Perfect Pair #6

two cola-ish cocktails

Welcome back to Perfect Pair, the series where I’m chatting with some of my pals in food, beverage and nightlife on their hard hitting burger opinions and what they love to pair with their patties. Check them all out here!

For this edition, I spoke to Kirby Vitek, bartender at Pinnacle-award winning Philadelphia cocktail bar Andra Hem. Kirby has made his way through the industry in Richmond and Philadelphia and even made a whole album inspired by it. He’s also colloquially known as “my boyfriend.”

Read on for our conversation about burgers in Philly and beyond and the two cocktails he conjured up for his perfect pair.

Burger Diva: We’re back with Perfect Pair - who am I here with, tell me a little about you!

Kirby Vitek: My name is Kirby Vitek and I’m a bartender here at Andra Hem, a cocktail bar in Rittenhouse. It’s a cozy artsy kind of vibe, smaller more conversational but it can get pretty crazy on weekends too.

BD: Tell me about how you landed at Andra Hem

KV: I worked at a couple of different cocktail bars at this point, the main one being Philadelphia Distilling which is they distill Bluecoat Gin. They have a nice program there, very educational, so I learned a lot there. But I was looking for something that was a little closer to my house but also I wanted to be able to mess around with more spirits. Working at a gin distillery you can mostly only work with gin which is great but here we have access to everything, like cognac and rye whiskey and vermouth which we’ll talk about…

BD: Okay spoilers! Well first tell me what do you think makes a perfect burger?

KV: Perfect burger…unfortunately for me, my favorite burger is the one I make for me after work at my house at like 2am. There’s just no burger that hits quite like that. I do like cheese, which I know is sort of a problem. I like something that some weight to it, like physical weight. I love a smash burger but I think that balance between a real good Maillard sear and a juicy center is where I’m happiest. I think you definitely need an onion in some capacity. Maybe I’m a bit biased from your opinion but [an onion] that’s still pretty raw with a sear or some caramelization but also some of the raw flavor, if you can hit the balance of that I think that’s cool. I like to keep it pretty simple, not too many fixins. That being said Red Robin’s Bacon Buffalo Cheeseburger is pretty awesome.

BD: Outside of the confines of your apartment in West Philly, where have you found your favorite burger here?

KV: So I did have a really great burger at Pine Street Grill in Fitler Square. They are doing a lot of cool stuff there but their burger is really nice and it’s a good compromise between being a smash burger but still having some weight to it. They also do a happy hour deal with a draft beer that’s really affordable. That’s the favorite one at the moment.

BD: Outside of Philly also, you come from Richmond, there for a minute…

I worked at this place Can Can Brassiere which is a French restaurant but they had my favorite burger and maybe it’s a nostalgia thing. Their burger is absolutely huge. I think we would tell people it’s 14-16 ounces. Insanely good sear on their grill, butter right on top. You had a bunch of different cheeses to choose from. Super thick and juicy, really ideal. Housemade brioche. That’s one I dream about sometimes.

BD: As far as what you’re drinking with a burger - wine, beer, so many options. But if you had to choose a cocktail situation to go with that nice, simple, weighty burger, what would you pick?

KV: I think cocktail pairings with food is interesting because they’re extremely high in sugar and alcohol compared to wine or beer, which can be numbing to the palette. So that dilution ratio and sugar content, even if it’s a citrus-y drink there’s still equal amount of acidity and sugar. I think since a burger is such a rich food you can get away with it.

kirby's two cocktails

There are a couple cocktails that I was thinking about for this and I think it’s because they share flavor profiles with Coca Cola which is obviously a classic burger pairing. First is a perfect Manhattan, which is equal parts vermouth and rye whiskey. A lower proof option, a bit of a sweeter option. It’s almost the closest cocktail to wine which makes a good cocktail with food.

The other is a Vieux Carré, a classic New Orleans cocktail. It has a split base of sweet vermouth, cognac, rye whiskey, and then a couple different types of bitters - Peychaud’s, which is popular in New Orleans style drinks including a Sazerac, Angostura bitters, and then it has a bar spoon of Bénédictine which is a very herbaceous spirit. It’s a little bit similar to chartreuse if you’re familiar with that. I feel like that plus the vermouth really gets you close to that Coca Cola-spiced herbaceousness that works really well with a burger. I think the cognac also does something nice to stand up to all the richness that you’re getting from the fat and salt and bread of the burger. Either of those pair well. My preference ended up going towards the Vieux Carre only because it’s more complex and honestly just a little less sweet.

BD: I agree! I was going between the two of them myself in my Hamburger Mind Palace, so to speak. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a Vieux Carre.

KV: Yeah I kind of forgot about it until I was thinking about this! It was also my manager’s favorite drink at Can Can and that’s how I found about it.

BD: Well do you have any last hard hitting burger opinions to share?

KV: I think there’s a LOT of worthwhile burger opinions and no one right way to do it. I think the paper thin smash is pretty cool, I think the enormous burger is pretty cool. I think a good amount of stuff on it, as long as it’s structurally sound, is good. But I also think a really well cooked patty and onion and bread is great. There’s so many different ways are valid as long as there’s heart and execution.