PrintSchnipper's Quality Kitchen: A Mostly Burgers, All Comfort Food Concept
Schnipper's Quality Kitchen
620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 (at 41st Street; map); 212-921-2400; schnippers.com
Service: Sometimes fast, sometimes slow (typical start-up issues)
Setting: Gleaming silver, white, and red interior with lots of seating and an open kitchen.
Compare It To: Shack Shack
Must-Haves: Cheeseburger, onion rings, chocolate malt
Cost: $15.50 for the above meal (yikes!)
Grade: B+ for the burgers, C+ for the rest of the food
Schnipper's Quality Kitchen is first and foremost a focused concept. It's a restaurant, it's an eatery, it's a burger joint, it's a comfort food emporium. It's all of the above, but most of all it's a concept. The Schnipper brothers, Jon and Andrew, know something about launching comfort food concepts and rolling them out. They successfully did just that with the more-than-decent Hale & Hearty Soups, which they created in 1995 and sold in 2006. Now they're back with Schnipper's, a comfort food concept that features burgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings, mac and cheese, fish tacos, salads, and shakes.
George "Hamburger America" Motz bestowed his seal of approval on Schnipper's, so Robyn and I figured we should go try the burger along with the other comfort foods that burger-obsessed George never got to.
Schnipper's is shiny and clean. There's an open kitchen, a front area where incredibly friendly folks take your order, and plenty of seating in the back. When your order is ready, they trigger your buzzer, Shake Shack-style.
The burgers are made with a proprietary 80 percent meat, 20 percent fat blend of mostly chuck with some dry-aged prime scraps mixed in for maximum juicy, funky flavor. The meat is supplied by noted wholesale butchers Master Purveyors. The meat itself was quite tasty, although not quite juicy enough for me. While they use buzzers like at Shake Shack, that's where the similarities end; Schnipper's fails to get the salty crust that Shake Shack does.
Top, green chile cheeseburger; bottom, hickory bacon blue burger.
There are some well put together burger toppings: the green chile cheeseburger ($8.99) made with poblano peppers instead of Hatch green chiles; the classic bacon cheeseburger; and the Schnipper's Classic ($8.99) made with cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, Schnipper's version of secret sauce, and, inexplicably, arugula. The hickory bacon blue burger ($9.75) read like a dream on the menu, but the blue cheese overwhelmed everything. Overall, the burgers were by far the best things on the Schnipper's menu.
Hot dogs were a disappointment. They're Hebrew National hot dogs, so that means no natural casing and no desired snap. Although the hot dog toppings were solid, they couldn't overcome the characterless base hot dog. The green chile cheese dog ($5.50) sounded better than it tasted.
Mac and cheese surrounded by a moat of sloppy joe.
The other comfort foods didn't fare much better. The mac and cheese ($6.99) was pretty standard and wholly unremarkable. The cheeses didn't stand out and the bread crumbs couldn't overcome the fact that the unbaked mac and cheese had no significant amount of crunch. The sloppy Joe ($5.99) was an undistinguished mix of ground meat, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. The sloppy mac and joe marriage ($6.99) arranged by the Schnippers is further proof that arranged marriages can cause many more problems than they solve.
Fish tacos ($8.99) were made with dry chunks of mahi mahi that had obviously been grilled a long time before it found its way into my tacos.
French fries ($2.75) are the carefully chosen frozen variety. The fresh crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside sweet potato fries ($3.99) are a better bet (skip the maple dipping sauce), as are the frozen onion rings ($3.99). The batter is thin and crisp, the onions themselves are sweet, and there is plenty of salt on them.
The chocolate malt ($5.99), made with Gifford's Ice Cream from Maine and real malt powder, is a fine beverage to accompany your burger. The ice cream was just creamy enough and there was plenty of malt flavor in every spoonful-sip.
Schnipper's is a concept that at this point needs further refinement. Order a cheeseburger, onion rings, and chocolate malt (not exactly a radical concept) and you will likely be very pleased with your food. Order anything else and you might end up disappointed.
Read more of Ed's reviews.
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14 Comments:
This looks like a big ole' miss. Comfort food in a shiny, hospital like environment? Yuck.
