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A hole-y burger

After looking back on my old columns, I noticed that my reviews and recommendations are almost exclusively in places like Chelsea, Chinatown, and Battery Park – essentially hot neighborhoods in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. This made me realize how many things I appreciate about Uptown and the outer boroughs and how I was doing exactly what I dislike others doing – giving these areas disproportionate attention. This week, I’m going to show some love to a burger place in the Upper East Side: Jackson Hole.

First things first – location. Jackson Hole is on 64th St between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. This makes it a relatively convenient place to have dinner after a good night by the East River or in Central Park. (Pokemon Go players, I’m looking at you.)  It’s underground and has a pretty small entrance, so you have to look rather carefully for the entrance. Once you get inside the restaurant, you’ll be surrounded by old-looking Americana-type signs, which is exactly my taste. Also unless you go there at a really good time, you’ll notice that it’s crowded. There isn’t much space between the tables – many of which are full – and the staff is clearly always busy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as these two things are characteristics of many good restaurants in the city, but they can be frustrating at times.

Time to talk about the actual food! I’ve known this place for about 4 years, and my friends and I have always had an allegiance to, what we call, the “Heart Attack Burger” – a bacon cheeseburger with fried onions and mushrooms. After my first order of this burger came, I realized that we could only call it the Heart Attack burger at Jackson Hole because of how thick their burgers are. The burgers weren’t particularly large radially,  but they seriously require two hands to handle due to their thickness. The quality of your burger will obviously depend on how you order it, but Jackson Hole gets fairly close to the juicy sweet spot that I want with my medium-rare order. The steak fries that come with the burger are absolutely on point, fantastic, 5/5. I have yet to order onion rings from them since their fries are so good.

Although I’ve always ordered burgers, the food that Jackson Hole is known for isn’t just the burgers, it’s the food that’s not on the menu. For the health-conscious, they have salads and vegetarian options. Additionally, there are sandwiches, panini, and south of the border food. I don’t recall ever being hungry after having a Jackson Hole burger, but they do have dessert and coffee on the menu as well.

In terms of drinks, they have a generic, yet extensive, selection of sodas, milkshakes, egg creams and lemonades, but my 21+ year old readers will be disappointed to know that I’ve never seen someone order alcohol there.

I’m told that there are other Jackson Holes in Queens and Murray Hill, but I can only guarantee that this piece will be accurate to the Upper East Side one. Jackson Hole does do take-out and delivery, but they won’t deliver across the Lincoln Tunnel. (Sorry.) They’re open until midnight, so they should be open to end a good time in the city. Prices are slightly above average but not wallet-breaking; I usually pay roughly $12 for a burger. Overall, I strongly recommend this place to anyone who isn’t allergic to crowded restaurants.

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