Food and Drink: Small burgers stand tall

By: Dave Faries, Editor
Posted 8/16/21

Something almost otherworldly happens when ground beef is dotted with the right amount of pepper and left to hiss and crackle on well-seasoned iron.

A rustic minerality etches through the patty. A …

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Food and Drink: Small burgers stand tall

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Something almost otherworldly happens when ground beef is dotted with the right amount of pepper and left to hiss and crackle on well-seasoned iron.

A rustic minerality etches through the patty. A blackened char builds, ricocheting bittersweet sparks while curls of smoke wrap around the palate.

This is why a simple thing like a hamburger consumes America's culinary imagination.

The 581 condenses all of this into small packages known as sliders. Although the options are not confined to beef, miniature burgers are traditional and thus a good place to start.

A cheeseburger slider provides the same comfort as the iconic sandwich, despite its size. The kitchen packs patties of 20 percent fat so the rich yet rough hewn savor of beef dominates, with a blanket of American cheese giving a creamy sheen.

The familiar combination of bacon and cheddar lends a modest tang and draft of sweet smoke to that same beautiful burger.

But the slider format also allows chefs to play with possibilities. With the bleu on black, The 581 kitchen staff treat the patty as a canvas -- one that is open to interpretation.

Canvas is the foundation of art. But it also provides a setting for boxers to duke it out. And there is a battle going on between the buns of the bleu on black.

Blackening spices and bleu cheese size each other up, trading jabs. The spicy side is earthy and spiteful. Bleu cheese is velvety, but with a vulgar streak -- herbaceous, nutty and musty.

It's an intense experience from a small sandwich.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the original restaurant slider. White Castle, founded in 1921, popularized the mini burger. It wasn't until the past two decades, however, that sliders began appearing as staples on the menus of finer restaurants.

Perhaps the hesitancy was due to the adopted nickname. Some say "slider" was a reference to how the burger oozed grease and slipped around on the grill. Others pin it to the ease of downing one after another, as in "slides right in."

There is also a less palatable version of the story. Which is right hardly matters, however. White Castle latched on to the name and "slider" eventually lost its association with fast food and greasy spoons.

Sliders are popular at The 581. They also feature on the menu at Pratt's on Monroe. At both places they are proof that good things can come in small packages.


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