The Burger Joint, NY
It is rare to find a really unique hamburger restaurant. While visiting New York City, however, I found one! Let me explain how I found this hidden gem:
While walking through Central Park, I came across a barbecue. The scents made me really want a burger, so my girlfriend and I started searching for something with a higher quality than McDonalds. She checked a guidebook and found “The Burger Joint” a few blocks from where we were standing. We decided to hunt down the restaurant with the plain name and found ourselves at the doors to a very expensive-looking hotel.
In t-shirts and jeans we were highly under-dressed for such a fancy hotel; I was worried the “joint” would really be an upscale black-tie restaurant, so we almost left. A brief moment of bravery led us inside, though, and we asked a hotel employee for directions. He gestured to a hallway next to a large curtain. It felt like a narrow service corridor, but sure enough, there was a small hamburger sign at the end of the hall.
The Burger Joint itself was fantastic. It had the feel of a hidden speakeasy, and one of the best cheeseburgers I have ever tasted. There were movie posters on the walls, great music blaring from the kitchen, a college football game on the TV above my booth, and signatures from members of SNL above my head. The service was incredibly fast, and I never saw the line dissipate.
All with zero advertising, but LOTS of marketing.
The restaurant is positioned perfectly. It is a hideaway burger cafe that you need to know about before you can find it. There are no signs to the restaurant outside and zero advertising on the street. This limits the number of people inside to a comfortable community. The intimate design brings an equally intimate feel and makes you forget you are dining in a hotel you couldn’t afford to stay in.
The product was fantastic, the place is perfect, the price was just right, and the positioning is better than anyone could hope for. Whether by accident or design, the Burger Joint in NY is an off-the-beaten-path restaurant with a neighborly feel in one of the most populated areas of the country.
You probably notice that I haven’t given you any links or any directions. I think the advertising-free model the Burger Joint follows is perfect for their business, and I don’t want to threaten it in any way. If you want help finding the place, though, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.
[...] There are several restaurants that operate entirely through word of mouth marketing (the “ Burger Joint,” for example) and even a few larger businesses that do the same. Viral marketing is another [...]