May the original best burger and onion rings in NYC Rest In Peace.
Sigh...
2
I’m officially in mourning. My most memorable Burger Heaven moment was going there with a friend who happened to be the daughter one of my favorite authors. When we arrived, I was more than a bit awed to find him waiting for us, but there he was: Joseph Heller.
2
Our hearts are broken!!
Our daughter claimsBH has the best mac & cheese in New York City. Burger Heaven we will miss you!!
3
Ed, Queens Village, NYC
In the middle 70’s I was an employee at Bankers Trust Company located at 280 Park Ave., just a block and a half from the Burger Heaven on 53rd Street across from Saks Fifth Ave. I started eating breakfast there (many toasted bagels with cream cheese) before I ever had a lunch there. I introduced the restaurant to my kids wherever they visited in me in city. Of course they in-turn did the same with my grandkids. We have lot’s of memories, not just burgers: grilled chesses, BLT’s, tuna, milk shakes; etc.
I want my last Burger Heaven Burger! I've eaten at every location and it was always a great staple. My favorite condiment is the red relish. No one else has it. Maybe they'll stay open late tonight on their last day. I really want to go.
1
There’s a Hamburger Heaven in Palm Beach, FL that is still going strong and that I used to love for it’s delicious burgers (before I stopped eating meat). I wonder if there’s any connection?
Things ain't like they used to be, are they?
Sign of the Times. Just look around.
2
Their blue-cheese cheeseburgers were unparalleled. I made reverent pilgrimage to all the Burger Heavens for that meal in particular.
Also, doesn’t anyone remember their old cow insignia that looked vaguely like a Zulu shield?
4
I wish I had gone before the closing. It's always sad to see New York favorites like this go, and I've tried to do my part in keeping places like this alive. Hopefully new neighborhood spots like this will come along. As a Chanel-carrying, burger-eating, young Gen X-er, I can't imagine a NYC without these old NYC eateries that are just as much a part of the city's history as the city itself. I'd take a million of these over the chains any day of the week.
1
According to Cindy Adams, Schrafft's was going to be re-opened by now. But where? What happened? New York without its diners is a truly inhospitable place. Thankfully, new ones open as the old ones close.
1
It is a wonderful situation when families can meet in pleasant and quiet restaurants. I only feel sorry for the family in the photo and others who eat or, perhaps, have to eat there hamburgers.
Just as our bread, mixed and baked, packaged and sold without benefit of accident of human frailty, is uniformly good and uniformly tasteless, so will our speech become one speech.”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America
4
Soon Manhattan will be a rich-people theme park.
9
How does the author of this article define “landlord greed”?
1
I have fond memories of having coffee every morning at the Burger Heaven on East 53rd St. I had just started working at my first job at HarperCollins Publishers across the street. I got to know two young men who were also morning regulars and worked at a diamond cutting shop in the neighborhood. Our waitress was an older woman who we also spent time chatting with. It turned out that as a child growing up in NYC, she had played with the children of the German Expressionist painter, Max Beckmann and had great stories about him. It was such a lovely convergence of people from different walks of life learning about each other and beginning the day with a bit of camaraderie.
129
@Nancy
Max Beckmann never had children who lived in NYC.
My godmother took me to lunch at the Plaza (just like Eloise) for my birthday one year. After we were done she asked how I liked it. I said "It was great, but my dad took me to this place called Burger Heaven...".
142
How many New York landmarks have closed in the past year alone?
What will happen to Yossy and the cooks?
117
Excellent, evocative writing - well done Mr. Trebay!
7
I used to go to the 53rd location for years , now that I don’t eat so much meat , I go for organic or at least responsibly raised , and now the vegetarian burger is my new meat of choice , this location will leave good memories for me.
2
I pass by from time to time and had been meaning to try them out, so I went yesterday evening just to do it once before they close. The classic burger for $11.00 seemed to be a very good piece of beef but it was very dry with almost no juice. Perhaps the cut was too lean. For an extra $7.00 the french fries were very good, with a nice piece of lettuce and two thin slices of tomato. Two nice-size spears of sour pickle were a definite plus. The lemonade barely tasted of lemon and at $3.00 was not worth it. If, as has been mentioned in the comments, the owners also own the building, then perhaps this is a real estate story and has nothing to do with being unable to stay in business. At $18.00 for what amounts to a burger deluxe, they could probably stay in business if they wanted.
5
I got married in the brownstone next door to Hamburger Heaven, which was owned by the owners of Hamburger Heaven. I planned my wedding menu sitting at one of the tables there. As a child, I took art lessons above Hamburger Heaven, hoping my art would improve and I’d be accepted at High School of Music and Art. I wasn’t. I ate at that restaurant regularly with my Dad who owned Alfred’s Barbershop on East 61st Street and Lexington Avenue. I can still taste the hamburgers.
