ME and my BUNS: How do You Like Yours?

(and a chance to win below!!)

by John Sunderland ©
Illustration "Retro Burger" is a classic drawing from John's weekly Riddle Raffle at Life 983

I order a Life Café Burger about once a week. To me as an older Yorkshireman from England, the American Burger is an international icon and the Life Café version is an excellent example.

The nearest thing we came to real burgers in the early sixties in England was watching Wimpy, the ever-famished character on the Popeye cartoons who suffered from perpetual burger lust, suck down another one, promising to re-pay the money he’d just hustled by Tuesday or Thursday. We kids, of course, knew he really meant never. Wimpy could eat his own weight in burgers during the course of a cartoon and always got away Scott free.

“Wimpy” was also the name of a burger cafe in our northern town. A visit was something of a treat. It wasn’t overly styled as an American version, though they did do milkshakes and Coke and called chips “fries.” And they had revolving pedestal seats just like in the films. In fact, apart from cartoons, as a kid I had no real idea that the “Burger” was an American institution destined to take over the world!

The best thing about Wimpy’s though wasn’t their burgers; it was their bright colored ketchup and mustard dispensers which sat plump and heavy on the yellow Formica tables. It was risky but if you were clever, you could squeeze the ketchup bottle hard enough to make it blow little red bubbles (ketchup farts really); but get it wrong and you could erupt ketchup all over your mum’s new coat

Why I’m writing this is because as I sat at the bar of Life Café 983 last night I was mesmerized by a chap next to me by the name of Brent Herrig. He’d ordered the Life Burger and was very seriously and studiously, almost scientifically, applying a thick coating of ketchup to the under-side of the top half of the bun. Then carefully and skillfully as he held the bun in mid air he moved it in a rotational way watching closely as the thick red wave moved around glutinously within its circumference. I’d never seen anyone do that before; seems Brent had a personal thing going on, his little ritual before munching it down. I asked him how the burger was and he said the Life Café Bushwick burgers (he hasn’t been to the East Village yet) was in his top three best burgers for New York.

All you could do with a Wimpy’s burger in 1962 was see how far you could get the melted cheese to stretch in thin rubbery threads as you held the top of the bun aloft, like some hovering UFO. I could get it to stretch about a foot before the cheese cooled and went solid.

Now that I’m older and more aesthetically sensitive, I sit at the bar and see just how tall and elegant I can make my burger by piling up everything (except fries) onto the meat patty with the bun on top. I imagine it’s a design for a new building, or the leaning tower of tomato and onions. Then I sit back and marvel at my unique creation, just before it falls over.

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR BUNS?

LIFE CAFE BURGER ARCHITECTURE CONTEST

How do you like to dress your Life Burger? Share your version in our Comments Section on the Life Café 983 Facebook Fan page for a chance to WIN YOUR BURGER, compliments of the house.

Your burger will then be featured on our specials menu with YOUR NAME attached!

Not a Facebook fan yet? Click the Badge below!

Become a Fan!

One Winner will be selected from the Facebook Fan page on November 1st, 2009. No Purchase necessary, yada yada yada!

And check out our friend Brent's amazing photography at www.brentherrig.com

LIFE IS JUST A BOWL OF CHILI at Life Cafe

Veggie Chili was the first hot item I served at Life Café in 1981. Warming, filling, loved by everyone, chili epitomized what people were looking for. Oh, and it was cheap.

To get the Cafe opened quickly I scrounged the neighborhood for snacks, the kinds of munchies loose change would buy. Dennis, a college buddy of David Life’s, arrived from Michigan about that time for a visit, curious and excited over our latest adventure, a real café in New York City.

One day Dennis and I talked about a menu. He jumped up exclaiming, “You must serve CHILI!” I was swept up by his enthusiasm and followed him into my kitchen.

“Start with cans of beans. You got fresh tomatoes? Onions? First sauté up some onions. And lots of garlic. Green pepper is good. You got celery? We can put some of that in. Where are your spices?

“Oh, Dennis, that’s too much cayenne!

