The ice cream Eddie Lakin is using for the milkshakes at Edzo’s is a brand you’ve never heard of—a normal, regulation, non-premium brand. But that’s hard to believe after downing one of his shakes, which are uncommonly and luxuriantly thick. This is particularly true with the Nutella flavor, which has an underscore of nuttiness that doesn’t just taste rich—it tastes expensive.
Of course, high-low is Lakin’s whole point. He’s created a gourmet burger joint that isn’t gourmet, or at least isn’t gourmet in the way that those other high-end burger flippers are. The interior is a stab at authentic Vienna Beef dive, and for the most part the menu sticks with that theme: It’s all patty melts and char dogs and cheese fries. But it doesn’t take long to notice the truffle fries (made with truffle salt, not oil, because Lakin thinks it’s a purer product), or that Nutella option in the shakes. Where does the low-brow end and the high-end begin? The answer is that it’s intertwined, because the most crucial, highfalutin thing Lakin does—grinding his own meat and hand-cutting the potatoes for his fries—infects almost every dish. These details are impossible not to notice. The burgers actually taste beefy, and the fries—both the regular and the “old” style, which is Lakin’s way of saying “well-done”—are textbook examples in frying. This means it’s a little hard to see the place as what it’s trying to emulate (those quick, surly, greasy Vienna shops never get it this right), but that’s okay. Lakin is putting most of his efforts into his product, not the surroundings. And ultimately that’s all anybody will remember about a meal here anyway.
By David Tamarkin