish golden domed bun is lavishly studded with sesame seeds. The result is a flavor profile as classic as the Polo label, and it's arguably the best country club burger there is. Membership has its privileges, and also its expenses — it costs $28.

1 E 55th St, New York, NY 10022

Porter House NY

Double patty stacks are apparently "in" this year among NYC chefs (look at George Mendes's Lupulo above and Justin Smillie's Upland below). Michael Lomonaco's Double Stack Burger on the Porter House NY lounge menu ($14, available after 3 p.m.) is one of my personal favorites, and not just of 2015. This is a double stack of the Lomonaco dry-aged blend with American cheese and a superb blend of pickled jalapeño, cornichons, and red onions. It's lovingly embraced in a Martin's potato bun. This one has all the funk and tang of the bigger Porter House burger, by virtue of the beef blend, but adds more crunchy surface area, maximizing the pleasing effects of the Maillard reaction. The velvety blanket of American cheese adds the right amount of creaminess to match the picante heat from the relish.

10 Columbus Cir, New York, NY 10019

Red Hook Lobster Pound

When Red Hook Lobster Pound— widely credited with serving the finest lobster rolls in NYC — reopened as a full fledged restaurant back in April, it did so with a concession to the land lubber by offering a burger on the menu ($15). Featuring a hefty dry aged patty and, inspired by the split top bread of a lobster roll, it is served on a potato bun that has had the crown lopped off before being buttered and griddled. The result is an extra layer of crunch. [Full review.]

284 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn

Rose's Bar & Grill

The burger at Rose's Bar & Grill really lives up to the establishment's moniker: it is cooked over real wood, giving it the appeal of a backyard cook-out in a city where flattop burgers are the norm. The all natural beef is sourced from a farming cooperative in Pennsylvania and features a blend of chuck and brisket that receives a serious charring on the grill. It is topped with gruyere and Hellman's mayonnaise, and slipped between a sesame studded roll from Orwasher's that Rose's chef Jerome Skaggs settled on after trying out a "disgusting amount of buns." The resulting decision was a good one. The bun is sturdy enough to contain the beef and cheese but gets out of the way by being so light and airy, allowing the flavor of the beef with its pronounced smokiness to really shine. $16.

295 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Shake Shack

The Park Burger.

It has been a big year for Shake Shack, what with the reopening of the original location after several months of renovations, the roll-out of numerous new shops around the globe, and of course going public at the beginning of the year. To celebrate the renovations, the Shack debuted the Park Burger exclusively at the Madison Square Park location. It was topped with bacon and a cheddar cheese sauce that melted as well as American. Sadly, it was yanked from the menu in late October, robbing the original Shack of a unique item. Bring it back Danny!

Madison Ave & E.23rd St, New York, NY 10010

Upland

California kid chef Justin Smillie serves up an homage to the Golden State fast food style burger at Upland, replete with special sauce, a double patty stack, and a state flag perched atop. It is what President Obama ordered when he ate there. [Full review.]

345 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10010

Vaucluse

As with La Gamelle, I took umbrage when Vaucluse opened with a burger menu, and at least Palombino attempted a purely French restaurant. But my cultural sensibilities aside, it's pretty hard to argue with the results. The burger uses the dry-aged White Label beef blend developed for Michael White by Pat LaFrieda. It comes as a hefty eight-ounce patty that is grilled, rather than griddled like White's prior efforts, giving it a sweet smokiness that plays well against the funk of the beef. It is topped with fontina cheese, mayonnaise, and whole grain dijon mustard, and served on a house-made pain de mie along with some of the best fries in the city ($24)

100 E 63rd St, New York, NY 10065

Virginia's

East Village hot spot Virginia's recently added a burger to the bar menu and it is actually the first one that Christian Ramos has ever cooked professionally. It's an impressive effort, but I suppose that is expected considering his fine dining background. Fabricated from a blend of hanger steak and short rib, and larded with fat cap, it comes served under a molten mass of clothbound cheddar and it sits atop caramelized onions cooked in beef fat. Because that isn't unctuous enough, the meat comes with a dollop of bone marrow mayonnaise, and it's nestled in a buttery brioche from She Wolf bakery. The bar-only burger cost $16 and is a limited availability item.

647 E 11th St, New York, NY 10009