Rye Delicatessen

Today's cheeseburger is from another relative newcomer to the Minneapolis restaurant scene, Rye Delicatessen. Housed in the former Auriga location on Hennepin near Franklin in the Lowry Hill neighborhood, Rye's specialty is Montreal-style smoked meat. However, continuing my tradition of going to places with specialty items and then ignoring said items for cheeseburgers (see: Anchor, Lyndale Tap House), I decided to see if their burger was up to snuff.

The description for the burger was mostly promising: the beef they use is a blend of chuck and brisket, both flavorful, fatty cuts (and we all know that fat = delicious). Their "Well Built Burger" adds Widmer aged cheddar, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, and homemade ketchup to the 1/2-lb patty, all set on a toasted bialy bun. The bun gave me pause -- a bialy is a fine piece of carbohydrate, but I was worried that the dense chewiness of that sort of bread product wouldn't work well in a burger. When I ordered the burger, I was given a choice of "rare, pink, or no pink" -- I chose pink, figuring that would be closest to my preferred medium doneness level. The burger is served with a side of their cole slaw (with a vinegar- rather than mayo-based dressing) and a pickle spear, which I declined, for $9.50. I also ordered a side of fries ($2 during their happy hour, $3.50 normally) because...french fries.

When the burger arrived, it made quite a dramatic entrance, speared through the top with a large steak knife. The patty was large and irregularly-shaped, clearly hand-pattied, with a good sear and a nicely melted cheese atop. The caramelized onions were piled on generously, along with a decently thick slice of tomato and some leaves of, sadly, iceberg lettuce. The bialy bun was covered on top with onion bits and poppy seeds, and was a fair bit smaller than the meat. Cutting it in half showed that the patty was overcooked, with barely a trace of pink to be seen.

With the first bite I knew my fears about the bun were completely valid. It was, in fact, too dense, requiring a lot of pressure to bite through and squeezing the contents of the burger out the back end. This combined with the relative sizes of the bun to meat resulted in a very messy eating experience. I wouldn't complain so much about this if the rest of the burger made it worthwhile -- but, frankly, it didn't wow me. The meat was slightly underseasoned and somewhat on the dry side (no surprise given the doneness level), and was so loosely pattied that chunks of burger fell off as I was eating. On the positive side, the caramelized onion really came through, and the toasted onion topping on the bialy added a nice bit of crunch And Rye's house-made plum tomato ketchup was also quite good -- a far sight better than the swill they called ketchup at Republic.

I think the choice of bun really brought this burger down a notch. If I do come back (and again decide not to order one of their 'signature' items), I would probably try the patty melt instead of the burger -- as it's served on grilled rye rather than a bialy.

Rye Delicatessen
1930 Hennepin Avenue

Minneapolis, MN 55403

(612) 871-1200