Byron Hamburgers: Patty Zenith.

I remember the early days when Byron was the new kid on the block, did sliders and was firmly a West London thing. I didn’t think much of them back then, but all that’s change. I am a little amazed that some of my friends still haven’t tried a Byron yet. There are now ten locations spread across the most densely populated parts of town, while they maintain a reticent philosophy to burgers and life, each branch has its own individual character.

I’m not going to pontificate about burgers – I know very little about them to be quite honest (I remain un-shacked) – but I do visit a Byron at least once every month (actually, I now use it as an incentive to go running) and I just love them to bits. The charred beefiness… ohh… I am a gruyère, medium rare with skinny chips. My local is Gloucester Road, but I like the new Old Brompton branch, a little further away from me, which opened last month. However, my favourite is the Intrepid Fox in Soho. Just ambiance I mean, burgers are consistent across the board, it’s a franchise afterall.

Let’s see now, I have been to the High Street Ken one, Westfield, Gloucester Road, Old Brompton Road, Intrepid Fox, Covent Garden…. but have never been to the Canary Wharf, Islington, Kings Road or Kingston ones.

As an aside, this is the first of a new category of blog posts I intend to create weekly (in addition to the usual long form reviews). As much as I am a firm believer of never cropping my images, I have recently become obsessed with grid systems and am exploring ways of applying it to photography. The actual inspiration, however, came when I saw the dynamically generated photo montages in flipboard, really impressive stuff, and has to been seen if you have an iPad near you. I also have swish new software in Lightroom 3, which has a much better imaging engine, that allows me to recycle my old images and make them look brand new. It is just another reason for me to work on my food photography.

These panels are inspired by comic book panels, you got to get Surrogates, especially the hardcover Owner’s Manual, it’s brilliant.

About the only thing better than a Byron… is the Byron Big D. It was a special item that ran for a few months earlier this year (or was it 09?). The patty is made with using O’Shea’s excellent Irish beef…. oh man, now that was a burger…. and it is still available to buy at O’Sheas, the butchers in Knightsbridge. So if you are planning one last barbecue, I highly recommend getting a couple of patties from Darragh.

Accessible, affordable and simply delicious, as hamburgers should be.

Thegistofit Byron Hamburgers, £7.25, all over.

What the Burgerrati say about Byron: Will Eat for Money ; Food by Mark ; Cheese and Biscuits ; Young and Foodish ; The Epicurean.

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