SquareBurger
Opens today in Franklin Square: N 6th St, between Race & Vine; 215.629.4026
Ditching the fancy stuff for something a bit less pretentious can be pretty liberating, like donning jeans and a t-shirt instead of a suit, or smothering grub in good old-fashioned catsup instead of that pompous ketchup rich people eat. Taking burgers back to basics, SquareBurger.
After years of impressing Philadelphians with his high-concept gastronomy, Stephen Starr's opened a classic burger shack with walk-up window service and picnic-style seating in Franklin Square, the alleged site of Benjamin Franklin's famous kite-and-key experiment, and until recent revitalization efforts, where the homeless lived without the benefit of the aforementioned electricity he harnessed. They're paper-plating all-beef hot dogs, cherry pepper-/plum tomato-dressed "Philly Dogs" wrapped in kosher salami, and classic-cut fries, but the 1/4-lb hand-formed burgers made of expertly selected locally sourced beef run the show, topped w/ American, chopped pickles, & onions, and served on toasted Martin's potato rolls, all priced under five bucks and cooked to order on a giant Vulcan grill, which yields perfectly melded cheese. For dessert, there're root beer floats, classic vanilla and chocolate shakes, the vanilla ice cream/Tastykake "Cake Shake", and signature sundaes, from hot fudge, to the chocolate/marshmallow/candied chocolate peanut-laden "CMP", to butterscotch, w/ butterscotch sauce and Heath Bar crumbles mixed with Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets (Kris Kristofferson finds them delektable).
Hours're 11am-8pm through Sept 7, and'll gradually decrease throughout Sept and Oct, to jibe with the schedules of the surrounding Franklin Square attractions, like the carnivalesque carousel and the mini-golf course, which'll liberate you from the pompous regular golf those rich people play.
