When you think about it, "restaurant" is kind of a fancy word.
And when you think about burgers back in the day, a "fancy" burger always meant a restaurant burger.
And then along came Father's Office. And later a recession. Now gastropubs and chef driven burgers are as commonplace as Starbucks and Chipotle. So when I visited The Park for their bargain buster build-a-burger night (starting at $5 with a side), I never thought I would be in for a bit of a burger throwback. The sandwich was presented open faced with every topping on the side; like what you would expect from a lunch meeting with a junior agent at Kate Mantilini circa 1999 or room service later that day at Chateau Marmont. In this day and age of tricked out burgers, plain old gourmet seems almost pedestrian, but with a baseline of $5 a pop, this is definite bang for your burger buck and the burger concept, which may not scream "chef-driven", is a subtle reminder that bucking current culinary trends, however delicious and effective they might be, can also mean keeping it real - and that's what Bang is truly all about.
