General Greene.(Restaurant review)

The General Greene is a restaurant of lowered expectations, in the best possible way. The walls are largely unadorned, most of the tables line up along a (not uncomfortable) wooden bench, the bar stools were once tractor seats. The owner--Nick Morgenstern, formerly of Gilt and Gramercy Tavern--had, until this week, opened up only half of the indoor seating, leaving the rear of the restaurant darkened. ("We wanted to take it incrementally," the general manager explained.) The name derives from Nathanael Greene, a self-taught military man from Rhode Island, who commanded Fort Putnam, in what is now Fort Greene Park, during the Battle of Long Island; but it also plays on the notion of the general store, that neighborhood locus of gossip and goods.

It's clear that the General Greene has set out to become a staple in its own right, most obviously with its burger (concocted with the help of Ryan Skeen, late of Resto and his own acclaimed burger). It's the size of a hockey puck--small in diameter, plump in the middle--but juicy. The flavor is dynamic enough to inspire debate--is there some pork in there, or lamb? Nope: it's a hundred per cent Angus beef, from DeBragga, at a seventy-thirty ratio, making you forget (or at least forgive) the backyard-cookout accompaniment of potato chips.

The burger ...