14
When I worked in a midtown advertising agency in the 1990s, I would go to Burger Heaven with friends from my office. That was our special pleasure, comfort food when the stress of advertising grew too great. Unfortunately, New York City has been rapidly replacing neighborhood stores and restaurants with big box chains. Manhattan, once unique, differs little from many New Jersey suburbs in terms of shopping. And that is a shame.
8
It would be sad if their burgers were even remotely edible, but they’re not. Survival of the fittest and all that...
1
@anon
I must disagree. They were solid diner-style burgers.
4
Kudos to Bryan Derballa. The photos in this article show some real thought - particularly the first one at the table. I'd buy that.
9
A few years ago I searched the internet to see what happened to a place where, as a young child in the 1960s, I enjoyed hamburgers with my family. I knew the place as “beefburger” and read that the name was changed in the 1970s to “Burger Heaven.”
4
So sad. Part of the Walmartization of America.
9
Another New York institution bites the dust.
5
I grew up in NY in the 60s/70s and always loved the diner scenes. Put a few coins in the little flip-knob 45 jukebox and happily listen to tunes while wolfing down a burger/BLT with fries. Fun times. Just a couple of years ago, we lost a highway restaurant staple here in Texas that had been in operation for almost 90 years (Franks in Schulenburg, although due to an illness in the family). It's always sad when something that's been around for so long shutters its doors. Luckily, a few places from my L.I. past seem to still be going strong: Massapequa Diner (1950), Nautilus Diner (1963), Krisch's Ice Cream Parlor (1955) and All American Burger (1963). Seeing that those places are still operating makes me very happy. It's almost like getting to retain a part of one's youth (and at my age, I could use all the retention I can get my hands on). :-)
9
In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, I frequently ate lunch at Burger Heaven, especially the one on East 53rd Street. Great burgers and a terrific chicken salad.
3
This makes me so sad. I lived in NYC in 1999 and 2000 and recently went back for a visit. I felt that NYC has lost its character. Everything was shiny and new. It made me so sad and nostalgic for those bygone days.
9
I went to one when I was visiting New York with my father around 1961. Never forgot it!
5
Fond memories of going to Nectar lunch counter, with my parents following a morning at the Met, after driving in from RI. They sure knew how to grill Octopus, so that I a seafood lover actually liked it.
4
Is it gone for sure? Can we set up a GoFundMe?
5
Huh? They own the building...they don’t need money.
2
@AR Good point. That wasn't mentioned in the article and should have been. Perhaps this is more about real estate and less about the economics of the coffee shop business. As another article in the NYTimes did mention not too long ago, several other coffee shops have closed so that the owners could sell the real estate.
@AR Yup. Another real estate story. This part wasn't mentioned in the article.
It was where my mother ate her last tref (not kosher) hamburger when she was pregnant with me. She thought I should be raised without guilt because my father was an observant Jew. Hah!
12
Oh please. Far more cheeseburgers are eaten in Manhattan than Sweet Potato Kelp Bowls, or anything else from Sweetgreen, by an order of magnitude.
Or are the McDonald's, KFCs, and Taco Bells all shuttering too?
5
I feel bad for the staff most of all. They seem like a good bunch.
23
Younger workers don't like to go out of the office to lunch.
They are exploited and simply don't know any better.
19
Many thanks to Brian Derballa for the superb photographs.
13
What is left, what remains of the Manhattan we thought was just another place to live, not the urban refuge for the uber rich and fantasy land for ill informed tourists and wannabes?
Really what remains?
13
As a native, sad but true.
Betty at 53rd St used to tell us about Jackie Kennedy. I went there almost everyday from '88 to 2000. Coffee and burger deluxe.
12
@GB Manhattan is where I learned what a Burger Deluxe was. I enjoyed many of them. One of my favorite diners, the Westsider, is still there. I also like the Park West in the Wellington Hotel.
Shame on the NYT for waiting until Tuesday, Feb 25, to tell those of us scattered around the country that we only have 72 hours to get to NYC for one last visit to the iconic BH. I moved to NYC straight out of college in the mid-70's, a rube in the big city who cried himself to sleep in his first night on the floor of his furniture-less studio. Burger Heaven was my salvation during those first few months. I am tempted to hop on a flight Friday morning to make one last pilgrimage. I will always be grateful and hold a special place in my heart.
26
I live all the way across the Atlantic and feel the same. Grew up UWS but Burger Heaven a regular adored spot since childhood; my London-born son adores it too. Make that adored ... 😢
9
What Manhattan needs is a few In-n-Outs and you'll soon forget about Burger Heaven. A double-double will ease your pain.
2
@Richard While I really like a good double-double, In-n-Outs do not, nor ever will have the same ambiance as a good burger diner.
17
I used to go there back in the 1970's when the price of a hamburger was $1.85. When Burger Heave recently remodeled their restaurant on East 49th -- they jacked up their prices so much that their delicious burger just wasn't worth the exorbitant price they were now asking. And the empty seats proved that others thought so also. Still I would just like to know how Burger Heaven got their burgers so consistently nice and juicy.
