EVERYTHING IS VEGETARIAN, A LOT IS
ACCIDENTALLY VEGAN, JUST ASK
Superiority Burger opened at 430 East 9th Street in the East Village of Manhattan on June 25, 2015. Our goal was (and is) to provide vegetarian food of a modest, non-fancy nature, and sell it for as cheaply as possible while still using the best ingredients we can find. We have five swing desks that can accommodate a total of between six and nine humans, depending on how cozy folks want to get. A lot of people get food to take away. Sometimes, weather-permitting, our customers will eat on the sidewalk, sitting on various benches and planters nearby. Tompkins Square Park is 300 feet away; there are park benches there too. All of our food is served in paper boats and is meant to be eaten with biodegradable plastic utensils.
Our space is diminutive—275 square feet, including the dining area. Our firepower is limited; we have a steel griddle to cook burgers, four induction burners, and a small inherited convection oven that accepts only half sheet pans. Anything we can make here you can also do at home.
The name of our restaurant is Superiority Burger, but that’s a bit of a red herring. Sure, the majority of our business is selling vegetarian hamburgers, but you can cobble together a very nice meal here and avoid the burger altogether. In addition to our sandwiches, sides, and desserts, we offer a single drink, a house-made Arnold Palmer served over pellet ice. We don’t sell alcohol. We don’t sell bottled water. We think it’s strange and a con for any restaurant to sell non-fizzy water. There is always a plastic jug of lemon juice–spiked NYC tap water at the ready in the dining room. We refill it as fast as our customers drink it, and it is always cold and refreshing. In terms of beverage pairings for any of the recipes in this book, chilled lemon water is the way to go.
Sometimes people refer to us as a fast-food joint. This is only moderately correct. Yes, we try to push out orders as quickly as possible, but sometimes things take a little longer than expected. We are not trying to compete with fast-food establishments. But we do take a hospitality and service approach not unlike fancy, fine-dining restaurants, where a few of us honed our chops and licks.
This cookbook is a document of just about everything we have sold on our main menu and specials board. There are probably some new things since this book went to print; we tend to work fast and in spurts.
Our specials change around a lot when we are feeling particularly inspired and unhinged, and sometimes they hover on a few very good seasonal things that we run until nature stops providing the raw material.
We have never served French fries, fresh-cut or frozen. We do not have a deep fryer.
We cook mostly from a vegan perspective, but do use some dairy sparingly (nondairy options are given for all recipes except for the gelatos—we have yet to crack a vegan gelato code that we feel confident to share publicly, but the coconut sorbet is dairy-free and about as creamy and rich as you could ever want).
We have a photo of actual meat on the wall, in the form of a vintage 1992 White Castle ad (we love White Castle, no joking around). But we are very serious about the vegetarian cooking that goes on here.
THANK YOU.