Fast Food Burgers in Hipsterland, PYT, Philadelphia

PYT on the Piazza

I must be the last food blogger in Philadelphia to address PYT for the first time. I was not invited to have free food before the restaurant opened and was intrigued by several initial reviews, some City Paper backlash, and post-backlash reviews.

The Caucasian

It’s shameful to have a beer list like the one at PYT when you’re a burger restaurant in Philadelphia. You need to know your competition. Even if you have the best burger in the city, why would I come to try yours to find I have to wash it down with a Heineken when I can get a great burger with excellent Belgian beers or exclusive American craft beers at a dozen spots. The best on offer was a Stone IPA, not a bad beer by any stretch of the imagination, but there should be more beers on peer level with the Stone. Needless to say, we started off our dinner engagement on the wrong foot, PYT and I.

The saving grace of PYT is the alcoholic milkshake of which there are several varieties on the menu. Jessica and I split one named The Caucasian, after The Dude’s favorite beverage in The Big Lebowski. It was a mix of Absolut vanilla vodka, vanilla beans, vanilla ice cream, and Kahlua and ended up tasting like a vanilla cupcake. It was super sweet, but cold and delicious. These guys clock in at $10, so pretty expensive if you’re thinking of mixed drink prices.

PYT Royale with Cheese

Half Royalty

I ordered the Royale with Cheese which was basically a double burger version of the PYT burger. It comes with cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and special sauce. The special sauce is a garlic mayo type sauce, not the normal, tangy, thousand island dressing type special sauces. I should have thought this plan through because this double was massive. These patties were on the order of a quarter pound (or five ounces as later internet research has proven), not quite as small as I was assuming.

I am a fan of the toasted Martin’s potato roll, similar to the style used by both the Shake Shack and Philadelphia’s Square Burger copycat. My double arrived perfectly medium rare and quite juicy. The lightly seasoned, griddled beef had a light char with each patty about a half and inch or so tall. The beef was quite flavorful and the combination of toppings was good, the bacon fairly thick with a bit of a salty, smoky flavor that went well with the light sharpness of the cheddar and spice from the garlic mayo sauce. There are claims that PYT is serving “West Coast styled burgers” here, but these are much to thick to rank worthy of a comparison to the excellent In-N-Out.

PYT Burger

PYT Burger in Progress

Jessica got the single PYT burger, but went with the build-your-own option and topped hers with Boursin cheese in place of the cheddar. While there is a place for the garlic Boursin, it was fairly overpowering on top of the burger, especially with the special garlic-based PYT sauce. She ordered hers medium rare, but it arrived closer to medium well which is strange given the correct temperature of my burger. The intent of the chips are to act as an extra burger topping to give a bit of crunch. I tried that with my burger, but the chips made the eating a bit unwieldy. Normally, the potato roll is a bit too much for a single burger, but the PYT patties are substantial enough to keep the burger to bun ratio in check, even with the single. While the $2 jump in price (from $8 to $10) does seem like a bargain, the amount of food is actually quite a lot more. Keep that in mind when you’re doing your ordering calculus.

My vegetarian friends thought that the Calibunga Burger, a patty made from white bean with basil and tomato added, ranked about a 6.5 out of 10 as far as veggie burgers go and didn’t really have much more to elaborate on that point. They were good sports to participate in this carnivore activity. I have to say that I was a little disappointed that they didn’t go for the Shroom Burger, their rendition of the Shake Shack classic with cheese-filled twin Portabello mushrooms that are breaded and deep-fried.

Onion Rings

The onion rings were not the best I’d ever had as the menu advertises, really not even close. They were freshly made, though, and were sweet onions in a somewhat salty batter, fried crispy and dusted with black peppercorns.

The burgers do come with Kettle Chips, at least according to the menu. I take issue with that characterization and think these are standard offering regular chips and not kettle chips which tend to be thicker cut and quite crunchy. Or perhaps someone needs to consider an upgrade in the chip brand. Maybe the fries are the way to go here, but we didn’t get any.

Do You Really Want to Look at This Guy While You Eat?

The worst part of PYT is the way it’s decorated. It looks like an American Apparel with disturbing photos of people eating various menu items and spilling sauces all over their face and body. It’s not clever or edgy, it’s lame. The brightly colored chairs and bright lights are fitting for a burger spot, so I’m on board with that part of the design.

The PYT burgers are fine fresh-ground beef fast food styled burgers done a little fancier, but probably not in my top ten favorites in the city. The alcoholic shakes are probably PYT’s greatest strength and could be reason enough to stop by The Piazza. I still want to go back and try their rendition of Shake Shack’s Shroom burger, but I may wait until it’s warm enough again to eat outside on the Piazza so I won’t have to look at the photos on the inside.

Fries with that Shake summarizes the Philadelphia Burger Club’s visit to PYT and gives the burger joint a collective grade of B.

The Third Dimension

Verdict: PYT is bringing decent burgers, great alcoholic shakes, stupid people with food photos.

Tags: beer, hamburgers, milkshakes, onion rings, potato chips, veggie burger