BXL: Rather Have a Beer

May 22, 2008

Unfortunately, this $15 bacon cheeseburger is not as good as it looks. It’s from BXL, a Belgian bar on 43rd St. b/t 6th & 7th Avenue, and while it looks damn tasty, a lot of credit is due the the perfectly crisp bacon. It’s fire-grilled, though you couldn’t really taste it, and comes on a bready toasted white bun which was ordinary but not an impediment. Life With Food & Drink, who joined me along with her brother Dirty Dave, recommended the fries, which looked amazing on other people’s tables, but suffered from not being served piping hot.

On Sundays and Mondays $17 gets you a Stella Artois and ALL YOU CAN EAT MUSSELS (they offer 6 varieties). Buyer beware, Anthony Bourdain says Sunday & Monday are the worst days to eat restaurant seafood. Service was great, very patient, but I’d sooner return for one of their 12 rotating Belgian beers than for a burger.

This bad boy must have had at least 4 thick slices of American Cheese on it because it was the dominant flavor throughout the burger. This would be fine if the cheese was a little more well done. It did make for some good bacon/cheese bites, however, especially when there was no burger left between the buns.

I went with a $6 glass of Ommegang Witte. It was light, crisp, and tasty. It made for some quality post-meal burps. Sorry ladies. It’s also brewed in Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And as a huge baseball fan, I’ll admit this was a selling point for me. BXL’s menu describes the Ommegang as: “Belgian-style white ale brewed with orange peel and coriander. Hazy, unfiltered wheat beer. Light and refreshing.” For the laymen, Blue Moon is a similar white ale, albeit a less crisp and refreshing one.