Tribeca Tavern in Cary sells itself on serving Handcrafted Burgers and Homegrown beers. This is of course music to my ears, so I was delighted when Mike from In The Moment Running suggested that we pay this place a visit on a Friday to get a beer and a burger and take in a little bit of sunshine on their patio.

It got even better a week later when our project team decided to treat us to a beer and a burger at the same place. I had hardly had a chance to put finger to keyboard to finish the first story when I was back again continuing the Tribeca journey. I love fate as much as I love burgers!

 

On their website they describe the Burger Story: “Tribeca Tavern burgers are handcrafted every day. We start by grinding choice sirloin, chuck and short rib, a combination that creates a flavor like no other. Our burgers are grilled to perfection. See our Chef Burgers menu for some of the most unique and tasty burgers you’ll find in North Carolina.”

That kind of matched Mike’s version, he said, and I am paraphrasing here 🙂

“I have to take you to Tribeca they have great burgers and we can get a beer too, I think you will love it, are you busy? come on let’s go!”

The Cheeseburger

The Cheeseburger at the Tribeca Tavern is one of their ‘Signature Grinds’. It is basically a very simple affair, you choose how you want it cooking, and what cheese you would like. They stick that all together into a Brioche Bun with LTO and bring it out to you. Awesome!

It is so simple that they don’t even bother with ‘Lettuce, Tomato, and Onion’ we all know that should be on your standard burger so they just say LTO. I like that!

Let’s look inside?

I always like to cut my burger in half just to take a peek inside and see what the plan was to give me flavour perfection. I was happy to see that this time there was a perfect cook (I asked for medium) and some perfect layering of ingredients in the cross section.

Layering the whole lettuce leaf on the bottom bun stops all the juices soaking into the bun and avoids a soggy mess. the tomato down there also is in the perfect place as putting it on top of the burger usually result in top bun slippage.

I like my cheese thick and all inside my top bun layer on my burger, check that is what I was getting

One minor flaw was that there is just a slightly uneven bun cut, which sort of lets the sandwich down structurally as there is too much upper bread (I managed to survive the trauma though) 🙂 Life is tough 🙂

The Southern Lovin – A chef inspired burger

If you want to take it up a notch then you would be well advised to take a punt on one of the Tribeca Tavern’s  speciality combinations. This one was the Southern Loving burger described on the menu as “Southern Lovin – Fried Green Tomatoes, Holly Grove Goat Cheese, Bacon, Aged Balsamic, LTO, Brioche Bun”

It all looked very pretty on that plate, but for me that stack was way too packed. How can a man get his big fat gob around that beast? I mean look at the size of those slices of Fried Green Tomato 🙂

It looked to have an excellent cook on the patty and that bacon? OMG how perfectly crispy is that? Lets have a round of applause for the bacon 🙂

I was told that it was goddam good 🙂

Bison Burger

On my first visit I had the Bison Burger with some cheese, plain and simple was the name of the game.

This was a truly excellent effort, a real decent solid meaty burger, and one that felt almost healthy due to that lean Bison meat. I almost went with the Elk burger as I kind of like Venison burgers from my home in Sherwood Forest, but you know the thought of that mighty beast roaming the plains got me all outback so I went ‘Beast’ 🙂

Once again, a great cook on the burger and some excellent burger construction with great layering; lettuce on the bottom layer, great big slice of tomato, brilliant, super toasted bun, excellent. You have all the solidity that a hand held burger sandwich needs.

The Bison though does come at a cost being about $3 more than the ‘signature grind’, personally I think that was worth it, at least over here in the States where they know how to make and cook a burger. I trust these guys to sort me right out.

It was a fantastic burger!

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Ok so here are some Menu selection I took pics of. You might want to check out the online menu to see if prices and stuff like that has changed

The Signature Grind Menu

So the simple burger choice at the Tribeca Tavern is your basic starter burgers, or as they call them ‘Signature Grinds’.

For myself, there are basically three choices I want to chow down on. the Tribeca Burger, The Bison, and the Elk. All excellent meaty choices and ones that I made so far, Elk is next.

I know that the Turkey burger is supposed to be the millennial healthy choice, but I haven’t been able to bring myself back to a place where I want one yet.

I am still all about the meat, and anyway I am so last century, pre decimal in fact, so It is going to be the Signature Grind of choice sirloin, chuck and short rib all the way for me 🙂

Your Local “Team” Burgers

Here at the Tribeca Tavern they also have a set of locally State inspired ‘Team’ burgers. I didn’t go to ‘college’ here so I guess I could just pick the combination that I like the most. I would be interested if the real life choices of these burgers really matched the supporters, students, alumni, and graduates of the colleges associated with these teams?

Chef Inspired Burger Menu

So if you have a few dollars more you can select one of ‘Your Fancy Burgers’, or as they call them here ‘Chef Inspired Burgers’ at the Tribeca Tavern.

I already showed you a picture of the “Southern Lovin – Fried Green Tomatoes, Holly Grove Goat Cheese, Bacon, Aged Balsamic, LTO, Brioche Bun” that one of my party ate. I think that you got at least a few dollars extra bonus stuff in there, so it was probably worth that extra bit of dosh.

If I was pushed to choose one, I think just because I love my Golf and my fave tournament is the Master’s at Augusta Georgia, I would have to choose the “Mastering Augusta”.

It would be tricky though, as tricky as a sidehill downhill putt on one of those slick greens! Fried Green Tomatoes AND Pimento cheese? OMG I would be truly converted to the Southern palate if I got up and all over this Burger! You know what? Next time I am chowing down on this one 🙂

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The Tribeca Tavern is located at 500 Ledgestone Way, Cary, NC 27519

You can check them out on their website, on their Facebook page and on their Twitter feed