3
I must weigh in with my favorite Burger Heaven offering, enjoyed many times over the years: chicken salad on rye toast. Superbly fresh all white meat chicken chunks with just enough mayo to hold it together. Sad to see you go, BH!
13
These are some great photos by Bryan D! Especially the first and third. Love the low saturation look to them.
8
The social interaction of going to a diner at which you’re a known person. The staff knows your usual order, if you come at regular times your fellow diners are familiar with your presence and respond accordingly. It’s a good harmonious feeling which is getting far too rare today. I’ll take the ride to a comfortable friendly diner where the world just seems “right.”
14
I really don't know what to do with this city anymore.
12
I live across from Burger a Heaven on 62 and Lex. I go almost every week, it’s always packed. It’s my “Seinfeld Diner”. The waitstaff knows everyone and food comes out so quickly and thoroughly, faster than a New York minute. There’s heart and community in that Burger Heaven that Manhattan is losing day after day. I’m thoroughly heartbroken.
24
heartbreaking. I never saw HH as another diner - and I love diners! I remember once a few years ago, wandering around, hungry and cold, thinking, 'where is the closest diner?' I couldn't find one. Then 'maybe a slice of pizza?' I couldn't find one.
9
I'll miss it! I love eating at a regular diner any day and I'll miss people watching over my burger or grilled cheese, and seeing the grill chef's moves. I'm only 36 so I don't consider myself older than the sweetgreen crew, but maybe my soul is. I must have grown up in a much older New York than I ever realized!
18
On my first day of job hunting in NYC many years ago I wandered into a BH across from Rockefeller Center for a burger and saw Gene Shallat of the TODAY show dining at the counter. My first of many celebrity sightings in the city. I think of it every time I walk down that street...
10
I grew up and still live in Los Angeles and there used to be joints like that all over the city and now they are all gone unless it's a chain. Makes me sad. My favorite coffee shop/restaurant was replaced by a Chipotle.
13
@Tracy :-) Many are still here. I grew up here too... and still get late night pie and coffee or a decent omelette at many of them, including Rae's, Cafe 50's, Mel's, Swingers, Fred 62, Nick's Coffee Shop, DuPar's, and more on this list. There are fewer today, but they still lurk in their hidden spots.
7
@SK Yes, Rae's forgot about that. I don't count Mel's because it used to be Ben Franks replaced by Mel's. Swingers, Fred 62 are newer hipster places, I'm talking about the old coffee shops. Love DuPar's and remember they were all over the place. I also loved Van De Kamps and Tiny Naylors..
5
14th Street Coffee Shop is one of the only places like this still standing, by Stuy Town, let’s hold on to that one as long as we can. The New York I grew up with is sadly almost gone.
18
@Greg McLoughlin It's only in New York City that diners are called coffee shops. In other places, that's where you go for only coffee.
How sad: my wife and I always made several visits to the Burger Heaven places anytime we visited NYC.
It was informal, friendly, clean, calming, often highly caloric, and always delicious.
I hope the kale eaters are happy foraging in their dark green bowls.
23
In the mid 1980s, I worked on Fifth Avenue. We ordered from the Burger Heaven on 53rd almost every day. I remember my tuna on wheat dry order fondly.
10
For well over a decade, I had a semi-regular Friday lunch date with some of my dearest friends at one of the several Burger Heaven locations in midtown. Originally, as young tax kids, we spent Fridays at McDonald's, moving to Burger Heaven only after feeling secure enough in our careers to spring for a higher caliber of lunch. Age and metabolism meant that in recent years, we'd focus more on their soups or salads. I will miss even the weird, late-stage club incarnation of one of the branches.
10
"being both anonymous and known".
Yes, in New York you can be both. You can be alone in a crowd.
Few other cities can say that.
16
"... we obtain this small pleasure: being both anonymous and known."
This could not be more perfectly stated; to me this is the very essence of New York's appeal.
18
I started going to BH, 62nd and Lex, when I came to New York after college in 1966. Saturday morning, first stop Bloomies. Then lunch at BH. Plain burger, relish on the side - can’t be beat. In the years since, it has been my go-to stop on the UES. I would walk blocks for a seat next to its big windows or, if it was too busy, at the counter. I hope it isn’t closing because a new generation of owners feel they can do better with something else at this beautiful location. Sad.
14
A big reason people these days rely on Seamless/Grub Hub and food trucks/takeout is that companies don't want you leaving the office for an hour to have lunch. I don't know of anyone who goes out for lunch anymore.
20
@Annie
Agreed but it's more than that. Younger millennial
consumers prefer to stay indoors, ordering food versus having to leave the house and sit in a restaurant.
14
It’s more than millennials. It’s anyone who prefers to relax and dine in their homes. Over the years, our homes have become more comfortable - we have access to the internet, we can stream al ost anything directly to our home theaters, we can order from almost any restaurant within a 5 mile radius and have the food delivered still warm to our homes for less than the cost of going there ourselves.
