Patty Melt Burger Recipe

We don't like to shy away from the tough questions or controversial topics here at Food Republic. Which is why we have chosen the patty melt from NYC's Bell, Book and Candle as our second burger of the week.

There are many burger freaks who maintain that a patty melt, with its slices of crispy and griddled rye bread—in place of a bun!—is not technically a burger. That it is really just a grilled cheese with a burger inside. And which burger aficionado can forget the controversy that ensued when Katie Lee (then Katie Lee Joel) won the 2008 NYC Burger Bash with her patty melt, beating out Shake Shack and other, some would say, truer burgers?

It's fine if you're anti-patty melt. That leaves more for us! Especially Bell, Book and Candle chef/owner John Mooney's version of a patty melt with its slightly carmelized onions and oozing melted cheddar cheese, which he serves at the NYC hotspot nightly.

Mooney goes the extra mile and tops his burger—er, patty melt—with a crisp, tangy, pickle made from cucumbers grown on the restaurant's rooftop aeroponic farm(!). But even if you can't take that über-locavore step, he has graciously provided us with the burger recipe for you to make your own melt at home.