Burger Paradise at 5 Napkin Burger

There are some nights that are so good that you never want it to end.  Friday night was definitely one of those nights.  Let me start from the beginning.  My friend Megan organized a group dinner at the newly-opened 5 Napkin Burger in the Prudential Center.  Our dining companions consisted of a fun group of food blogger pals - Jen, Justin, Kristen, Megan, Meghan and myself.  All of our significant others were also included so this turned into a large affair with twelve people and we had plans to meet there for 7:30 PM.

Bret and I had some errands to run in the area (which included splurging at Williams Sonoma) so we arrived there early at 7 PM and decided to put our name down for a table.  Megan had called earlier in the week and was told that they didn't take reservations for groups more than twelve people.  This seemed bizarre to all of us but it all worked out in the end.

Meghan and her husband Eric arrived shortly after we did and we grabbed a table in the bar area.  The bar was crowded with the usual Friday night crowd and with people who were waiting for a table like we were.  Thankfully 5 Napkin Burger has a great beer menu and I decided to start my evening off with a Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat. 

As the rest of the group began to arrive, we grabbed more seats, enjoyed our pre-dinner drinks, and got to catch up with each other.  Since most of us food bloggers see each other on a regular basis, we are all pretty familiar with each other but we rarely all bring our significant others to the same event so it was also great to introduce our significant others to each other.

Since we were such a big group, we had a bit of a wait.  After a second Cherry Wheat, I decided to switch to the cocktail menu and ordered a Berry Apricot Fizz.  This bubbly cocktail had a nice strawberry flavor to it but it wasn't too sweet.  Plus, it had such a pretty look to it!

We were finally seated a little after 8:30 PM and we were all famished.  To start, Bret and I split some appetizers with Justin and his wife Leah.  First, we split the deep-fried pickles and pastrami.  I honestly wasn't sure what to expect.  I was envisioning a basket of pastrami topped with deep-fried pickles.  Instead, this appetizer consisted of a thin slice of pastrami wrapped around a pickle and deep-fried with a tangy mustard and chopped onions.  This definitely wasn't the healthiest first bite but it was certainly the tastiest.

Our second appetizer was the cornmeal crusted onion rings, which came with blue cheese dressing and the house 5N sauce.  I only had one of these rings (since I was saving room for my actual meal) but I loved how crunchy the cornmeal crust was.  I will definitely be recreating this with a baked version in my kitchen soon.

I ordered the original 5 Napkin burger but before the burger arrived, our sides came.  The burgers don't come with any sides so everything is ordered a la carte.  Bret and I decided to split two sides.  The first was my choice - the tater tots.

These were not your ordinary tater tots as they were creamy herbed mashed potatoes rolled in bread crumbs.  These were ridiculous and I seriously could have made a meal on those addictive tater tots!

Our second side were the sweet potato fries.  Since I make sweet potato fries and chips regularly, I've gotten used to the crispy and non-greasy baked version.  Although these were fried, they were definitely crispy and not greasy, which I definitely enjoyed.

Soon thereafter came the burgers.  Everyone ordered a burger of some type - lamb, tuna, vegetarian - but most of us ordered the original 5 Napkin burger.  This seriously might have been the best burger I've ever eaten.  The beef was cooked to a perfect medium and was topped with caramelized onions, gooey melted gruyere cheese, rosemary aioli on the softest white roll.

This burger was messy and delightful.  While I'm not much of a burger snob, I will say that this burger was unlike anything I've ever eaten before.  I'm not sure if it was the quality of the meat or the perfect bread but I didn't even need a single condiment for the burger.  Amazing. 

I washed my burger down with a sake-tini, a cocktail which included jalapeno-infused vodka and sake.  It was so crisp and refreshing, which strangely complimented the rich decadent burger I was inhaling.

I wish I ate every last bite of my burger but I didn't.  I was absolutely stuffed.  But was I stuffed enough to not order dessert?  Absolutely not.  I had already looked at the menu beforehand and knew there was no way I wasn't going to order a salted caramel milkshake.  Our server brought us ice cold glasses and straws before the milkshakes arrived but the milkshakes took a long time so the glasses weren't really that cold by the time we poured the milkshakes into our glasses.  This didn't make much of a different because this milkshake was salted caramel perfection.
 

They gave you about two glasses worth of milkshake and I would have gladly shared with Bret but he was too busy enjoying his S'mores milkshake, which tasted just like S'mores.

The meal was truly outstanding and the prices were reasonable.  I didn't take any photos of the interior but I'd describe it as a bistro vibe with a meat factory twist.  To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the meat hooks or the meat scale decor but I understood what they were trying to go for.  The music was sublime and it ranged from Nirvana to indie rock.  But perhaps the most enjoyable part of the evening was the company.  Whether we talked about the upcoming marathon, homemade marshmallows, or whether anyone really uses the top flat sheet, the conversation was lively and full of laughter.  I'll say it again - There are some nights that are so good that you never want it to end.  Friday night was definitely one of those nights.

5 Napkin Burger is located at 105 Huntington Avenue (in the Prudential Center), Boston, MA.

Baked Chicken Breast with Mushrooms, Onions and Garlic in White Wine Sauce

On Sunday night, B and I decided to make a huge Sunday dinner so that we would have plenty of leftovers for lunch the following day.  We decided to use our standby protein - boneless chicken breast and to bake it with whatever vegetables we had in our fridge.  We took out three large chicken breasts out of the freezer and once it was thawed, B halved the chicken breasts to make six thin pieces of chicken breast.  The chicken breast was given a quick seasoning of black pepper, salt and herbs de Provence and then given a nice sear on the stove.

Because we didn't have a casserole dish big enough, we added the chicken breasts along with three halved cloves of garlic to a baking pan and set it aside.

We then got to work on the vegetables.  I peeled about a dozen of small boiler onions.  I added it to the sauce pan with some olive oil to get some nice color on the onions.

B washed and chopped up a package of white button mushrooms and added that to the pan with the onions.

I also added three minced cloves of garlic.  We did a simple sauce that consisted of a cup of chicken broth and half a cup of leftover Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc from our chicken piccata with mushrooms dish last week.  I let the vegetables and sauce simmer to cook down the wine a bit.

We then poured the sauce and vegetables over the chicken breasts.

The baking pan was covered with aluminum foil with holes in it and put in the oven at 350 for about twenty minutes.

The end result was a moist chicken breast chock full of yummy vegetables. Next time we make this, we'll probably thicken the sauce up with a little flour or corn starch to make it more like a gravy.  The vegetables were delicious browned and sopped up the white wine sauce wonderfully.

Since the dish was a bit lacking in the color department, we added a side of simple sweet potato fries using one large sweet potato.  We cooked this in a very similar fashion as our sweet potato chips but with a lesser cooking time.  We made a quick Sriracha and sour cream dipping sauce for the sweet potato fries.  Although the sweet potato fries were a bit mismatched as a side dish for the chicken, it was still tasty nonetheless.

This was another simple dinner but incredibly filling.  The chicken breasts were even better yesterday for lunch because it had really sopped up all of the delicious white wine sauce.  I've really been focusing on simple, easy and healthy meals lately that don't sacrifice on flavor and I'd love to hear some of yours!