Mother's Ruin

third M name business in a row

New York City has spent the last five years earning back its status as the city that never sleeps. Sure you can dance til dawn and then some at Nowadays Nonstop, hit the diner (Kellogg, Neptune, Court Square…) or if you’re lucky you can get locked-in at the bar for afters, but Veselka still isn’t back at their 24 hour operation and it seems like the bodega shuts down the grill earlier and earlier.

Guy Denton at the City Journal did a deeper dive into the multifaceted socioeconomic “Why” but a lot comes down to the cycle of consumer and business behavior. People are less prone to staying out later so businesses shutter earlier. Everyone becomes accustomed to the new operating hours which keeps businesses from experimenting with tacking on an extra hour or two of service. Bars that used to open til 4 started seeing the crowd fizzle by 12:30 and adjusted accordingly.

Mother’s Ruin is open every day from 11am-4am, the same hours as last week’s Molly’s Shebeen. But unlike Molly’s, the kitchen at Mother’s Ruin stays open til 3:30am. That means that you can get their Cholula wings, breakfast burrito, fig and goat cheese salad and of course the burger in the wee hours of the morn.

When I was 22 I definitely took advantage of these late night bites, but when I tried this burger a couple weeks ago, I dipped in at a geriatric 6pm with my friends Caitlyn and Ally who I’m forever bonded with after our experiences working at a startup in our early twenties. We started small, IPO’d in February 2020 (lol) and went back private all in our tenure.

I decided to upgrade my smash burger to a double ($19) topped with shredduce, diced white onion, dill pickle chips and a burger sauce that leaned more mustard than mayo. All the burgers here come with Old Bay fries and spicy ketchup and I’d recommend asking for their caramelized onion dip, too.

The burgers came out served on TV-ready buns. They were comically perfect: unblemished, pillowy with a sheen I’ve been chasing down for myself by way of Korean skincare. After taking a bite, it seems like they’re a mix between an enriched white bread and a not-so-sweet brioche. I was pleasantly surprised by the bonus pickle spear toothpicked atop the bun.

This burger works really well together, especially as an end-of-the-night bite because it’s so mess-free. The shredded iceberg and fine diced onions stay in their assigned seats the patty is smashed enough that there’s no drippage and the sauce is modestly applied. In other words it’s kind of dry, but not so dry that it works against the meal. That being said, it’s not as thick and juicy as a typical BD top contender, but it hits on my prime toppings, fills me up and is pretty tasty in the process. Who could be mad at that?

I’m ranking the burger at Mother’s Ruin at 25, between Diner and Anchored Inn. Next time I go (probably after my boyfriend plays a 1am set on the 7th tickets available now) I definitely want to try out the falafel burger.