Blue Top Grill

The Blue Top Grill menu lists seafood, sandwiches, chicken wings, and vegetable plates; and the blackboard always features a meat-and-three meal that can be pretty darn good. I love the flounder, and most of the vegetables are far above average.

Many steady customers know this country diner for its hamburgers: small, large, or double, with or without cheese, with French fries and/or onion rings. There is nothing artisan or upscale about them. A large one costs about $5. But price, however low, is no object when appetite demands a good, old-fashioned, lunch-counter hamburger, made from scratch and with skill, served in a place without airs or pretense. On those occasions when a Blue Top burger is exactly right, a $50 Kobe beef burger in the swankiest New York bistro would be sadly inadequate.