Superiority Burger has New Yorkers waiting hours for vegan patties: ‘It’s weird’
It’s no surprise that NYC’s hottest summer restaurant has Big Apple eaters waiting for hours in the heat — but for an anti-beef burger?
New Yorkers — many of them meat-eaters polled by The Post during a 90-minute wait — have confirmed that the stacked, quinoa-based vegan patties at Superiority Burger are indeed superior.
Nah, the marquee at 119 Avenue A, emblazoned with “Cooper Sharp,” isn’t hyping a cheesy local punk rock band. It’s all just part of the expanded menu at the vegetarian restaurant’s new East Village location.
Since opening in April in the space that formerly housed beloved Ukrainian diner Odessa, the buzzy joint has left foodies salivating for tables.
And that’s only if they have room to seat you.
The meat-free sensation previously had a smaller outpost with just six seats and a sprawling line outside. Now, post-pandemic, hosts at the new location take your number and text you when they get good and ready, as The Post learned on Thursday night while waiting an hour-and-a-half for the alleged holy grail of vegan patties.
Confused? So is owner Brooks Headley — a former indie rock drummer and executive pastry chef at upscale expense account-busting eatery Del Posto — who still isn’t sure what their magic hour is or how he got here.
“It was a total accident. I never meant to work in a restaurant much less run a restaurant. In fact, some days, I’m ready to stop it,” the James Beard Award-winning chef told The Post while wearing the paper chef’s cap that’s become part of his otherwise all-black uniform.
“But I’m very grateful for people wanting to eat this food because it’s weird for a vegetarian restaurant to be this busy,” Headley, 51, added.
NYC’s in-demand burger king doesn’t take reservations — but no one seemed to mind as they strolled through the busy area buying books or sipping pickle martinis while they waited for that coveted text.
Plus, there’s ample local color to soak up. Across the street in Tompkins Square Park, one eclectic group included a soulfully singing vagrant agitated by a harmonica player, whom he punched in the face for stealing his spotlight.
However, Tessa Law, a 32-year-old associate creative director who lives in East Williamsburg who had her name down for an hour, told The Post that “the food was well worth the wait.”
Once you make it inside the edgy eatery, the place is pumping out tunes by iconoclastic bands like The Nerves and The Clash.
Sure, most folks are walking in the door to order the famous Superiority Burger, the namesake bite that’s made the place popular since 2015 at its original location. However, there are definitely other options, as the scents of the signature collard greens sandwich ($17) and a hero dubbed the “Yuba-Verde” — dried tofu skin, chickpeas, broccoli rabe on Italian bread ($21) — come calling from the surrounding tables.
Izzi Galindo, 40, grew up in the Northwest eating lots of “crunchy alternative health stuff” and insisted that Superiority Burger has the “best vegan burgers out there” — he had two the first time he came.
“You could tell it’s beans and stuff like that — but it’s the best version of all that stuff,” Galindo told The Post.
On his second visit, he opted for the stuffed cabbage and several desserts, including the raspberry and corn sorbet. Patrons said the fruity flavor was perfectly tart, but the veggie swirl didn’t please everyone’s tastebuds.
The popular joint is attracting approval from both transplants and locals alike for not just the food — a staffer was overheard saying that 60 percent of the clientele are omnivores — but for “the feel.”
The owners of Odessa specifically chose Headley and his crew to take over this prime location in the heart of the iconic neighborhood, trusting that they would keep the authentic character of the nabe alive.
“I grew up in the city and went to the Odessa diner a lot as a teenager,” Keiran McCann, 33, a vegetarian design director living in Bushwick, told The Post.
“It was really fun to see the inside of it looking exactly the same, except with way more people,” she said in between bites of her Sloppy Dave, which she declared “one of the better veggie ‘sloppies'” she’s ever had.
On top of keeping the previous diner decor, Headley said he makes conscious choices to hire locals and ask their opinion on how to keep the distinct EV spirit alive in the space.
This effort includes little touches like kitschy tchotchkes and gewgaws like obscure Dolly Parton Duncan Hines cake mix boxes and advertisements for local small businesses on their menus.
“In addition to the delicious food, the new restaurant maintains the unpretentious spirit of both Odessa and the previous Superiority Burger location,” Madeline Weisburg, 33, an art curator living in Crown Heights who grew up going to Odessa, told The Post.
However, some things have definitely changed — when The Post first covered the Superiority veggie burger at the OG location back in 2015, it only ran customers $6.
In 2023, it comes with a 166% price hike to $16 a sammie.