I enjoy a restaurant as much as the next person but I would much rather enjoy a nice meal at home than deal with noise, crowds, traffic, subways, and rude inconsiderate people.
3
As a younger millennial, I can't afford to eat out that often--maybe once every 2-3 weeks if I'm lucky. When I do, I tend to explore new places instead of visit the same spots over and over. Life is too short to only experience one flavor of ice cream, especially if you have a finite number of spoons.
5
Burger Heaven got me through a lot of rough nights working late in Midtown throughout my 20s. I will always remember the warm souls that worked there and that ridiculous cash register they had where the coins spit out and go down a slide. May it live long in our hearts!
56
@DD Yes! The coin-sliding cash register! This place was down the street from the apartment where I grew up and the site of countless important and unimportant meals. I'm so sad to see it going.
14
@DD I, too, worked in Midtown in my 20s, in publishing, and a burger deluxe was about all I could afford, but I enjoyed them often.
1
A city isn't a city if it isn't in a constant state of flux. Nevertheless...
Schrafft's. Wienerwald. Brentano's. And now BH. Ouch!
The places and faces of my misspent youth are gone, and I feel entitled to enjoy the pangs of nostalgia.
29
it's happening everywhere. The affordable restaurants where the wait staff knows their customers are all going.
This weekend the Spitfire Grill, a small restaurant at the Santa Monica Airport, that served the Los Angeles, neighborhood of Mar Vista, for 29 years will closed their doors after selling to an Englishman who is going to redo the restaurant.
The Spitfire has ducted taped booths, and a wait staff that knows your drink order and has it on our table in minutes of our arrival. When I order my dinner, I am always asked, " your usual?" That is a Gilder sandwich, no cheese, and the spinach inside the sandwich cooked with a side salad.
My neighbors and I are already missing it and the wonderful staff!
13
@RB Yes, but if you find yourself in downtown Philadelphia, there are actually two new or recent diners that opened, on Broad Street (City Diner), and on Chestnut Street (Chestnut Diner), joining just one old survivor, Midtown III on 18th Street. Please patronize them.
1
This is really sad. What is it about food that this generation doesn’t like?
Anyone been to the brand spanking new Hudson Yards recently? It's the most boring sterile place imaginable. After spending two hundred dollars on some very disappointing Asian food, there was nothing to do but shop (some more) and, then, slink into a cab for the uptown journey home.
The whole thing felt alien, monied and contrived. Chanel bags will never replace the heartwarming joy of someone with a smile asking: “Hello, my love, what are you having? The usual?”
RIP to the heart and soul of NYC. May all those of BH know their future IS in heaven. It certainly was a great run.
81
@TSV
"May all those of BH know their future IS in heaven".
Or their future is in eating healthful and plant based food, not red meat and fries. Change can be hard but it's part of life and capitalism. Hudson Yards is an extreme example, and I agree with your opinion of it, but there are changes to Americans' food preferences and new options can include affordable options.
3
@TSV This generation (which I happen to be a part of) has changed tastes. Additionally, we've seen the effects of the glorified American diet and it's not a pretty sight. Burger Heaven is no different from the LP/vinyl records store who failed to adapt in a way to profit off the new mechanisms of the music sector. Is it sad? Perhaps. But it's not an excuse to assign culpability to an entire generation.
3
@Left Coast I’m a Millennial & I eat red meat and fries at least once a week. Never had a problem with weight, cholesterol, glucose etc. No food is bad in moderation. Vegans are just too preachy. Live & let live.
22
So sad.. I grew up with Jahn's being our go-to place. When they closed it was like the end of an era. Never did get to down the kitchen sink!
15
@Yael Jahn's in Levittown? A great place. And my friends and I did order and consume the Kitchen Sink once.
4
Jahn's on Long Island, at Hillside Ave/Herricks Rd? Or was there another?
4
Brooklyn.
Oh Nancy, I wish we could have one more burger here. I miss you always.
18
"Everybody Goes to Burger Heaven"
Nope. Have not been inside any type of such place in over 30 years. Just looking at the pictures was almost enough to make me wretch. What people put inside their bodies amazes me.
You are what you eat.
3
@Concernicus One is what one eats? I will assume, not withstanding, you are neither a carrot or lettuce leaf. But I do hope your life has otherwise been more interesting than your diet, dear concerned one. As a human with finite time amongst all there is in which to take pleasure, please know you deserve much more than "perfect health"--but one measure of a life well lived, and likely not the most important. We are all eventually, per the bard's sonnet, "food for worms." Enjoy while you can.
11
My thoughts exactly.
1
“New York can be cold, and a place like this makes you feel like you live in a village,” Kari Lichtenstein, a family lawyer, said last week, as she sat with her mother, Emilie Palef, a Toronto native first drawn here by the quirky stores and homey restaurants.
