Mini Burgers, Mini Price
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If your Labor Day cannot include a backyard barbecue, give yourself an inexpensive, delicious treat before the weekend begins. A very good happy-hour deal has recently gone into effect at the Midtown branch of Morton’s (551 Fifth Ave., at West 45th Street, 212-972-3315), the Chicago-based steakhouse chain. During the week, the restaurant’s bar area – which has small tables and waitress service – has a “Bar Bites” menu on which everything is just $3 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and again from 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The best of these offerings is a trio of mini cheeseburgers – think White Castle, but made with sumptuous Prime-grade beef and topped with tomato, lettuce, and onion. Regularly priced at $10, they’re a total steal at the discounted three-for-$3 rate.
Not quite as good, but still a bargain, is a plate of four dinner roll-sized filet mignon sandwiches with a mustard-mayo sauce. The meat, which is cut from the same filets as those on Morton’s main menu, is meltingly tender, although each sandwich gets only one skimpy slice. Still, like the burger trio, this quartet of sandwiches is a great deal.
As you might expect, the cheap eats are essentially bait to get you to buy a few rounds of overpriced drinks (a bottle of Sam Adams runs $7). Still, upscale steakhouses rarely offer any kind of price inducements, because their clientele is primarily the expense-account crowd, so it’s nice to see Morton’s offering a little something for people who are actually spending their own money. And if you want a little surf with your turf, the happy hour deal also includes fresh oysters on the half shell for a buck apiece.