MARCH 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 77
BURGERS & BEERS
A FRESH TAKE
BY BERNIE KILKELLY
Massapequa’s best-known burger
joint, the iconic All American Hamburger
Drive-In, has been serving
up delicious burgers at reasonable
prices since 1963. Today, Massapequa
is still a go-to destination for burgers,
but for a different reason.
Over the past decade, a host of gastropubs
and upscale burger joints have
opened in Massapequa that not only
serve tasty burgers but enhance the
experience with great craft beer. The
start of the community’s gastropub
boom began with The Good Life on
Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park
in 2010.
The British-themed pub, with a red
phone booth serving as its front door,
blazed a trail with 22 beers on tap and
70 more craft and imported beers
in bottles. Even more noteworthy
was the inventive take on pub food
including British staples like fish
and chips and shepherd’s pie, along
with tasty wings, mac and cheese, and
sandwiches, also called butties as in
England.
The Good Life’s burger menu has
more than 10 different varieties
including its flagship burger topped
with Gruyere cheese, blue cheese
fondue, and bacon jam. For burger
lovers looking for alternatives to
beef, The Good Life has turkey, black
bean veggie and vegan burgers.
In 2016, the gastropub trend continued
on the main drag with the
opening of The Tap Room, an offshoot
of the popular Patchogue pub that
opened in 2011. The Tap Room upped
the craft beer game with 36 taps focused
on Long Island craft breweries,
including a tap tower dedicated to
Blue Point Brewing Company beers.
The Tap Room’s menu includes
pub favorites like wings, tacos, and
mussels pots, and features seven
different burgers that can be made
as beef, turkey or veggie patties,
including a whiskey burger with
Jameson-infused bacon. The menu
also features sliders including slowbraised
short-rib sliders with melted
Gruyere cheese and horseradish
sauce.
The newest addition to the downtown
scene is The Dark Horse Tavern,
which opened last fall. The Massapequa
Park location is the third
for Dark Horse Tavern, joining
sister pubs in Rockville Centre and
Farmingdale. Dark Horse Tavern
offers 17 beers on tap and a pub menu
highlighted by 21 different flavors of
wings and 10 different burgers. The
flagship Tavern Burger is made with
sirloin, topped with Cheddar and special
Dark Horse sauce, and served on
an English muffin.
On the south side of Massapequa
are two burger-focused restaurants
that also highlight craft beer.
GM Burger Bar, part of the George
Martin restaurant group, opened
in 2015 in the Southgate Shopping
Center on Merrick Road across from
Massapequa High School. The family
friendly restaurant greets diners
with a bucket of hot popcorn and
offers bottled craft sodas and milkshakes
for kids. For burger lovers
seeking adult beverages, GM Burger
Bar has eight beers on tap including
Barrier Brewing’s popular Money
IPA, and an extensive bottled craft
beer selection.
Burgers at GM Burger Bar can be
created by the diner with a choice
of beef, turkey, chicken or veggie
quinoa patties, a variety of cheeses
and other toppings, and multiple bun
options including gluten-free rolls.
There are also 13 specialty burgers,
mostly made with beef but some with
turkey, chicken and the Ahi Five-0
made with grilled ahi tuna with
sweet chili glaze and pineapple on a
King’s Hawaiian roll.
New York Burger Bar, which opened
in 2015 just a few blocks from All
American Drive-In on Merrick
Road, quickly shot to the top of Best
Burger lists on Long Island with its
Juicy Lucy burger. It’s made with
a proprietary blend of prime beef,
stuffed with American cheese, and
topped with caramelized onion,
tomato, pickles, and creamy house
sauce on a torta bun. There are 15
other specialty burgers or diners
can create a burger by choosing the
protein, bun and toppings separately,
with protein choices including Kobe
beef, aged Prime beef, turkey, ahi
tuna and veggie.
The Juicy Lucy and other delicious
burgers at New York Burger Bar can
be enjoyed with one of the 20 draft
beers on tap, or with homemade
milkshakes, bottled craft sodas,
or an old-fashioned New York egg
cream.
The “all-American” love for burgers
remains strong in Massapequa as
new favorites and new traditions are
established.
Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher
of LIBeerGuide.com.
MAIN DISH
New York Burger Bar is among Massapequa's abundant stellar options
for a beer and a burger.
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