“Oh, yeah. Ha, ha! I love it. Let’s throw in some black pepper too. Hot. It’s gotta be hot, hot, hot!

I didn’t serve his recipe but he convinced me about chili! I came up with my own recipe after researching the trusty old vegetarian cookbooks that had traveled with me cross-country. Dave and I were vegetarians since living in Michigan. I enjoyed discovering non-meat alternatives and experimenting with unusual ingredients. At Life Cafe, it was natural for me to serve food Dave and I liked and believed in eating. It was a challenge though to come up with menu ideas to appeal to a wider palate and to find ingredients that weren’t as readily available then as they are today.

But I had a mission. The health and fiscal advantages of vegetarianism were apparent. And I believed that by offering it on our menu showed we cared.

I charged fifty cents for Life’s Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili so our cash strapped artist and non-artist neighbors could enjoy a hot meal. I made sure that my chili was nutritious in case it happened to be the only meal someone ate that day. If a customer had an extra buck and wanted to splurge, the chili was available with brown rice and freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese for a bigger protein boost. This simple dish replenished one’s spirit with a near-to-complete protein meal.

Because it was the first item on Life Cafe’s menu and quickly became its backbone, Life’s Vegetarian Chili holds a special place on the menu for me. It’s a symbol of the ideals that Life Cafe was built upon, and serves as a reminder of where I started. It’s a symbol of what Life Cafe is about.

Yes, we all have had a lot of ups and downs recently in the world, but Life goes on. We elected a new President and started down a path of change. Speaking of change, we've got a lot of fresh new things happening at the East Village Life Café that compliments nicely with Barack Obama's message of hope. Our sister location, Life Café NINE83 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is tweaking things up too.

Welcome to the first post of the Life Café Blog! I've been planning to launch our own blog for weeks, and I'm really excited to use this medium as another way to connect with you. This post concentrates mostly on the East Village café as there's so much to update. We'll keep you posted on what goes on the Bushwick here as well.

My life's been entwined in Life Café for 28 years (as of this month actually!). My goal has been to provide an open door, a haven for all who walk in. It's always been more than just a business; Life Café has been a way of life for me, even if it's tougher than most. Life Café is more than great food; it's about people connecting to people.

In future blogs we plan to share the funny, amazing or just plain interesting stories that abound at Life Café from the past, present & possible future. We'll also post the weekly specials for both the E. Village and the Brooklyn cafes and anything else newsworthy. For this one, though, I just got to tell you what's new in the East Village first because I'm really energized about it.

We have a new chef, new & improved menu items, a new mangeress (as John, my Yorkshire, England, husband would call her), an ever–changing beer and wine menu, an expanded "Rescue Breakfast/Lunch Deal" and a slew of events planned for the coming months. We're doing a special brunch in the East Village on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. So let's get started.

Our new chef is Vincent Viseclia who's a pastry chef too, so we're looking forward to some great baking. For brunch, he's already introduced scones (espresso-chocolate and berry vanilla), muffins (Blue Heaven and carrot) and a new cornbread recipe. Scone and Muffin flavors will change weekly. His cornbread is light and moist. I couldn't believe my first bite; it reminded me of the wonderful cake my Lithuanian grandmother used to bake for us kids back in Detroit in the 50s and while we all pine for it, no one in the family knew her recipe! Imagine my delight. Funny thing, Vincent reminded me he used to make muffins for Life Café back in the 80s. Come to brunch and you'll have a basket of these baked wonders on the table just waiting for you to bite into. Also new to brunch is his light and tender Belgian Waffles served with fresh berries and assorted fruits with maple butter. Also new to brunch (as well as for breakfast during the week) is his light and fluffy pancakes and his French Kiss, French toast made with Brioche and his special batter topped with bananas poached in rum served with pastry cream. The staff raves about them so you know they have to be good. Crepes are coming soon!

He has a new source for our ground beef and turkey for our burgers that are moist and juicy and surpasses most others. These cost us a little more, but he assures me you'll love them so much I won't be sorry because you'll keep coming back for more.