Hunh? They've gone the way of video porn shops on 42nd St. You want a burger? That'll be $18.95. Ketchup is extra.
Yeah can keep Manhattan.
1
The unique places of NYC have been disappearing for years. Soon there will be only national chains paying high commercial rents. We frequented the Burger Heaven on 53rd for many years - my wife worked at MoMA, and our dentist is on Mad near 52nd.
Thank God for Eisenberg's and Viand. When those joints close, I'm out of here.
36
As I recall, the Burger Heaven on E 53rd had a bowl of fresh parsley on the counter with a sign that read, "You needn't eat your onions sparsely, if you have a sprig of parsley." No one ever taught me that at home!
24
@Outsider in Utah I'm gasping in recognition! That is the only place I have ever seen that sign, and since I saw it as a five-year-old, I have it committed to memory!
12
@Jessica L Was it "If you munch a sprig of parsley/You needn't eat your onions sparsely"? Man oh man, what memories going back to the mid-80s. That sign, the weird cash register, the older gentleman cashier who always seemed to be in a bad mood but who was very nice when engaged in conversation, the long communal tables and the steep, scary staircase down to the restrooms (at the Madison & 53rd. location).
8
@SD Correct verbiage there. And that staircase...
This kind of food is terrible for young and old alike. This kind of food breeds obesity and diabetes. Wake up America; there is no "comfort food" only platefulls of death.
4
@MacIver Oh give it a rest "New Mexixo" (wherever that is). Sure, if you eat burgers like Wimpy, night and day, bad things will likely occur (duh).
But there's got to be room for a treat, betimes, and the warmth of shared humanity always has high value and a democratizing effect, despite your doom-ridden sense of high dudgeon.
18
@MacIver A plateful of death sounds delicious!
9
what will we do without the red relish?! is there any other NYC coffee shop (and thank you for using the true local vernacular, Mr. Trebay, and not the imposter "d" word!) that has it???
9
I grew up on that block and never went there . It did not have an authentic burger joint feel to it. Much better was Jackson Hole two and a half blocks to the East .
1
Yay that Burger Heaven made it this long. I loved the Chock Full of Nuts heavenly cream cheese/nut/raisin sandwiches.... and the taste of Schrafft's vanilla ice cream-- sans pareil-- anywhere. The chains do little to compare altho nothing bad about an oreo McFlurry. I also miss Sedutto's chocolate almond fudge -- the best lunch in the world.
Times change … there are places I remember..... in my life...
16
No way this place was going to survive with a $20 mediocre cheeseburger. Even in Manhattan that price point was just not competitive!
9
This is and the closing of all the Mom and Pop shops is why I will never go back to NYC where I spent the first 38 years of my life. Last time I visited I was shocked by all those franchises and high end places crowding out those shops with personality and warmth.
12
Small shout out to Bryan Derballa for the wonderful photographs that capture the essence of the place as well as the personality of the employees.
17
So sad to hear that Burger Heaven is closing. From 1995 to 2010 (when I went vegetarian), it was a dependable place to get the best turkey burger in town. When I worked downtown, I would place my order at Lex/62nd, get off the subway at 59th Street, pick it up and then head home.
8
so sad. been eating at Burger Heavens for over 40 years. was at 49th BH last day when it closed. I love the Cyprus family and its the end of NY lunch time dining as we know it. Nicki, where should we have lunch?
9
I'll still continue to voluntarily reside in MKE. Small town and large city all in one. Pay us a visit and eat at the Wonder Land diner around the corner from my home.
3
@Doug Lueck Yeah, no thanks. Milwaukee can't hold any kind of candle to NYC and environs.
Meanwhile Shake Shack went public and their thick burgers - too mushy for me but apparently delightful to the throngs who were willing to wait on ridiculous, unnecessarily long lines - have become homogenized, thinnish crusts. And it's hard to imagine chilling out and watching the world go by, there. When I get to a new neighborhood I look for a comfortable place to do that, before I look for the supermarket, and I quickly become a regular.
4
The independent neighborhood eatery is slouching towards extinction. What a loss. The cause, of course, is mechanized people, who respond to advertising like zombies and let themselves be drawn to chain restaurants like obedient unthinking cattle.
10
Heartbroken again, NYC! There goes another institution! No wonder left the big Apple a few years ago...
3
@mike
You left NYC because restaurants serving mediocre, fatty foods, are slowly closing? Odd.
1
They had the best hamburgers!
3
Those photographs look like Norman Rockwell paintings! Well done ...
24
Family and friends, takes about an hour and a half when you add it all up, great quality food, New York.
Those who had great times there must be upset.
We've got fast casual now, right? Just like the rest of America. :)
4
I so wish I had known about this sooner so I could have had a last goodbye in person. The Burger Heaven on 40th and Madison got me through many a long day and night at my advertising job next door. There was just that "something" to their burgers that has not been replicated in my life since.