Prairie at 11:12PM on 04/14/09
Ouch. The way the review read, a B+ for the burgers and C+ for the rest of the food sounds very generous :P
pastry262 at 8:07AM on 04/15/09
Given the fish tacos - looks like Taylor's Automatic Refresher in
San Francisco's Ferry Building and Saint Helena, not In and Out.
josefr at 9:39AM on 04/15/09
average burger at best, especially taking into account the price. boo.
foodinmouth at 12:02PM on 04/15/09
why is that cheese placed atop the chiles on the green chile burger? no way that could ever properly melt!
Shelby at 12:21PM on 04/15/09
I'd rather stick to my favorite burger the whopper better in flavor and appearance.
jrmaya17 at 12:25PM on 04/15/09
I'd rather stick to my favorite burger the whopper better in flavor and appearance.
jrmaya17 at 12:29PM on 04/15/09
In retrospect I was being overly generous. The burgers rate a "B" at best.
Ed Levine at 4:07PM on 04/15/09
I'm with Prairie. That place looks like the last place you'ld expect anything comforting. It looks like a corporate cafeteria for clock punching slaves.
$5.99 for a malt in a small plastic cup? WTF?! Where I live, you can get hand scooped malt shakes with "real malt powder" for the same or less. The difference being, you get a tall glass and the metal mixer to go with it on the side. About three of what is pictured above.
Raiders757 at 4:15PM on 04/15/09
Hi Ed:
It is Andrew Schnipper. Jon and I were obviously disappointed you did not enjoy your food at our new place. We take your criticism seriously as we love serious eats and respect your knowledge and passion for great food. We have worked hard over the last 9 weeks to serve our customers the best foods possible, but obviously we failed when it came to the items you sampled. We believe we improve a little each day and will continue to do so or die trying. We take all criticism (whether a printed review or customer complaint) to heart and we are very sorry we let you down. We serve thousands of people a week who seem to enjoy us, but your review will certainly make us take a good hard look at what we are doing and try to improve where we think we can. Again, thanks for taking the time to come in and keep writing great food articles! I hope you will give us another chance in the future.
aschnipper at 6:36PM on 04/15/09
@aschnipper: I have an honest question. Your food, the branding text, the menu, it's all very. Sit in living room and eat / pick up at diner and enjoy with family / homey eats. It's all very nice and warm.
Warm is a good word. Shit, man, you have every one of my favorite foods on that menu. Just about anyway.
My question to you is- what's with the sterility of the place. It looks like a chipolte / automat hybrid.
What happened to that warm, roadside vibe?
Prairie at 10:38PM on 04/15/09
The whole environment just looks wrong, wrong, wrong. I don't think I could be very comfortable in a place like that!
Beans at 12:03PM on 04/16/09
I have eaten at Schnipper's twice now, working just a few blocks north. I have tried the cheeseburger, mac'n'sloppy joe, fries, and the chocolate malt. My favorite item has been the chocolate malt -- creamy, thick enough, nice mix of malt and chocolate. The burger was fine for what it was (pre-made patties, from the looks of it; on the thin side) and I thought the fries were tasty. The mac was better than the joe in that marriage; the sloppy joes were just too sweet.
As far as the atmosphere goes, I have never had a problem with it. We have been able to find seating in the back without a wait and the completely open store fronts allow for great people watching (esp. around Port Authority). I am sure with the way Piano designed the new Times Building, there were limitations as to what you could actually do with the interior design. For me, it is all about the views out . . .
jwelsh at 4:11PM on 04/16/09
Just ate at Schnipper's for the first time today and Serious Eats is spot-on. I had the Classic Burger (w/o cheese) and onion rings. The burger lacked seasoning and in my opinion the carmelized onion and arugula didn't add any flavor dimension. Thank goodness for bacon and Secret...uh...Schnipper Sauce. The onion rings were nicely crisp and fresh tasting and the serving was ample, but they too could have used a little salt. Lastly the whole thing was waaay overpriced. $14 for a burger and onion rings is not a deal.
nobodysnuncle at 1:27PM on 04/17/09