La Cense Beef Burger Truck

When I first read that a burger truck that served grass-fed steakburgers (La Cense Beef Burger Truck) was about to hit the streets of NY I thought, "Ok, that's cool." The trend of specialty foods served from a truck seems to be everywhere in NY these days (see Rickshaw's Dumpling Truck or Van Leeuwen's Gourmet Ice Cream Truck). But then I found out that they tweeted the location everyday. I was sold. I mean, a burger stand that used technology really hit home for me (see Shake Shack web cam). l loved the idea of a burger truck updating its location as it moved around NY, like a modern take on the ice cream truck. But instead of hearing the ice cream truck jingle coming down the street, grabbing money from your mom and running out the door, you just check Twitter.

Bex and I decided to check out the burger truck in its element: Midtown Manhattan, Columbus Circle, during the week, at lunch time. I had this idea of the two us standing in line yelling out our order over a crowd of Mad Men type business people, the whole time with open mouth smiles. So after checking the location I show up but spend about 5 minutes going back and forth along the street before I realize I'm standing right in front of it. First of all, there was no line. The only person there was a homeless guy laying down by the building across from the truck, eating a burger. Second, the truck didn't look like a burger truck (see photo.



Maybe its the designer in me but rolling hills and fluffy clouds does not scream burgers...at all. I thought it looked like a Windows desktop. Bex thought it looked like a Ben and Jerry's tub. I understand the grass-fed idea, but show me photos of what I'm going to eat not what the cow is going to eat. And don't get me started on the logo. Anyway, so we order. We ask the guy in the truck how business is and he says, "Today not so good. The spot over on Lex is better". Interesting. Next thing we know our burger is ready. I realize it's a burger stand and they need to get orders through quickly but still, it was ready too fast. Then comes the ketchup issue. 2 packets. We ask for more and he gives us one. To quote Menace to Society, "Oh you know you done fucked up now right?" That just cost you a cow. Bex and I, a little thrown off by the ordering experience realize we are right next to Central Park. Perfect. We'll take our burgers, ration out ketchup and find a nice area in the grass to people watch and enjoy out tasty burgers. They look great all wrapped in foil, melted cheese going everywhere when you unwrap it.



But one bite into it Bex looks at me and says "Does this taste weird to you?" I'm already 3 bites into it because I'm starving and I think about it. It totally does. I realize that it tastes and looks like a frozen burger. We start trying to figure it out. Were they cooked earlier and then warmed up? Is it because they're grass fed? Did the guys just not cook it? Were they steamed burgers? But anything we came up with didn't make it taste any better. Bex didn't finish hers. I stopped halfway through mine. Then we start going off on the whole experience. How do you come up with such a great idea and mess it up like that? Oh well, at least we got to hang in Central Park.

Roger rates:

1 cow for the idea.


Bex:

This burger left a bad taste in my mouth, literally. I forced myself to eat a second bite of the burger just to try to figure out what was so wrong with it. The patty was tough and chewy and tasted WEIRD. I can't put my finger on it, but it was wrong in every way. Could the patty have been frozen? Pre-cooked? Found on the floor?



Oh, and $7 is a rip-off.

Bex rates: 0 cows