I salute Burger Heaven from New Jersey and I thank them for years of good food and good memories.
38
I have fond memories of Burger Heaven, but I still miss Hicks. The restaurant on 49th, across from Saks, that Burger Heaven replaced. Mostly for the fresh whipped cream in their ice cream sodas! My favorite part of shopping at Saks, with my mom!
8
I'm not religious, so I mourn the loss of neighbourhood restaurants and cafes more than any other kind of establishment. I fervently hope the trend towards more corporate chains, less idiosyncrasy, less serendipity, is soon reversed. The internet is great, but there is no human warmth in it.
5
Don't fret. These marvelous places will return. The tech and delivery culture will finally burn out and a very real human want for a public place where people feel comfort and the food is safe will reappear. Communal eating places are as old as humanity.
11
I remember a NYC when there were no chain stores besides Orange Julius and Subarrow. In the early 70s McDonald’s tried to open a store on Uptown Broadway. The neighborhood went nuts and the were ultimately denied a permit.
Every bodega and deli was different, you took your chances until you found one you preferred.
Now that Times Square is Disneyland north and there’s a CVS on every corner you may as well visit any other city in the US, NY has lost it’s soul.
43
@Paulie
Plenty of other chains well before the 70's including Nedicks, White Castle, Tads and Wetsons not to mention the counter at Woolworth.
7
The Cyprus family are good people and a wonderful family. I wish them all the best.
16
This is the New York that 75-year old me grew up in. Things change; we all know that. But we don't have to like all the changes. That being said, there are the counterbalancing changes for POC, women and LGBTQ folks, for example. Is it a better world? Who knows. It is just a different world. But one now without a good, quick burger and a smile.
19
Burger Heaven defines what made New York City once so great. Independent businesses and their storefronts that served to give each neighborhood its own unique character and its associated vibrant street life. Store owners, their employees and patrons greeting each other by name, interacting as members of a shared community. With chain stores prevalent and delivery services in majority use the richness of neighborhood life that identified New York City is fading away. New York City, the Big Apple that once was. You want to eat an apple now, forget about going out to pick one up from Joe’s corner store. Order it online and get it delivered.
11
I am a native New Yorker with Flatbush Brooklyn pedigree. Though change may be inevitable, the direction of it at times is disconcerting. As others have commented, we seem to lose a bit of our collective souls when the neighborhood fixtures close for whatever reason. I am old enough to recall the Automats, I miss Dave's on Broadway (Egg creams), Ebinger's and others but am happy that Junior's on Flatbush Avenue lives on. C'est la vie.
16
@Ortegagon: Ebinger's!
2
This is so sad. Yet another loss of a small, independently-owned business that makes New York “New York” rather than a homogenized anywhere-U.S.A. All the best to the family and its staff.
12
Teresa's, a Polish-American restaurant on Montague Street loved by so many in Brooklyn Heights, closed a few weeks ago.
Then there was Prexy's, where they offered "the hamburger with a college education."
We continue to lose the beloved stores, restaurants and institutions that made New York so different and so delightful.
31
I sometimes went to Burger Heavve when I was living at the Barbizon Hotel for Women back in the mid-1960's. It was always good
Later, I found the Sunflower Diner near where my daughter lived in the 20's on Third Ave. I loved that place for breakfast and always went there when I came to NYC. Alas, now also gone.
It was places like this (and the old Susan Prince restaurant on Lexington in the 60's) that brought a human dimension to NYC. One "knew" the waitstaff and they knew one and ones likes and dislikes. It was never impersonal.
No delivery service or food truck will every be able to replace that dimension and NYC is the worse for that.
30
Spent many years in the 80's and 90's at Burger Heaven where I would have breakfast, five days a week, with my friend Bobby. We had initially met at Burger Heaven and became " breakfast buddies'. Bobby ran his own vending machine business and I worked at Hunter College. We sat in the same seat every day across from another regular, Seymour Durst. The satff were always wonderful but I most remember Addie and her brother from Ethiopia who were the first Coptic Christians either one of us had ever met. Only in New York.
40
Like the tradition of the long lost Sunday family dinner, this closing reflects yet another cultural treasure that fostered communication, communal values with an opportunity fo the r ties that bind.
7
Every year for the past 20 or more years my husband and I have spent a night just before Christmas walking from Rockefeller Center, up 5th, over to Madison at 59th, up Madison to 62nd and ending at Burger Heaven where my husband would order either a hot dog and baked beans or a cheeseburger deluxe and a hot chocolate, the same he has ordered his entire life (he grew up around the corner and I grew up downtown), and I would splurge on a burger (not deluxe....but I may have eaten a few of his fries when he wasn't looking). Over the past 10 years, the walk has remained the same, but everything else has changed. Rock Center is even more of a zoo as Saks added a light show. Fifth Avenue doesn't have a Bendel's or Takashimaya or Searle or Gant. There are no windows at Barney's to debate over. So many storefronts on Madison are empty. And now even Burger Heaven has gone. As people who have grown up, met, gotten married and had children in this City, we are desolate at the loss of all that we knew. Yes, much of what I listed above were commercial entities, but their loss is emblematic of our changing City which is increasingly sterile, homogenous, and very un-local. Burger Heaven - your burgers will be missed, but your presence will be missed even more. You were a huge part of our lives. Thank you.
