Beef burger with cheese and bacon at Peckhamburger
Last week, I wrote my burger wishlist for 2014-15. It seems that you can’t swing a cat in London without hitting somewhere advertising its creation with ‘medium rare patty, brioche bun and house sauce/filthy sauce/dirty sauce’ (delete as appropriate) unless, it seems, you live in my particular corner of south-east London. There are, of course, pub offerings. Brockley Market on a Saturday has at least one burger on offer (usually the majestic Mother Flipper), and Dirty Burger is a mere 25 minutes on the 185 to Vauxhall. But nothing that is roll-out-of-your-front-door close. Dulwich/Peckham/Camberwell was somewhat lacking in burgers. So you can imagine the delight when Peckhamburger opened in the neighbourhood.
Peckhamburger is a very, very local creation. For one, it has made its home in the excellent Anderson & Co cafe on Bellenden Road, a bit of a Peckham institution that has already hosted a number of pop-ups in the evenings. As well as this, the meat for the burgers comes from local butcher Flock and Herd, an opening from a Ginger Pig alumni that has queues snaking around the block.
It is a simple set up, with just three burgers on the menu; beef, chicken and veggie; and each of these can be served ‘skinny’, so wrapped in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun. To these you can add cheese, blue cheese, a fried egg or bacon at a surcharge. There are three sides on offer, two puddings and a range of beers, wines and soft drinks. I opted for the beef burger with cheese and bacon and a side of the bloody mary salted fries.
The best thing about this burger is the quality of the meat. The beef patty is well-seasoned and full of flavour. It was cooked medium (not quite medium-rare) and tasted spectacular. On top of this was the Flock and Herd treacle cured bacon; crispy, a little sweet and very smoky. It is the best bacon I have had on a burger anywhere. As well as this there was a good amount of cheese and a lot of pickles. The challah bun, similar to brioche but without the butter, held together well despite the juiciness of the burger, and the little smear of aioli gave it a nice kick.
Peckhamburger seem to have done their research and brought the best elements of a good London burger to SE15. Using a well-known local cafe as a base and well-known local butcher as a supplier almost guarantees a step up on any competition nearby, despite the simplicty of the menu. There is nothing about this burger that I didn’t like, although we did end up in a debate at the table about whether such a rich bun was the right bread to use for such a great burger: Challah is a great, slightly less rich alternative to brioche, however some at our table felt that a non-enriched bread would better showcase such quality ingredients and that the extra richness was superfluous. Either way, we all left happy and had a very short walk home.
Peckhamburger @ Anderson & Co (Wednesday – Saturday evenings only), 139 Bellenden Road, London SE15 4DH
Six Hundred and Seven Square Miles 