The Well-Appointed Burger
At 25 Degrees, the patties look fancier than the patrons
By Martin Booe
Sepulchral and majestic, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is a place where, in any other city, people would dress to the nines. Instead, men wear tight white T-shirts and tattered jeans and women wrangle their décolletage into dresses three sizes too small. Naughty, naughty! It's the thrill of the dissonant: dressing way down in contrast to the Roosevelt's gothic splendor.
At any rate, the recently renovated hotel needed a "casual" dining alternative to the beautifully appointed Dakota, a stylized steakhouse created by Southland restaurateurs Tim and Liza Goodell, who went the extra mile by installing 25 Degrees in front of the hotel. The name refers to the difference in temperature between a medium-rare burger and a well-done one. Whatever. As you may gather, 25 Degrees is all about burgers. And having wine with your burgers. It has a good wine list with approachable prices, so if you think pairing wine and burgers makes you too cool for school, be my guest. I'll stick with cold beer. But first, I have to say something about the design of the place.
It's weird, but in a good way. Dada, almost, but understated. "Bordello meets Burger Bar" is how the press materials describe it, and I guess that works. Designed by the ubiquitous Dodd Mitchell, it's a smallish, shotgun sort of room, with oxblood leather banquettes and wood tables, and a bar with chrome-rimmed stools. The wall behind the bar is done in black and chrome mirrored tile. Looking at the red, flocked wallpaper adorning the back of the room, I'm thinking "Anne Rice." Looking back at the chrome, I'm thinking "Edward Hopper." Looking up at the chandeliers, I'm back to Lestat, but he's wearing a Fonzie jacket and slurping a milkshake. There are three flat-screened TVs behind the bar, and they don't fit in with anything. It's all truly strange and strangely striking.
As you might expect, the burgers are fairly iconic and superannuated. They start as nine ounces of good sirloin and are cooked on a griddle rather than charbroiled - as they should be, because it preserves those pink and golden juices that ooze out the burger's sides. They're served on brioche buns made on the premises, and these are quite fine, their tops resembling a mushroom cap in shape and peanut brittle in color, with a fine sheen.
It's a mix-and-match proposition. You can choose from 12 different cheeses, both domestic and imported, along with other accompaniments, like fried egg, shiitake mushroom, jalapeños, and arugula. Dipping sauces cost 50 cents each and include horseradish cream, tarragon remoulade, chipotle, and Dijon, just to name a few; you can slab that on your burger too, or save it for the fries. If you're like me and become paralyzed when faced with too many choices, you can go for one of the two house burgers, so it's all decided for you. I had the house burger, which comes with caramelized onion, Big Woods blue cheese, tangy Crecenza cheese, arugula, and bacon. It was quite tasty, though that blue cheese tended to overpower the burger itself, and we preferred the one we made up ourselves, with fried egg, green chili, and Midnight Moon, a gouda-style goat cheese. (There's also a turkey burger, but why bother? I didn't, though I'm sure that, as turkey burgers go, it's just fine.) On a second visit, my assembly included shiitake mushroom, jalapeños, and cheddar. The basic burger costs $9, with a buck for each additional fixing, so you're looking at $12 a burger on average, which is well within reason for what you're getting.
French fries - no, excuse me, they're pommes frites ($5) - are delicious, sprinkled with sea salt and thyme. The onion rings, coated in a good buttermilk batter and dusted with cayenne pepper, have a nice crunch that gives way to the warm, soft onion, a little reminiscent of tempura. Also notable is the Caesar salad ($9), flecked with fried capers and chunks of smoked bacon. For dessert, try the delightfully intense chocolate pudding, made with Valrhona chocolate.
And I will gladly repay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
Published: 05/25/2006
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