The Butchers Club: Gourmet Burgers With Dry-Aged Beef Patties
Finally, Parkview Green at Dongdaqiao embraces some new blood this month, and we mean that literally. You might know what I’m excited about if you’ve been to any one of The Butchers Club's four locations in Hong Kong. Specializing in grain-fed, dry-aged beef steak imported from Australia, and burgers made with those beef steaks, The Butchers Club always delivers an unforgettable meal, which has won it spots in the Michelin Guide Hong Kong in 2016 and 2017.
Just like their sister outlets in Hong Kong, The Butchers Club in the basement of Parkview Green has the guts to provide burgers (and mainly burgers) to the already quite saturated market of Beijing. There are seven varieties on the menu, such as their classic burger, Double Happiness (RMB 168), Captain Ahab (RMB 108), The Gambler (RMB 88), The Hogtown (RMB 118), Wu Tang (RMB 118), and a vegetarian burger (RMB 78).
Grilling two 10kg beef patties was no easy
During our visit to the grand opening earlier this week, they made a giant burger in front of the hungry audience – two 10kg beef patties cooked first on a grill and then browned using a gas torch, dressed with a ridiculous number of slices of cheddar cheese distributed with precision, gingerly laid to rest on buns covered with tomato slices and pickles, topped with maple-glazed bacon, and doused with their special sauce. After a mere hour of cooking in front of us, the giant burger was finished to cheers and applause. Standing in front of such a burger, one that contained 20 kilograms of beef, I found myself awestruck and at a loss for words. Could there be any better way to symbolize The Butcher Club's massive potential in the Beijing burger scene?
It looks like a movie prop, but actually tastes delicious
The hulking amalgam of meat and bread was sliced like a towering, multi-tiered birthday cake. The slice we were given was quite delicious; the patty was cooked to perfection with a juicy pink inside, the sauce was tangy and spicy to balance the richness of the patty, and the bun with a sprinkling of flour reminded us of Italian bread.
According to Jonathan Glover, founder of The Butchers Club and who has been in the F&B industry for over 20 years, the secret to their near-perfect burgers is that “The patties are made of 14-day dry-aged Black Angus beef from New South Wales, Australia. We mince 80 percent steak and 20 percent fat and hand mix the beef patty gently to keep from making it too 'bitty' in the old-fashioned way. Then we throw them back to the kitchen to grill to a perfect medium, remaining pink in the center.”
A classic burger here consists of a buttermilk scotch bap, The Butcher Club's special sauce, maple-glazed bacon, mature white cheddar from Australia, a dry-aged beef patty, housemade pickles, and slices of tomato.
Like a fine wine, dry-aged beef steaks get better with time
Unlike the Hong Kong outlets, this new Parkview Green location also serves salads, steak sets (RMB 238-248), and – what we're most keen to try now that we've sampled the beef – duck fat fries, which are fried twice in vegetable oils, and a third time in duck fat. If you are the do-it-yourself type, there are also several other options for dry-aged steaks to go, such as the T-bone (RMB 568 for 450g), striploin (RMB 228), grass-fed filet (RMB 228 for 170g), and center cut rib-eye (RMB 228).
With the previous success in Hong Kong and a deep understanding of burgers and beef, there’s no doubt that The Butchers Club will be a strong contender in the Beijing burger market and our annual the Beijinger Burger Cup come 2018.
The Butchers Club
Daily 10am-10pm. LG2-13, Parkview Green, 9 Dongdaqiao Lu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区东大桥路9号LG2-13
Photos courtesy of The Butchers Club, Tracy Wang
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