Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.

An Early Look at Ray's Hell-Burger

By Sara Levine Published Monday, July 07, 2008

Last week, amid all the chatter about Top Chef alum Spike Mendelsohn’s burger spot opening up in DC, Michael Landrum, owner of Ray’s the Steaks in Arlington and Ray’s the Classics in Silver Spring, quietly unveiled his latest project. In an unmarked space in the same Wilson Boulevard strip as Ray’s the Steaks, Ray’s Hell-Burger (a.k.a. Butcher Burgers, for the legal documents) opened July 1 and serves only one dish: ten-ounce hamburgers made from prime beef. It’s the same farm-raised meat—aged in house—that steak lovers line up for at Ray’s the Steaks and Ray's the Classics, just ground in-house several times daily.

Unlike the Spikester, whose Good Stuff Eatery opens today on Capitol Hill, Landrum had no PR blitz and no opening party for Hell-Burger—but it didn’t take long for word to spread and lines to form.

For our Fourth of July meal, we waited in the quickly moving line for a $7 burger and its generous (and gratis!) accompaniments—toppings including sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions, and charred jalapeños, plus sides of buttered corn on the cob and thick-sliced watermelon.

The menu is limited to a few small chalkboards. One breaks down the burger choices: You can order the patties simply grilled, with a chipotle-spiked “diablo” marinade, blackened Cajun-style, or au poivre with a black-peppercorn crust. Then specify how long you’d like your burger to sit on the grill: “recommended” (with a warm red center), medium (pink), or “cooked throughout.”

For $1 to $5 extra, there’s a lengthy list of cheese options, from classic Vermont white cheddar to artisanal selections such as Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue and decadent Taleggio. Applewood-smoked bacon and guacamole are also offered for a couple of extra bucks. But this burger—ultrajuicy and seasoned beautifully—doesn’t really need much adornment.

Ray’s creations aren’t of the truffle-and-brioche gourmet variety à la Palena or Central Michel Richard; they’re more like great made-at-home burgers from the backyard grill, taken up several notches thanks to the quality of Landrum’s meat. A couple of things are missing from the minimalist menu—namely, fries and beer. You can wash your meal down with pints of Old Dominion root beer (on tap) or bottles of Cheerwine soda. If you’re craving something salty and potato-y on the side, there’s a big selection of Route 11 potato chips. And for those with an extra stomach, there’s super-rich Moorenko’s ice cream for dessert.

Ray’s Hell-Burger (Butcher Burgers), 1713 Wilson Blvd.; 703-841-0001. Open Monday through Friday starting at 5 PM, Saturday and Sunday starting at noon,. There’s no set closing time—a sign on the door says the restaurant will serve until the last guest is done—but Landrum says they’ve been closing around 11, and he hopes to extend into late-night hours in the near future.

Have you been to Ray's Hell-Burger? Leave your review or thoughts in the comments!

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Not only do they have the best burgers in the DMV, but the sides aren’t too shabby either. Check out my review & an online menu at:

http://beansricelife.blogspot.com/2009/06/quite-possibly-best-burgers-in-dmv-rays.html

Posted by: BeansRiceLife, Jun 04, 2009 09:32:37 PM

Posted by: BeansRiceLife, Jun 04, 2009 09:31:09 PM

Ros, it’s highly unlikely you got food poisoning from the hamburger. Food poisoning takes a LOT longer than 1/2 hour to develop. You probably got sick from whatever you had the night before.

Posted by: Mark F, May 07, 2009 12:10:29 PM

Ros, it’s highly unlikely you got food poisoning from the hamburger. Food poisoning takes a LOT longer than 1/2 hour to develop. You probably got sick from whatever you had the night before.

Posted by: Mark F, May 07, 2009 12:10:08 PM

To the person who may have had potential food poisoning, it generally doesn’t hit for at least four to six hours (and e-coli usually has a 17-24 hour onset time). Meaning, if it was food poisoning, it was what you had before that, possible a whole day before. Salmonella, more likely in chicken is 7-24 hours, a huge range on onset, but still not likely to hit in one or two hours.

So maybe your burger sucked, but it wasn’t what made you ill. Don’t forget salmonella is being found in almost every peanut butter product (especially Little Debbie and peanut butter flavored snackbars and cookies) right now. Watch for peanut-flavored anything!

Posted by: Jadxia, Feb 01, 2009 09:17:22 PM

I spent 9 hours in the hospital emergency room after eating one of their burgers. The burger was so/so...reminded me of old leather. I only ate half of the burger and within an hour or so of eating it I got a horrible stomach pain and nausea. I finally started vomiting violently. It turns out that this is the most expensive hamburger I ever ate. I couldnt go to work that day as I was shivering under the covers with 102 fever. My emergency room copay was $100. I’m thinking of sending it to the owner so he can reimburse me for trying to poison me! What do you think?

Posted by: Ros, Jan 14, 2009 04:56:06 PM

I drove from the Haymarket area to try this burger.

As people mentioned, parking is tight, but I circled the block a few times and got a space almost in front. Was there early, don’t know what it would be like at 7pm on a Sat night.

Great burger, corn (as some mentioned on another blog was not cooked enough, and watermelon good.
I also had an ice cream cone, good.

Place is rustic, that is for sure.
I agree with others here, the BUN needs to be stronger, mine fell apart, first bite in the car.

All in all was it worth a Saturday drive at todays gas prices, yes and no.

