Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage
1246 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
mr.bartley.com
Had it really been twenty-five years since I'd eaten at Bartley's? Considering my fond memories, I should have been back decades ago. What's not to like about a historic, fast-paced burger joint in the heart of Harvard Square...one that's always packed and offers a carnival atmosphere...with a wait staff barking food orders to cooks over customers' heads...oodles of accumulated memorabilia lining every inch of wall space...locals, students, tourists and burger buffs cheek to jowl at wooden tables chatting between bites...and everybody happily a part of the same scene that Bob Dylan, Jackie O., Johnny Cash and countless others have enjoyed since Joe and Joan Bartley opened their little establishment in 1960?
Vivid memories for sure, but I 'd forgotten about the line to get in, which upon arrival seemed to have only grown with time. Scott and I took our places at the end and quickly learned a reason: it was parents' weekend at Harvard, and most of them were ahead of us with their prodigy.
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| Quick! Find the incorrect grammar!! |
A waitress hoofed down to the end of the line and gave us menus. We read the list of burgers, named after politicians, celebrities, local sports legends and tid bits of pop culture: The Putin, The Jimmy Fallon, The Tom Brady, the Hash Tag...twenty-two burgers in all. Joe Bartley sat on a stool several yards up, keeping warm in a blue parka while taking orders from patrons as they shuffled by. Wife Joan, looking both cooler and hotter in her own blue parka, played hostess, collecting the orders from Joe and timing their placement with the grill staff to when she had a table available.
The Bartleys run a well-oiled machine, and with fifty-four years experience it's no wonder. One would think they'd be ensconced in some Florida beach community by now, counting their money and sipping Mai Tai's; but what got them here keeps them here, and what keeps them here, what keeps us all here (even twenty-five years later) are the burgers.
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| Scott's People's Republic of Cambridge Burger |
Beacuse of Bartley's volume, (on this Saturday alone they'll go through about 300 pounds of beef) Joe has the luxury of having the meat flown in daily from a source in Montana. The Certified Angus arrives pre-ground in bulk, and seven ounce patties are pressed by machine on premises. Years ago, Joe would shower the meat with Accent before cooking; nowadays, he adds only a bit of kosher salt, relying instead on the meat's freshness for the burger's flavor.
These burgers do, in fact, have a very meaty, fresh taste to them. Scott's People's Republic of Cambridge Burger, topped with slaw and Russian dressing and served on a La Ronga Bakery roll, was big and beefy and cooked perfectly to a bright pink medium rare. My Joe Biden Burger, with bacon, American cheese and BBQ sauce, was cooked to an equally perfect, pale pink "on the way to medium." Again, no surprise, as Joe and Joan's son, Bill, has worked the grill since he was fourteen, some forty years ago. Needless to say, the dude's got the hang of it.
After a selfie with Joan on the way out, I found Joe in his car in the parking space directly in front of the restaurant. The line had thinned to a point where he was able to take a lunch break: Chinese from a neighboring restaurant, which he ate with a plastic fork from a Styrofoam container. I asked about the many burger joints that have popped up in the Square in recent years. He said he'd been curious about them, and sent his staff out to test the burgers. The results confirmed his hunch. The burgers were okay, but the meat wasn't fresh like his.
Score: 8.50 out of 10 napkins
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