Neighborhood To Revamp Menu, So Long 777 Burger

A longtime resident is moving out of the Neighborhood.

The 777 Burger, a combo of organic baby spinach, plum tomatoes confit and béarnaise sauce, will enter burger heaven on Sunday, April 28.

The reason is as plain and simple as a cheeseburger: basic is back in style.

Inspired by chefs like Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 in Manhattan and Sean Brock of McCrady's and Husk in Charleston, who apply their skills and cooking technique to simple ingredients, owner Arsalun Tafazoli and executive chef Jason McLeod (who created Eater's Meatball Burger at Soda & Swine) are changing the direction of the food at their downtown spot; expect Neighborhood's incoming menu to hone in on the true essence of a burger: a bun, meat and American cheese.

"Now we just want to simplify even more and really go back to the roots of the classics," said Tafazoli, who founded Neighborhood six years ago. "So as we attempt to revamp, we have to lose a few items in the interest of making a shift in approach, and we decided to part with the 777."

At least one thing on the menu will remain the same: the lack of ketchup.

"The reason we don't offer it is because its epitomizes the over processed food product and drowns out any attempts at achieving any other flavor (besides ketchup)," Tafazoli said, "We initially offered it, but too many people would come in and without even taking a bite, just completely douse our food in it....our chef and myself would take it personally, we put an enormous amount of time and effort into the food and they wouldn't even give it a chance. We were young, passionate, arrogant and dickhead-ish at the time and probably took it a little more personal then we should have, but never really looked back."
-Tierney Plumb
· Neighborhood [Official Site]
· All Burger Week Coverage [~ESD~]