burger nirvana

for my birthday this year my brother took me to the secret burger joint near his office in midtown manhattan. actually it's really not so secret; there were about 40 people in line ahead of us waiting to get in, but you do have to go through a hotel lobby to get there and there's no name or sign other than a neon burger with an arrow pointing thataway. inside is truly divey and wonderful -- fake wood paneling, cardboard signs preemptively scolding you for not ordering the right way, ugly light fixtures and a ramones poster in spanish (los ramones: wanted, vivos o muertos!). and the burger was the platonic ideal of what a burger should be. worth every minute of waiting for it.