I could make this a really long story about the true roots of the Palena burger,(and the hot dog for that matter). About how even before Palena opened, my wife and I had would have an on and off need to find the best local burger, but I'll stick to the Palena burger.
There seem to be two main issues...the size of the bun, and the juicieness.
First the bun..before putting the burger on the Cafe menu we tried several variations on ratio of meat to bun. I ultimately decided that me being a "sopper", I wanted enough bread in my hand first to handle the meat, and second, to sopp up any juices that might, and does, drip on to the plate. Even to sopp the oil that we drizzle on the pickles. A good quality bun is the key here..(by the way, the bun is more of a Parker House roll dough and not the brioche bun of which it is routinely referred. Brioche seems to have lost all of it's noble distinction..but that is another issue), fresh baked daily, lightly grilled then topped with the garlic scented mayonnaise.
The meat: We started off a little smaller than we have now (the bun has stayed the same size) and after much Q&A and customer feedback, we opted to go a little heavier. We are not trying to be cheap here, it is just that we are trying to make a really good burger. Too much meat could be bad as well. We make every effort to control what we can..Bun-recipe, mayo-recipe, same ingredients to make them, same cheese, we have been buying the same meat now for months(we grind it ourselves every day)..but lately there does seem to be some difference, not only of the burger meat, but even the Kobe style beef we buy and the veal..could be a seasonal thing. another factor that comes into play is who shaped the burgers that day..everyone tries doing it the same, but making it a bit too compact does offer some variation.Although we all pay just as much attention to building the burger and with the same passion as we do say, the boudin blanc, some variation does seem to occur.
