Burgers, Shakes, and Fries v2.0 Opens in Darien

"It is the Americans who have managed to crown minced beef as hamburger, and to send it round the world so that even the fussy French have taken to le boeuf hache, le hambourgaire." - Julia Child

The long awaited opening of Burgers Shakes and Fries occurred yesterday in Darien with burgers and dogs grilling, fries frying and shakes shaking. For those, like me, who agree with Julia Child that the hamburger is an American icon, Kory Wollins has mastered the art of the burger and created an incredible rendition of this American classic 

BSF’s second location is situated at 800 Post Road in Darien at the intersection of Sedgewick Ave. just east of Route 124 and the Firehouse. And it is fantastic. For those who have not had the pleasure of eating one of the best burgers in CT at the original BSF in Greenwich, this location offers the same great products.

The menu at the new Darien location offers all of my favorite selections from the original site in Greenwich. In addition the Darien location offers burgers served on a roll as an alternative to the original grilled bread that I love. Great care has been taken in designing the space, both for the customer and the flow of food. The grill is 50% larger than the original location, there are two deep fryers for the French fries and the shake machine is located immediately in front of the assembly station. Burgers, dogs, shakes and fries will be delivered simultaneously while sodas will be available as the customer relaxes and waits for the food delivery.

The Darien location is significantly larger with parking available in the rear of the store (accessible from Sedgewick Ave), a fair amount of table seating and serves all of the fantastic delicacies from the Greenwich location, plus beer and wine. Patrons enter the Darien BSF from the rear, queue up, place their order, and leave their names (all similar to the original location). The customers have the choice of making new friends at one of the 16 seats at the long community table that occupies the center of the dining room, relax at one of seven 4-top tables or two 2-top tables, watch TV at one of eight seats at a long, tall table or to enjoy some good conversation with friends at the 11-seat bar. When the order is ready, runners bring all of the deliciousness to the table and you begin to savor some of the best burgers, dogs, shakes, and fries in the state.

I ordered my normal single bacon cheeseburger with fried onions, an order of fries and a chocolate shake, and on this first trip I also ordered a hot dog. When the food was delivered, the burger was grilled to the absolute perfection that I have grown accustomed to from BSF with the onions, cheese and bacon adding great flavors. The fries were properly cooked and seasoned and the chocolate shake has a modified version of Kory’s home brewed syrup, this version has a deeper and richer chocolate flavor and slightly less sweet, both are positives in my opinion. The hot dog was also excellent and might be better than any I have eaten at other CT dog dens.

For those who like a nice cold beer with their burgers, the Darien location serves five incredible beers on draft including Black Chocolate Stout, Purple Haze (served in very cool Purple Haze glasses), Lagunitas India Pale Ale, Allagash, Goffel Holsch (Koln) plus Docs Draft Hard Apple Cider. Several beers are also available by the bottle plus six wines. On a recent tour, Kory was kind enough to show me his high-tech beer refrigerator in all its glory. Through a series of tubes, the beer is chilled to just-above 32-degree perfection as it circulates from the basement to the ice encased taps. Wine drinkers can also choose from the opening day selection of Red Rock, Kenwood, La Villa, Danzante, William Hill and Arido.

Happily, my first visit to the Darien location was extraordinary. I am already looking at my calendar to schedule my next visit with friends.

What a great new addition to Darien and major Kudos to Kory and his team.