Everything cool starts in New York.
Obviously.
As Buzzfeed pointed out on Wednesday night, the sushi burger is taking Instagram “by storm.” Twenty-four hours later, Refinery29 called the mashup “your new best friend.” Mashable called the edible photo trend “what you’d have if you can’t decide between the two” and Mic labeled the creation “the burger of the future.”
Notwithstanding the recent hype, New York City has had accessible sushi burgers for years.
Back in July 2014, I deemed bread buns endangered, with the rise of ramen burgers and soon rice burgers throughout the boroughs.
For almost two years now, Yonekichi (238A East 9th Street) has been slinging out rice burgers, i.e. sushi burgers, in salmon, eel, chicken and of course tempura kale varieties, from a popular (but not as popular as Superiority Burger) counter in the East Village.
Though not entirely sushi-like, Sunrise Mart, the Stuyvesant Street Japanese grocery store with additional locations in SoHo and midtown also serves rice buns with burgers or salmon in between.
Those praising the sushi burger as the perfect compromise for when you can’t decide what to eat may want to visit New York restaurants like Jack’s Sushi and Sliders and Kobeyaki, which have had both burgers and sushi on the menu for years.
So before you ogle all over the #SushiBurger on Instagram, remember that we had it first. Maybe go try one.
