Strange Bird's barria burger marries Mexican street food flavors with traditional fare
I am not going to admit how many times I have been to Strange Bird since it opened back in July.
Okay: six.
Each time, I have returned with the intention of ordering something other than the staggeringly delicious birria burger, but I have yet to stray from what has become my usual.
I have no regrets.
What co-chefs de cuisine Daniel Aranza and Felipe Vera have concocted may well be the most unique take on a most familiar fare, and this mouthwatering mélange of Mexican and ‘Merican has raced to the top of my monthly must-eats and sits side by side with Over Yonder’s double stack as the best burger in town.
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Traditional braised-beef-and-consommé dish re-envisioned as a burger
“Birria is a dish,” Aranza explained. “Traditionally, it’s made into tacos or served in a bowl with the braised meat in a consommé.”
The latter preparation is similar to ropa vieja, a rich, unctuous broth filled with fall-apart protein that is then spooned up or scooped into tortillas.
Transforming this into a burger was a brainwave, a rendition neither chef had seen in their native country.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a birria burger,” Aranza admitted. “I’ve seen quesabirria tacos, which are really blowing up now, but as far as a burger, not really.”
“We were just spitballing stuff. We had done so many different burgers on the food truck,” he recalled, “that we were just narrowing it down to what would be a good one.”
At first bite, this tender burger tastes like the beef has been braised for hours, but the meat magic is thanks to the mixture of fresh-ground chuck and sirloin, made into a patty and smash-grilled, seasoned with a house-blended chorizo spice salt.
“Because it’s super-fresh, the patty is more like a steak,” Aranza correctly commented.
“We also add beef fat to it,” Vera mentioned. “That’s why it’s nice and crispy.”
Instead of pickles or lettuce or tomato, the veg co-star is chiles toreados, a staple at Mexican street taco stands, whole jalapeños grilled with onions, peppers, Worcestershire sauce, and lime juice.
“Our version, all those same flavors are in there, and everything is sliced up almost into a jam-ish,” Aranza said.
On top of the patty go the toreados and the super-melty not-overpowering oaxaca cheese, and a confit garlic aioli is the bread spread. If you have yet to treat yourself, the tortas at Strange Bird are not served on teleras or bolillos but on grilled toast.
You will not complain one bite.
The secret sauce to the Strange Bird burger
For some diners, a bowl of stepping beef broth might be the most unexpected accompaniment for a burger, but this is Strange Bird’s singular approach to au jus.
“It’s like a mother of consommé,” Aranza said lovingly. “The barbacoa that we smoke for the tacos, that gets braised after it comes out of the smoker, and all those liquids get saved with the previous consommé.”
“Every week,” he continued about the marinade that started with guajillo peppers, basil, onion, garlic, “it’s constantly building and building,” much like saving a bit of a sourdough batch to feed the next.
“So today, I am going to marinade meat and let it sit overnight,” Vera said. “Tomorrow, I’ll smoke it, and I have a little leftover consommé to braise overnight, eight hours.”
When the burger is served, the bowl of consommé gets a garnish of fresh cilantro and lime juice.
“More and more, as people try it, they tell others,” Aranza said of the birria burger’s burgeoning word-of-satisfied-mouth popularity.
“For me, that’s the best advertisement, when somebody recommends it.”
Like I am to you all right now.
Strange Bird (1220 Barnard Street) is open for lunch and dinner Thursday through Monday (11 a.m. to 9 p.m.).
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Strange Bird's birria burger vies for Savannah's best