99
A couple of years ago, a friend and I stopped at the BH on 53rd. One reheated pre-made, frozen veggie burger with the works, fries, and two sodas cost $28. (The sodas were $4 apiece!) Even for midtown that's pricey for not-even-good diner food. I don't think the decrease of the "third place" is the only reason they all closed.
7
@DP Proof that one probably shouldn't go to a burger joint and order vegetarian fare, particularly a veggie burger.
5
I already miss the BH on Madison/40th -- it closed for a different reason, the building (which I don't think they owned) was completely renovating the commercial spaces, and they all shut down. When I started in this city, back in the mid-80's, I worked at a large law firm in a brand-new office building (520 Madison) next door to the Burger Heaven on 53rd Street. I worked for a crusty partner whose idea of splurging on the associates was to take them to Burger Heaven. I felt weird going back there, 30 years later. But it's already closed. I took visiting family to the BH featured in this story about 10 years ago -- at the time, their youngest would eat mac 'n' cheese and not much else, and BH featured yummy mac 'n' cheese. I loved getting their tomato soup -- always on the menu -- with a grilled cheese, as someone else here also said.
24
When worked on 57th and 5th for ten years starting in the early 1990's , I ate at Burger Heaven all the time. I loved dining by myself, and I often would go a little bit late to miss the lunch rush. I would even go there after work sometimes to catch up with a friend, it was close, quiet and the food was always A+.
I will be sad to see it go!
18
A great spot for a simple grilled cheese sandwich. I will miss it.
19
Our major stop for lunch when we took the bus from Rutherford, NJ to Best & Co.! Wonderful memories with my mom. I can still picture the gregarious counterman, some 50 plus years later!
17
I can’t remember the name (and I think it’s because there wasn’t a sign out front) but there was a burger place near the NYU Graduate School of Business when it was located downtown near the old WTC. It was small; long and narrow and the cook worked the griddle up front. Depending upon your seating, you might walk out smelling like the place. No menu. Just plain burgers, cheeseburgers, fries and coffee. Wall Streeters, students, office workers, et al would jam that small spot for the best burgers. I do believe that a good burger is a great equalizer.
28
@Molly Bloom I worked in Admissions at GSB. Loved that place, and the friendly fellas who worked the counter. I also cannot remember its name though. Will have to check with some former colleagues. It's going to nag me until I come up with it!
4
@Molly Bloom It was the Olympia Cafe and the guy working the griddle was Dan Ackroyd. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, no Coke, Pepsi!
9
I was not a regular, but I too loved the Burger Heaven across the street from HarperCollins -- or Harper & Row, as it was called when I first worked there in 1981. I was early for my job interview and sat at the counter for a cup of coffee. I still picture myself seated there, 25 years old and about to begin a 16-year run in the editorial department of peerless Basic Books. There I would learn to edit and write and love the company of the smart and funny people who chose book publishing as a career in those days.
All lost, along with the scrumptious hamburgers and milkshakes across the street.
79
Is it really that tastes have changed so much? Shake Shack’s success suggests otherwise! But Shake Shack has a Hospitality Group behind them, not a family.
18
@Kitty Collins, Shake Shake has a different cost profile, having no wait service at their tables and a more limited menu. It has been a while since I've been in Burger Heaven but I am missing it, especially the grilled cheese and tomato soup.
6
@carol goldstein I'm also guessing that unlike a lot of the old school coffee shops, Shake Shack delivery is just an app click away.
1
RIP~ back when midtown wasn´t overrun. "i´ll have the smithfield rare please."
9
For all the years I worked on Madison and 53rd, I went to Burger Heaven at least once a week. I always had tomato soup with grilled cheese on whole wheat. Ahhhh!
42
Reading about the closing of this diner was so sad. Although I haven't even met them, as I looked at the faces of the BH employees I saw so much love and comfort. It's people like this that make our daily lives so much more than just a grind. I wish everyone at BH the love and comfort they have shared for so many years.
58
I have their menu on my office wall. I took it as a memento from the BH on 53rd between 5th and Lex that closed about a year ago. The rare bacon cheeseburger with a side of onion rings was to LIVE for.
36
@Fred Stone between Fifth and Madison. Just sayin'
3
For years, my mother worked as an administrative assistant at Esquire magazine whose office was at 488 Madison Avenue, right around the corner from Hamburger Heaven. What a treat it was to go there with her, with its two levels of booths and tables. Going to a coffee shop was part of the fun of being in the city after visiting with my mom or shopping at Best and Co. or Bonwit Teller. Things change--eating at your desk seems to be required if you're not in the upper echelons--but the community of New Yorkers, gathered at Brentano's or Doubleday bookstores or Tower Records or coffee shops seems to have diminished. It's still a great city, of course, but navigating it is a little easier if you're monied or have a driver.
