Kaluba Burger

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: The Jackson Hole Experience: Episode 1

On an impromptu outing to get some good burgers with a fellow food enthusiast friend of mine, I wound up having my first ever Jackson Hole Experience.

Location: East 83rd – 84th and 2nd ave, Manhattan

Evening 7:30pm

The Jackson Hole Entrance

Located just around the corner from 86th and Lexington you can find Jackson Hole Diner. A fellow food enthusiast friend of mine had told me about a great burger place called Jackson Hole and so we decided to meet up there and try their fare. I arrived first and made my way toward the entrance.

Closer Look at the Front

Upon entrance into the establishment, I noticed the 80’s American diner feel Jackson Hole offers. Jackson Hole was actually established in 1972. There is a nice nostalgic feel to the place that managed to keep my attention for more than a few moments.

Inside Jackson Hole

Check out the Ole School Juke Box.

I was eventually seated in a booth towards the middle rear of the diner before deciding to order a beer while I waited for my friend to arrive. I looked over the pink menu (as if the name of this place wasn’t sexually suggestive enough lol) placed on the table and began to ponder which burger I’d like to try.

The Pink Menu Cover leaves something to be desired.

I apologize in advance for the poor image quality of the inside of the menu. I should have taken a few more shots at a farther distance to capture the entire menu, and give you a better idea of what Jackson Hole has to offer. However, in this visit my attention focused solely on the burger section of their menu.

Inside the Menu of Jackson Hole

While I waited a server delivered a saucer full of cold and seemingly freshly sliced pickles to go with my Blue Moon.

The Appetizer Round

My friend arrived not too long after I received the pickles & beer. We looked over the menu and knew within moments what we’d each have. I selected a side order of onion rings to go with my main order of two of Jackson Hole’s burgers that piqued my interest. My friend opted for a cheeseburger with steak fries…

Those Onion Rings were sinfully delicious and perfectly fried I must say.

I settled on the New Yorker and The Kaluba Burger which I had ham and tomato and raw onions over the half pound of beef smothered in American cheese. I wanted to find out if I’d actually like a stuffed gorgonzola burger from Big Nick’s the next time I went and figured this would be the perfect opportunity to test out that hypothesis and so I added Gorgonzola to the American on the New York Burger. The Kaluba Burger was of intrigue because I hadn’t had ham on a burger in some time no pun intended. 😉

Jackson Hole’ New Yorker Burger. What a burger?!!

Yes just when you thought I didn’t have enough onions on the table, I had fresh raw onion on top of fried ham balancing on top of a thick, well done, juicy burger smothered in American cheese. I then turned my gaze on my New York Burger. When I looked over my New York burger I remembered my plate of onion rings and the light bulb went off.

This is how you build upon a great burger. Throw some onion rings on dat %$#^. LOL

If you look close enough you can see the layer of melted gorgonzola cheese underneath the blanket of American. Despite the amazing look of the burger, my tongue was displeased with the combination in taste between the two cheeses as the gorgonzola overpowered the taste of the entire burger.

I ended up having to scrape a significant part of it off the burger before being able to finish it properly. In addition I also had to cut a smaller portion of lettuce from the unruly large hunk given to top my burger which was quickly becoming crowded.

I often wonder, why is it that most diners don’t do a better job of adequately cutting up their lettuce to bites that aren’t a tall order to chew through. For me, a massive hunk of barely regulated lettuce, slapped on my plate to garnish my burger is a big turnoff.

In any case I loved the combination of adding onion rings to my Kaluba burger so much so that I repeated the process on The New York burger.

The crowning of a New Yorker Burger at Jackson Hole.

That be right folks, I piled the fried onion rings on top of the raw ones and then added my tomato and it all came together like a symphony that was oh so satisfying. Mmm mmm Son!!! On the plate towards the bottom is in fact a smearing of A1 steak sauce that was used to sample some of the remaining onion rings.

Now for the assessment of the quality of the meal and the attention to detail. I have to say that eating at Jackson Hole was an experience that highlighted the week for me, as thanks to my good friend, I now have yet another fantastic burger place to eat at whenever I’m in the mood for an amazingly great tasting burger in the city!!! Jackson Hole lives up to their advertising of having thick nearly half pound burgers.

The quality of the beef in my burger was one of the best I’ve had all year and I have to say outdoes by the slimmest of margins the burger offerings of Blue 9 Burgers and Schnippers at this point. I’ll eventually do a side by side comparison of Blue 9, Big Nick’s, Shake Shack, Schnippers, and Jackson Hole to find which of them I like the best stay tuned for that in the near future. 😉

As for taste there was no gaminess to the burgers whatsoever. Once again I was reminded of what great quality burgers taste like as my first bite into my New Yorker took me back to fond childhood memories of eating at Burger Barn with family as a rare treat.

The texture and thickness of eat burger was perfectly moist yet well done ie no pink meat showing inside anywhere, just how I like my burgers. The onion rings were fried perfectly golden and not soggy but light and crunchy and our beers arrived cold fresh off tap. In all it was well worth the price of admission.

On a scale of 1 to 5 dinner plates where 5 is the highest score possible for the following categories I score Jackson Hole a 5 out of 5 dinner plates for quality & taste. 4 1/2 dinner plates for presentation, 5 dinner plates for attention to detail as far as my preparation requirements and lastly 4 out of 5 dinner plates for price for an average dinner plate score of 4.7 dinner plates out of 5. Not too shabby Jackson Hole.

By the time we concluded our meal both burgers were completely gone sans the scraped off gorgonzola and left over lettuce refuse. No onion rings survived and the smoothness of my remaining Blue Moon helped cleanse my palete.

At the end of the day only some initial pickles remained.

After paying our tab which came in at nearly $66 including a 20% tip mostly due in part to my order 😉 I took this final parting image as we left an awesome burger joint. If you feel the price is a bit too high realize that there was the cost of several beers, the side order, and additional charge for gorgonzola cheese. I’d say pricing was right on par with that of Big Nick’s and the quality of the meal as I said matched the value in price paid. However, I welcome any burger enthusiast to check out Jackson Hole and tell us what you think of them. Are they rated too high? Or not high enough?