On a crisp Friday night in March, I met a friend at Bar Pigalle, ready for mezcal martinis, something French-sounding, and a mountain of oysters piled on a ceramic platter. And I hoped to try the burger. I’d been thinking about it all week.
The thing was, the burger wasn’t on the menu. Our server told us on weekends, the burger was only available at the bar. If it were available in the dining room every day, she said, it would take over. Everyone would order it.
Determined, I stopped by solo a few days later just after the bar opened for the evening. That burger was dreamy. It had all the hallmarks I’d been looking for: crisp edges; a juicy center; gooey, house-made American cheese and Dijonnaise that stick to your fingers, shredded lettuce, and onion tucked into a sturdy bun sprinkled with coarse finishing salt. Fat, salt, melty cheese, crunch, and bread. To my delight, I’ve learned that The Beverly in Berkley also serves the Bar Pigalle burger. Another way to indulge. Phew.
A restaurant can’t rest on burgers alone. Our Bar Pigalle server’s comment was casual, but the logic tracks. The burger isn’t new — what’s changed is how restaurants across Detroit are using it. It’s one of the few dishes that can do several jobs at once: anchor a menu, move quickly, travel well, and hit an accessible price point. That combination matters in a moment when costs are high and diners are more selective.
For some restaurants, the burger fills in gaps — a familiar staple alongside more ambitious cooking. For others, it becomes the model. The burgers driving this shift aren’t the overbuilt ones that used to define the category — no foie gras, no gold leaf, no fried mozzarella sticks. The focus is on the quality of meat, the structure, and a price people will pay more than once.
At Grey Ghost, the burger proves the model. It started as a fallback, an option for diners who aren’t as adventurous, says co-owner Joe Giacomino. The structure is straightforward: two 4-ounce patties from a proprietary blend of chuck, short rib, brisket, and dry-aged trim, topped with American cheese, lettuce, pickles, and a house sauce that leans toward a Big Mac profile.
Over time, it became one of the restaurant’s most consistent sellers. The demand led to Little Ghost, a fast-casual offshoot that opened on Woodward Avenue in Ferndale last year, built around the Grey Ghost burger. The space is smaller, about 1,000 square feet, with a walk-up window and a menu designed for takeout and delivery.
A similar logic plays out elsewhere. Opened in 2025, Dirty Shake is a departure from Sandy Levine’s other restaurants, including Freya and Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails. A burger wouldn’t fit in at those places. At Dirty Shake, it does.
The menu is built for volume, speed, and repeat visits. The burger itself is simple: two patties from a house blend produced by Fairway Packing Company (which also supplies Grey Ghost and Little Ghost with custom blends), sharp cheddar, and a Martin’s potato roll. In its first summer operating, Levine says, the restaurant saw immediate and overwhelming results. In July, Dirty Shake brought in more revenue than any single month at his other restaurants, despite their higher prices.
“Just seeing how much we went through was just mind-boggling,” Levine says. “In the first few weeks [of opening], we were having to get special orders almost every day because we were just going through everything.”
For some restaurants, the supply chain depends on consistency and scale. With Marrow Detroit Provisions, it starts elsewhere. The burger blend isn’t crafted from a single cut but from trim across the whole animal — filet, ribeye, brisket, and short rib, along with made-in-house bacon worked into the grind. The result is a mix that shifts from batch to batch, with a higher fat ratio and a texture that crisps at the edges when smashed on the flat top. It stays juicy, with a bit of pink from the pork fat.
The burger was available for lunch and during the start of dinner service at Marrow’s Kercheval location before it closed in June, and it is now available at the newer Marrow in the Market in Eastern Market.
Marrow Detroit Provisions supplies its Michigan-raised beef to other kitchens and retailers, who rework the burger’s foundation into unique versions of the same concept. For example, Marrow features a smash style, but at other nearby restaurants, the burger takes on whatever shape the kitchen needs.
Molly Mitchell, chef-owner of the reopened Rose’s, uses Marrow’s blend, but her burger incorporates elements of Polish cooking — smoke, acid, and fat. It’s topped with bacon-onion jam, Gruyère, Dijon, and house-pickled red onion, served on toasted sourdough. A side of dill-forward cabbage slaw rounds it out. The bacon jam draws inspiration from pierogi toppings, and the sourdough from Detroit baker Lillian’s Loaves adds crunch and tang.
“When I was conceiving the Rose’s menu, I wanted to include a burger to give people an easy entry point,” Mitchell says. “I know people in the Detroit area are familiar with and love Polish food, but what I wanted to do at Rose’s wasn’t traditional, so a burger can always smooth out the edges.”
Having worked with Marrow for many years, Mitchell appreciates the supplier’s fresh-ground meat. “I tried a few suppliers, but Marrow was by far the best,” she says.
While some restaurants keep their burger as a permanent fixture, others remove it from the menu altogether, bringing it back only occasionally. That’s where pop-ups come in.
At Mabel Gray, chef James Rigato’s annual burger week turns the menu over for a few days, giving regulars a more casual way into the restaurant’s constantly changing format.
On summer Sundays, Ladder 4 Wine Bar focuses on burgers done right. Chef John Yelinek’s version traces back to his time at the shuttered Michael Symon’s Roast, where the burger — served on an English muffin with cheddar, bacon, pickled red onions, and a fried egg — became a staple during the restaurant’s long run at the Westin Book Cadillac.
Pop-ups give chefs the opportunity to dabble without fully changing the restaurant. But one leans in entirely: Melway Burgers, from former Marrow butcher Nick Ponte and Melanie McElroy. The smashburgers utilize 100% grass-fed beef sourced from the McElroy family farm — an eco-regenerative cattle ranch in Hillsdale.
Melway proves that a burger can carry a menu — but it doesn’t have to. It can sit off to the side or move between places. No matter how it factors in, a great burger proves to be a positive menu addition in the eyes of many diners.
This story originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
|
|
|
|
|
|
