Each year, Americans eat around 50 billion burgers, enough patties to go around the planet 32 times, according to MSN. We also consume three billion pizzas per year, with the average American personally taking down 46 slices on an annual basis.
The takeaway? We all should be hitting the gym a lot more. Also, since we all apparently love burgers and pizza so much, why not put them together? In some places, they do.
One of those places is Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer, a growing chain that opened its first restaurant in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in 2015 and has gone on to expand its reach with joints in locations including California, Nevada, Switzerland, Kuwait and Bahrain.
When Black Tap opened in NYC in ’15, its original menu included a pizza burger that was somewhat of an ode to the more-than-9,000 slice joints that call the city home, according to Black Tap executive corporate chef Stephen Parker.
“The pizza burger is one of our OG burgers,” Parker tells InsideHook. “When we opened Black Tap six years ago, we put it together as a nod at New York’s great pizza places. But, we went above and beyond to try to make it a little over-the-top. Just like a pizza, it has sauce and mozzarella, but there’s also homemade fried mozzarella that goes on top and a bunch of fresh Parmigiano Reggiano all over the burger itself.”
According to Parker, Black Tap’s take on the pizza burger also drew its inspiration from local restaurants with in Yonkers, where he grew up.
“It always brings me back to when I was younger,” he says. “Getting a burger that had sauce, melted cheese and a huge cup of hot marinara on the side. You would dip your burger in that sauce while eating it. I’d take a big bite, then do a dip and then take another bite. It had that melting cheese that pulls apart as you’re taking a bite. Great cheese is what a pizza needs to remember it by.”
During the developmental process, Parker and his team go through a tasting period and try to identify what would give somebody an experience or develop a memory. Black Tap’s pizza burger, and the memories it creates as well as harkens back to, is proof that the process works.
“I would categorize a pizza burger as one of the classics,” Parker says. “It’s legendary in diners and luncheonettes. Pizzerias have them. A lot of times you look at things on your menu and you classify them as legends or champions. A pizza burger would definitely be a Black Tap legend. We’re about making memories. That burger brings us back to those days we went to diners and luncheonettes with our parents and our friends. You’re getting every element of a pizza in a burger. It’s both wonderful things all in one.”
If you can’t make it to Black Tap in Dubai or NYC, which does have the pizza burger back on its menu, here is Parker’s recipe for whipping one wherever you call home.
Black Tap’s Pizza Burger
Ingredients
- 1 Martin’s potato bread bun
- One 7 oz. beef patty
- 2 oz. shredded, low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella cheese
- Two 1 oz. pieces of whole mozzarella cheese (for frying)
- 1 oz. shaved parmesan cheese
- 5 oz. tomato sauce
- .5 oz. chopped parsely
- Pince of salt
- French fries, cooked and seasoned
Directions for the sauce
- Season beef patty with salt and place in a preheated, flat-top griddle.
- Place Martin’s potato bread on the griddle and toast for 1-2 minutes on each side.
- Flip beef patty after 4-5 minutes and cook for additional 4-5 minutes or until the desired temperature has been reached.
- Heat tomato sauce in a saucepan.
- Fry two pieces of mozzarella.
- Add shredded mozzarella cheese to sauce and cover for 1 minute to melt the cheese.
- Add fried mozzarella, broken into four pieces, on top of melted cheese.
- Add 2 oz. of sauce and melted cheese to top the burger and place 3 oz. in side dish.
- When the burger is topped, place it on the bottom portion of bread and add shaved parmesan cheese on top. Garnish the burger with parsley and add the top bun.
- Add French fries and serve alongside sauce in side dish.
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