J.G. Melon

J.G. Melon has been on Third Avenue since 1972 and is still cash only. The official menu lists the hamburger as a bare line item with no description, which is fitting, because the house build is about as plain as a burger gets: a griddled patty with raw onion and pickles, no lettuce, no tomato, no special sauce. This assessment is based on one visit.

The patty is the reason to go. The char on it was outstanding, and that is the single observation our notes keep returning to. It was cooked well and seasoned well, the meat quality was good, and the texture of that charred exterior against raw onion and ketchup was the combination we liked most. This is what a great plain griddled burger is supposed to taste like.

Then there is the bun. It was flaky and dry, and it detracted from the burger tremendously. On a burger with four components, one failing is not a minor deduction. There is nothing else in the build to hide behind.

Two practical notes that sit outside our scoring, since neither price nor service affects a score under our methodology: the value here is outstanding and the service is quick.

The patty and its char are genuinely excellent, and on a better bun this would sit considerably higher.

A burger built from four components has nowhere to hide a failure, and one of these four failed. That is the whole of the gap between what this burger is and what it could be.