5.0 out of 5.0 stars
From a food perspective, when I moved here, I found myself asking why Tampa didn’t have this or that and why some things were done differently than what I was used to. Then my wife reminded me to embrace what the Tampa Bay area had to offer. I bought into that and have been embracing and enjoying all that is Tampa Bay ever since. Of course there are things I miss, but I guess I could’ve started my own restaurant. That wasn’t in the cards for me, but it was for two brothers, Amine & Yassine, born and raised in New York City. They’ve brought their NYC Smashburger & Chopped Cheese to Tampa.
𝘽𝙪𝙗𝙗𝙞 𝘽𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙧 – 𝘽𝙪𝙗𝙗𝙞 𝘽𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙧 (𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙚) & 𝙉𝙔𝘾 𝘾𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙨𝙚
I wanted to mention two menu items in this post as both are absolutely fantastic!
The Bubbi Burger patties are balled up at 2 1/2 oz., that’s why I had to go triple on both my visits. They smash them with a little twist. Diced onions are grilled up and the beef is smashed into the diced onions. I loved the liberal seasoning on the beef. A nice char and as juicy as a 2 1/2 oz. patty can be. American cheese is melted beautifully on the patties. A couple of thicker sliced pickles on top. Their Bubbi sauce is delicious and just enough to satisfy. You’ll be familiar with the toasted Martin’s Potato Rolls bun. If you eat at the food truck, they send this out open faced. See the goodness inside and close it up. This is one excellent Smashburger!
Let’s talk Chopped Cheese. Amine says to “think of it as a large chopped up burger, similar to a Philly cheesesteak, but NYC style. Ground beef, sweet peppers, chopped up with onions and few signature seasonings we make in house. Usually with American cheese”. The ground beef is seasoned beautifully and chopped up with those diced grilled onions, the sweet peppers, not a lot of peppers, with American cheese melted all over it and then slid it into their fantastic, soft, toasted NYC style Hero bread. They add some delicious Bubbi sauce as well. It’s an amazing sandwich!
What is a New York City style Smashburger? I think part of it is that the Smashburgers do not have “the salad”, if you will. No LTO. No lettuce, tomato or raw onion. This will save me the time of having to order it without LTO. That puts me in a New York state of mind.
