A few months ago, a couple of meat pie connoisseurs and I walked into Pitch Bar on South Park Avenue and liked what we found, so I was more than happy to recently accept an invitation to check out the British soccer bar’s newest menu add: “glamour burgers.” Based on the name alone, I was expecting something bedazzled. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. What WAS the case was a flavorful burger well worth my trip across the Buffalo River.
Pitch Bar’s glamour burgers are fashioned from a coarsely ground British butcher’s cut of Black Angus beef. Co-owner Damian Parker credits the cut for the burgers’ juiciness—a claim I can attest to. Even my patty cooked medium-well (which is Pitch Bar’s default level of doneness if you don’t specify a preference) was dripping. As a medium-rare girl, I was pleasantly surprised. I was also happy to be served a burger that was seasoned through and through, as opposed to burgers I’ve had elsewhere that I suspect only saw a surface dusting of salt. The result was a supremely beefy burger complemented but not overshadowed by fresh tomato; buttery lettuce; thick dill pickles; perfectly portioned smears of mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise; biting red onion; and the king of all burger cheeses: American.
If classic isn’t your style, Pitch Bar offers a few nontraditional options as well, including a chili burger with pepperjack, grilled jalapeno, and chili sauce that Parker charmingly nicknamed “the ass burner.” There’s also a Buffalo chicken option and a burger piled high with BBQ pork for those days when you can’t decide which animal you want to eat more. And if meat piling is your thing, you can add additional patties—up to 10—to any burger for $2.99 apiece. That sounds like a challenge.
In time, Parker intends to develop what he calls “an insane burger range.” For starters, Pitch Bar will soon offer a full English breakfast burger called “The Full Monty,” which will feature black pudding, grilled tomato, English bacon, baked beans, mushroom, and eggs. And down the road, customers can expect to see lamb and mint, baja chicken, and jerk chicken burger iterations on the menu.
Hopefully the timing of the freakshakes’ release will coincide with the opening of Pitch Bar’s half-acre beer garden, which Parker projects will also be open in about a week’s time.
In a week or so, Pitch Bar will also bring to Buffalo the over-the-top, two-pound milkshake/sundae hybrids called “freakshakes,” which have taken Australia, London, and New York by storm in recent months. Expect inaugural flavors like “Scone & Jam” (vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries, strawberry jam and syrup, whipped cream, and homemade scone) and “London Candy” (chocolate ice cream loaded with Maltesers, Crunchie bars, Twirl bars, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream).
Hopefully the timing of the freakshakes’ release will coincide with the opening of Pitch Bar’s half-acre beer garden, which Parker projects will also be open in about a week’s time. The beer garden (inset – work underway) together with the solid British pub fare, glamour burgers, freakshakes, sports-friendly atmosphere, and a few other soon-to-announced developments are part of Parker’s larger plan to infuse farm-to-fork food, entertainment, and sports in one family-friendly environment.
“We are trying to be a community-based campus. In the UK, you can go out to a pub, you can have a burger and a pint, sit in a beer garden, and watch your kids play. We’re trying to bring that kind of element to Buffalo.”
Parker’s Pitch Bar | 1216 S Park Avenue | Buffalo, NY | (716) 292-2012 | Facebook