31
@SNA :
"navigating it is a little easier if you're monied or have a driver"......
Could be the obit for a once great city.
8
This is the kind of place we like to go to. So sorry to hear that it is closing.
27
Farewell to their delicious watermelon pickle relish. Oh my. There was a time when it was even bottled and sold at the location across from Saks.
31
This is a very well written article. Zinsser would be proud.
44
Excellent, excellent article.
14
You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. The young hipsters will regret not having these small pleasure palaces.
63
@MSB: From what I can see, young hipsters don't know enough to regret anything. They don't even know that places like this exist.
2
@MSB Nah, they probably won't. In fact I doubt that they will even look up from their phones long enough to even notice when they're all gone.
2
This, and other similar establishments, are the real New York, to me. I have never forgotten Prime Burger, for example, and while my diet has changed, my memories of NYC include the coffee shops and the lingo. I need a Van-stretch, draw two, and a jack full boat. Give me a tuna salad on whiskey down and make it nice!
40
As native New Yorkers, "Make it nice!" has become a traditional family call over our weekend breakfasts at home.
18
@ad rem I believe "make it nice" means with lettuce.
3
@Joshua Bauman van stretch! I've not heard that in a bit. Thanks for the memory.
I loved Bun 'n Burger. Still miss it.
6
Almost worth a plane ride from the southwest to eat one last hamburger— not shared — with fries and slaw, Diet Coke, please, in my one-time neighborhood. I have indelible images of eating here. And a few indelible pounds. Homey, welcoming, delish, we would guiltily agree it’s what we wanted for lunch or dinner. Thanks for the memories.
26
I never ate there, but I'll miss it all the same. Places like Burger Heaven help make New York City what it is - or maybe what it once was - and its closing will make it a little poorer. Sad.
36
I don't think I ever ate at this Burger Heaven, but as fellow septuagenarian Michael G. notes below, Hamburger Heaven was a terrific burger joint. Maybe the best of them all. Countless cheeseburgers (and the occasional special burger cooked with burgundy wine!) over many decades.
15
Brilliant. The loss is immeasurable.
25
You know, we are just entering a different pase that’s all. Welcome to a new scene. Bonding happens at food trucks too, which is ubiquitous of a Manhattan street scene.
5
Literally brought tears to my eyes. I don’t live in NYC, but this has been my favorite hamburger restaurant for decades.
31
This farewell also mentions gone-but-not-forgotten Prime Burger, my favorite spot of the bunch.
I am not so sure that I blame the young generation for the grab-and-go mentality. I do blame technology. The conveniences of being connected online have displaced the joys of a lunch at these "heavens, whether it's a 20-minute pit stop at the counter, or an hour spent in close conversation in a booth.
25
@NR I too loved Prime Burger. I still miss the funky fold-over table/trays.
11
I don't know about the third-place thing. I'm of that generation you speak of and having a place between home and work/school where I feel just as at home makes a big difference in my quality of life.
51
Nearly 70 years ago, on my way to summer camp, my mother would have us stop in NYC for three days or so, and we stayed at the New Weston hotel on Madison & 50th. One of the unforgettable pleasures for me was our lunches at Hamburger Heaven, where the burgers were the best, and I discovered Guernsey milk, delicious with its high fat content (but back then no one cared about that).
I will soon be 78, and no one will convince me that I have not lived during the golden age of mankind. Hamburger Heaven was a small part of that, and I am grateful for it.
185
@Michael G Agree 100%.
18
@Michael G "the golden age of mankind." Well said. I will be 72 this year and couldn't agree more. Our generation has been blessed.
49
a shame. I am not a nNew Yorker, but I know and love cities of all sizes and what makes them vibrant and home for so many - not just homogeneous and soulless places. Local restaurants and diners are (were?) one of those things. Thank you for this article and best of luck to all who worked at and were not strangers at Burger Heaven.
65
I will miss this place and if I can get in today will have trouble deciding what to have. That said, you did not mention that it is probably the most expensive "coffee shop" in the city. Perhaps another reason for its demise.
18
@Carole
I guess it's all relative. Compared to Boston, their prices are a steal! And when you count in service, no less by folks like Yossy, they blow Starbucks, Shake Shack, and the myriad chains that have proliferated out of the water.
All the more, it's sad to see places like Burger Heaven close. One more thread in the increasingly strained fabric of community is lost.
43
I grew up in Manhattan and all of their places were great. Reasonable, warm and nice crowd. Beth
4
If you grow up in NY, the one constant is change. But long as Guy’s byline appears in the local paper, even the last one in business, NY will always be home sweet home to me, a village by any measure.
3