New York Smashion Week.
“If a thicker patty is best served in a dark tavern, a smash burger — IMO — is for somewhere sunny and speedy.” 🍔
Hello everyone.
Today’s letter includes:
on why she published a 6,000-word doc about how to write a book (without a paywall), the death of cultural criticism and the rise of “cool-hunting”, and menswear news that I want to talk to you all about.New York Fashion Week begins this week, which I’m sure you will be reading about all over Substack in a matter of hours. I love reading about clothes, and parties, and emotions and opinions that percolate up out of my favorite writers (and new ones that I discover through this time) but it’s not the most exciting moment for me to participate in. For many reasons. But you know what I love? Smash burgers.
Feed Me is throwing a party with Shy’s Burgers next week on Tuesday, September 16th at Time Again on Canal Street. Every day this week you will be getting a short essay from a writer (or someone who knows how to write) about a burger. We are calling this whole thing… Smashion Week.
Burgers are on me if you buy a drink. If you plan on coming, give us a heads up here.
Emma Orlow is a New York-based reporter and editor who has played an inarguable role in the current landscape of New York restaurant writing. Her coverage spans from the people who make your favorite bar’s sign, to the kooky things people were baking during the pandemic, to the people who pick and study the fruit trees of New York City.
Today, she’s kicking off Smashion Week with a review of the smashburger at Johnny’s, a new Peruvian-Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg. Together in the comments we can debate the following line: “If a thicker patty is best served in a dark tavern, a smash burger — IMO — is for somewhere sunny and speedy.”
Right after Labor Day, I stopped by Johnny’s, a new Peruvian-Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg. It felt like one of those sleepy nights where people were still returning to the city, and I got right in without a reservation. Staying in the city over holiday weekends has typically been a point of pride for me, although it’s worn off lately. But boy, if it isn’t the best time to try a new restaurant.
Johnny’s comes from Stephanie Tang and her brother, John, who opened the spot at the end of July. There’s a sweet story to it. Named after their dad, who had dreams of opening more restaurants before he passed, it’s a take on the pollo a la brasa restaurants that generations of their family have run in New York City and builds off the long history of chifa cuisine (restaurants opened by Chinese immigrants in Peru).
Even though they grew up in restaurants, neither had owned one before. Stephanie works in fashion, including in the past at Michael Kors. (Coincidentally, the popular Peruvian-Chinese restaurant Chifa in Los Angeles is also owned by a fashion world alum, in its case a founder of Opening Ceremony.) Johnny’s is less flashy. There are family photos on the wall and emerald-green tiling; it feels warm and not tryhard, but also looks familiar, like a restaurant that has already been open for a while. You gotta hand it to a place that doesn’t open with PR; the prime Lorimer Street location spoke for itself. Just a few weeks in, people are already finding it.
Rotisserie chicken is the main focus of the menu, and you should definitely order theirs with some tostones (quarter chicken is $7.50 / half $14 / whole $27). It’s ideal group-sharing food, and if a rotisserie spot like the Fly is any indication, Johnny’s take is going to do well in Williamsburg. But I also think the mark of a good restaurant is that “ordering wrong” doesn’t really exist, so I was curious what the burger would be like — the kind of thing I don’t want to share with the table anyway. I wasn’t alone; both people next to me at the bar got burgers too.