Yes part for a good burger at a decent price
No part for the raw corn cob and the soggy bun

Posted by: Beth, Sep 12, 2008 01:15:42 PM

Had my first experience with Ray’s Hell last night and it was great. No problem parking (we were early) and the burgers were fantastic. Overheard Michael saying that the burgers will be offered on the menu at Ray’s the Classics in an integrated approach. Good stuff.

Posted by: Patrick, Jul 16, 2008 06:26:50 AM

Warning: this place is very hidden. I saw people standing right outside and not realize they were just feet away from the door leading to these solid burgers. I found this, oddly enough, to be somewhat charming. It was like a little secret hamburger place that only locals know about.

As other posts above have said -- this place is certainly bare-bones. However, I have always found places like this to have the best food (think Pho 75, Pollo Rico). My rationale is that the food is the focal point and the fact that these bare-bone spots don’t have much in terms of decor means the food HAS to be good. Compare that to restaurants that rely on decor/ambiance to make up for the lackluster food.

At any rate, the true reason to go here is for the burger. It is quite good and easily serves as a substantial meal. Unaware of the accompaniments (corn and watermelon), I picked up a bag of chips which, by the end of the meal, I had barely even touched. The mushrooms were tasty, red onions didn’t seem freshly grilled. However, get too many toppings as I did and you will have a very soggy bun and it will be nearly impossible to eat.

I say this place is worth seeking out. I’ve grown a bit tired of Five Guys style of burgers (fast food-esque) and Ray’s was a welcome change of pace. It gets crowded, so get there early.

Posted by: Native A-towner, Jul 15, 2008 10:41:38 AM

Really good! I loved the peppercorn covered burger.

A few tips: Don’t get too much on the burger, because it falls apart.

Get ice in your root beer.

Medium isn’t that pink at all.

A really awesome find. Thanks!

Posted by: Josh Chambers, Jul 12, 2008 07:18:56 PM

I went a few nights ago, after a lot of hype. The meat was very good quality, indeed. It was undoubtedly restaurant quality, as a lot of attention was paid to getting out good, clean plates. I also appreciated the root beer on tap and free toppings. Three things keep me from feeling it lived up to the hype, though. 1) Inconsistency: I tasted a few burgers (multiples of the same style), and some would be bland while others sickeningly salty. And some are near-overdone while others bright red in the middle. I understand it’s hard to be consistent, but they are a restaurant, aren’t they? 2) The buns were dry, dry, dry. Buns make a huge difference in a burger, and in this case, after all the fancy cheese choices, I feel the buns are a C-. 3) Logistics: The line runs through the middle of the dining room, so that the servers can barely even walk around without running into people. Can’t they have the line running along the wall, at least? Overall, not sure it’s worth the drive if you don’t live in the area. B+

Posted by: EC, Jul 11, 2008 11:27:42 AM

Ripping down places like the container store and the cheesecake factory would create plenty of parking for local businesses. Places like Ray’s give Arlington any neighborhood feel that’s left, and to suggest that businesses like this should go elsewhere because there is not enough parking is a sad commentary.

Posted by: Lee Kelley, Jul 10, 2008 09:29:20 AM

Dude,
I friggin went and it was so friggin good, like the meat was awesome and aged and...and stuff, and like the Watermelon was sooooo Yuuuuuummmmmy....and it like made my brother go skiaaa skaaa skia skkaaaaaa........and I was like this cheese is so stinky it could walk and things, cause thats what people who know cheese say! Needless to say the meal was impeccable!

Posted by: Lil' Rib, Jul 09, 2008 08:52:18 PM

Went last night, and it was the loveliest burger I’d had in a loooong time. With the corn and watermelon, I didn’t even miss french fries. Same appealing bare-bones environment as Ray’s the Steaks. I’m not normally a fan of the burger, but this is an exception.

Yay Michael! We love you in Arlington, man!

Posted by: Areesah, Jul 09, 2008 12:32:17 PM

Virginia folks are always bitching about parking!

Posted by: Scott, Jul 09, 2008 11:18:14 AM

It’s about 2 blocks from the Metro. Burn off some of those calories and walk.

Posted by: JB, Jul 09, 2008 11:12:47 AM

Parking is crazy, but Metro is always a good option to get to Ray’s. It is walkable from the Courthouse and Rosslyn stations (about 3 blocks from each one) and is also directly on the 38B bus (Farragut Square - Ballston line).

Posted by: Dave Treworgy, Jul 09, 2008 11:09:26 AM

The parking is absolute madness. I had to make several passes in the lot before stumbling onto a space. But it was WELL worth it. The burger tasted unlike any I’ve ever had before. The freshness shows - I saw someone trimming the beef, getting ready to grind it while I was standing in line. The cheese selection is amazing - where else can you get taleggio on a burger?! I thought we’d miss fries with our burger, but we didn’t. And the 3 1/2 year old in our family dug the watermelon and corn sides. We will be going back again, I don’t care if we had to fight for a parking spot and a table!

Posted by: bolson, Jul 09, 2008 09:27:32 AM

Wow, sounds delicious. I hope they open one up in Silver Spring.

Posted by: Uy Hoang, Jul 08, 2008 12:55:12 PM

Where are these new people going to park? Ray’s already swamps the limited parking lot while competing with three or four other popular places and a liquor store.

Posted by: Gar Enders, Jul 07, 2008 03:13:31 PM

An Early Look at Ray's Hell-Burger

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