Thanksgiving at the East Village café will be especially delicious. We're serving brunch Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 27th from 10am to 5:30 pm (last seating). We close at 7 pm. A special brunch menu includes a delicious turkey dinner platter made with Murray's organic free-range turkey and a Vegan platter. We'll also have something a little different on the regular brunch menu available. On Black Friday, November 28th we'll serve the same brunch menu from 10 am till 4:30 pm. We'll have the details in the next blog.

Bushwick Life Café will be closed Thanksgiving Day but will be opened on Black Friday at 11 am as usual and serving up brunch until 4:30 pm.

If your change purse is a little low, when you come in Monday through Friday between 10 am and 4 pm (for a limited time) you'll find our "Rescue Breakfast/Lunch Deal". Get two eggs, oven-roasted potatoes, toast or cornbread and coffee or tea OR buttermilk pancakes and coffee or tea for $4.25. We also run a lunch special for $5.95, a combo that includes a tasty soup of the day and a special half sandwich which have been selling very well. Hey, whatever we can do to help out until the "bailout" kicks in (let's hope that it won't be as long as some predict). We don't expect to save the world, but we'll save you some breakfast.

Andy Mills, the Beverage and Bar Manager at NINE83 treks all the way from Bushwick Life Café and helps us out in the East Village. He rotates beers regularly. Newest on tap is Six Point Brownstone. We also have Blue Moon Belgian White, Magic Hat #9 along with favorites Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Stella Artois, Guinness and Brooklyn Lager. A couple of new bottled beers Andy's brought in are Sam Adams Octoberfest, Hoptical Illusion Ale and Victory Prima Pilsner.

I love staying local with the Brooklyn Brewery microbrew brand. They were the first beers I brought in to Life Café when we got our first license to sell alcohol, a beer and wine license. Back in Lansing, Michigan, I used to make my own beer and wine and I was really tempted to brew beer on 10th St. and Ave. B. While the 80s East Village was a no-man's (and no-wo-man's) land, I figured I'd better not create any more problems than we already had in the neighborhood by selling a home brew. There must have been a law against it. Oh, well.

The red wines Andy's brought in recently have been well received. Particularly popular are the full-bodied Francis Ford Coppola Shiraz that sings of California sunshine for a chilly fall afternoon. The Wyatt Cabernet Sauvignon has a distinctive flavor of cinnamon and raisins, very nice for this time of year.

That reminds me; we've brewed up some tasty hot mulled cider — you'll get a whiff of the mulling spices when you walk in the door...so good.

Rebecca Hailey's been bartending for us for two months and became a manager at the end of October. She's "a smile on legs" as my husband says and she will indeed make you smile because she's just like that. Originally from New Jersey, she comes to us via Philadelphia. She's brought some of that Philly factor with her. She's got Quizzo going on Thursday nights at 9 pm, a Philly import that started in 1996, that's about to take over in New York City like it's done in LA. Quizzo happens on Tuesday nights starting November 18th too. A photography exhibit by Carrie Miller is being installed. Stop in to see her show and meet her at her opening party on Monday, December 1st at 8:30 pm. RENT closed on Broadway on September 7th and our tribute wall to Jonathan Larson will remain. It's above the Jonathan Larson Bench that we dedicated on September 5th at the incredible RENT Finale B Video contest party before the 50 passionate and wonderful RENThead video contest winners.

Come in for the charming Chas DePaulo on Wednesday, November 12th at 9 pm for some darn good musical entertainment. He's a member of the famous Irish band The Groundhogs and is an international session musician. For the winter Rebecca's also working on putting together a writers' series and improv comedy. If you're a writer and are interested, get in touch with Rebecca at get in touch with Rebecca at info@lifecafe.com

Don't forget to stop by and see John's weekly edition of his popular Riddle Raffle pastel drawing of the week. Guess what it represents (the clue is in one of the menus). Winners receive a bottle of champagne!

Tune in next time. And remember, Life's worth loving. Enjoy at least one thing in Life everyday and you won't go astray. Let us know what it was. Stay tuned to find out how.