You’lll never need to ask ‘where’s the beef?’ at Burger Time.
The new burger joint at 1080 Morris Park Avenue near Lurting Avenue features 29 different varieties of hamburgers and 19 flavors of ice cream shakes, founder and owner Allen Scher said as he beamed with pride about his new businesses.
“It is a fast food, but everything is cooked to order,” he said, adding that the new restaurant delivers within a mile-and-a-half of it location. “Burgers can be a good thing if they are done right.”
Customers can take out or eat in, but inside is a real treat.
The décor resembles a city alley, complete with graffiti on the walls, and replica windows, fire escapes, utility poles and wires, clothes lines, an air conditioner disguised as roll down gate, door and stoop, and painted cobblestones on the floor and bricks on the walls.
It was an attempt by Scher at recreating an alley like the kind he and his friends used to hang out in growing up in Washington Heights. For his customers, it offers a different dining experience.
“It is almost like being outside and eating while you are inside,” he said.
Scher, who has has lived in Morris Park for 35 years, hopes to bring something new to the neighborhood, which he says has dining options mostly limited to Italian food, pizza places, and Chinese food.
Fast food restaurants don’t come nowhere near his burgers and fries in terms of quality, he said.
“We use real potatoes for fries,” he said. “We are cheaper that the diners. For six dollars and tax you are walking out of here with a six ounce burger and fries.”
The menu is reasonably priced, he said, with prices currently ranging from $5.99 plus tax for a hamburger and fries to $8.49 for a B.L.T. sandwich. They also offer a full range of 10-ounce salads, quesadillas, and sandwiches, as well as veggie, chicken and turkey burgers.
This is not Scher’s first restaurant. He was a partner for about ten years in a French bistro on the Lower East Side.
He got involved in that restaurant when he went to work there as an electrician, soon becoming a partner charged with running many of the restaurant’s day-to-day operations.
For Burger Time, Allen has hired all local people to staff the restaurant, with the exception of chef Tim Ray, a transplant from Arkansas. He also tries to buy food supplies as much as he can locally.
Though he continues to make a living as an electrician, Scher says seeing satisfied customers in his restaurant gives him a sense of accomplishment that was sometimes missing from his first career.
“As I got more involved with food, I came to like it more and more,” he said. “Here, when somebody leaves satisfied, it gives me a good feeling.”
As business grows, Scher said he’s planning outdoor dining with a waterfall out back. So far, he said, he’s happy seeing a lot of repeat customers.
To reach Burger Time, please call (718) 239-6210.
