Great Long Island burger spots on the way to Long Beach

There are three routes to Long Beach and all involve bridges. But only one of these roads involves burgers. That's Long Beach Road, a weaving 7½-mile stretch of warehouses and strip malls that we'll just call "the scenic route." If juicy burgers are the kind of things you like to look at, Long Beach Road is like a living museum of the American hamburger. More than a dozen spots represent all eras of the burger's culinary history.

Long Beach Road dates to 1897, when it began as a carriage route coated with shells to make it smoother. In the '20s, before the Far Rockaway Bridge opened on the barrier island's west side, followed by the Loop Parkway to the east, vacationers from New York City's boroughs were willing to travel several hours. The path was dusty and winding to Long Beach. At the time it was dubbed "America's Healthiest City."

Long Beach Road was paved and expanded over the years all the way up to Hempstead, but though the crowded highway isn't exactly picturesque, not much of it has been penetrated by big box chain stores. The 20-minute ride down to the Atlantic Ocean feels like a trip through classic Americana.

Most will enter Long Beach Road from Sunrise Highway in Rockville Centre, turning south when they see the vintage neon signs for Bigelow's New England Fried Clams, a fixture since 1939. "Burgers" are the first word advertised on the awning, and their charbroiled cheeseburger ($19) cooked on a flat top just a few feet in front of you is definitely a gem ... especially when paired with some creamy clam chowder and an iced tea. But if you're going to Bigelow's for anything other than the perfectly fried seafood, you're doing it wrong.

Continue past the hurricane evacuation route sign for a few blocks until you get to Janowski's Hamburgers, arguably the oldest and most well-known ground beef purveyor on the South Shore. Its birthdate is advertised on the white van parked outside, which is emblazoned with a cartoon of a man in a chef's cap whose entire torso is shaped like a giant hamburger, and reads "Janowski's, since 1925."

Step up the stairs past the American flags whipping in the heavy ocean winds, and you'll find Austin Vogelsberg standing behind the counter of a small room full of refrigerators. His dad, William Vogelsberg, worked as a distributor and bought the business from the original owner's son in 2001. The company supplies more than 200 varieties of ground beef to most of the restaurants in the area, he says. For such a patriotic looking place, it was surprising to hear Vogelsberg say their beef doesn't come from the United States, which he considers low quality, opting instead for other countries like Canada.

Any customer can walk in and buy a box of frozen patties for a beach barbecue, but nobody's coming out with a ready-to-eat hamburger. Fortunately, The Pantry right up the street carries their short rib patties. Take a quick walk across bustling Merrick Road to a utilitarian white-brick building. It's been servicing Rockville Centre since 1949 but was burnt in a fire in 2011, and years later brought back to life by third-generation owner Tommy Mavroudis. The current vibe is half diner and half party brunch, attracting a diverse crowd of old and young sitting under a canopy of fake flowers strung from the ceiling. It's the kind of place with a "naughty" section of the menu that has boozy milkshakes and coffees.

But since this is primarily a road trip, stick to an egg cream and the signature "OX" Burger ($22) that's decked out with fatty dollops of slow-cooked oxtail, a Caribbean delicacy. A creamy caramelized onion sauce melds with the oxtail, tasting so rich and glutinous it's almost like eating foie gras. The patty itself is cooked to the standard medium-well, and is decidedly compact, like the pre-shaped patties of yesteryear. 

A couple minutes down the road, Mitchell's Diner traces its roots to 1938 in Valley Stream. The current location in Oceanside sports an exterior that can only be described as ironic. The first-floor restaurant is located directly underneath an urgent care center, its sign printed in the same red capital letters as Mitchell's ... not the same business but certainly convenient if you consume multiple hamburgers in one day.

Mitchell's patty melt is so good it's made me cry. One of nearly 20 beefburgers on offer, the patty melt ($18.99) is a throwback to the era of overindulgent burgers with thick hunks of juicy ground beef. The beef is minced by hand every day and charbroiled until it gets a crisp black outer layer, which is mostly hidden by the rye bread.

This is a burger to end all burgers, but that's not the goal on this journey, so take a short break. Drive past the decorative lighthouse to Island Park, where the road widens and the buildings start to look newer. At this point, Long Beach Road forks and your car is guided toward Austin Boulevard, where you'll find two excellent burgers in the span of one block.

The first is at Austin Kitchen, a takeout joint that serves a rare dish called the Oklahoma onion burger. The nearly forgotten Depression-era burger has been revived by burger historian George Motz, who serves it at his Manhattan joint, Hamburger America. But Jason Barje and Jeffrey Grossman say they were doing it before that.  It's a contemporary smashburger ($12.95), with thinner and crispier patties served with American cheese, special sauce and a thin layer of griddled onions. It's the most portable and fast food-style burger of the bunch, but tastes exceedingly fresh. 

"People like the basic stuff as long as it’s done well," Barje said. 

The approachability factor of hamburgers is part of the reason why Shane and Karen Kavanagh opened Moo Burger down the street. But the couple is also leaning heavy into nostalgia. A year after the former PR professionals took over the business in 2021, they did a substantial remodel and painted over the gray stucco to make the whole thing look like a cow. Together with the life-size cow statue on the roof, and the cow-themed Farm Store next door, the whole corner feels like a farm amusement park — one that's blasting Bruce Springsteen.

Moo Burger has a solid turkey burger, but you can go full-moo with an Aloha burger ($13.49) with grilled pineapple and sides of fried pickles, sweet potato French fries and an orange creamsicle milkshake. The salty teriyaki sauce and the sweet pineapple brought me back to eating burgers in Kauai, Hawaii, on vacation as a kid. The clouds part to reveal a golden hour sunset and someone honks a horn by the bridge just yards away. 

Within a few blocks Austin Boulevard becomes Long Beach Road. Head over the Wreck Lead Channel onto the barrier island. Continue past Park Avenue and the house with dozens of kitschy plant sculptures until you get to the end, the beach. Here, along the 2-mile boardwalk, there are several places to grab a burger before you hit the waves.

In the end, it's worth taking a short walk down the boardwalk to the obvious choice: Beach Burger, for the people-watching alone. You might see little girls hula-hooping, someone walking a parrot, suntanned 30-somethings debating the merits of watermelon varieties. Beach Burger is the spot to be when the sun goes down. You can't ask for a better view while ripping into their signature burger ($16), a thick grass-fed patty with a very tall brioche bun. But eat it quickly, because it's windy and the seagulls are hungry, too. 

More info 

Bigelow's New England Fried Clams, 79 N. Long Beach Rd., Rockville Centre, 516-678-3878, bigelows-rvc.com

Janowski's Hamburgers, 15 S. Long Beach Rd., Rockville Centre, 516-764-9591, janowskishamburgers.com

The Pantry, 525 Merrick Rd., Rockville Centre, 516-766-8848, eatatpantry.com

Mitchell's Diner, 2710 Long Beach Rd., Oceanside, 516-255-9544, mitchellsdiner.com

Austin Kitchen, 4385-4401 Austin Blvd., Island Park, 516-544-6744, eataustinkitchen.com

Moo Burger, 4455 Broadway, Island Park, 516-432-2482, mooburgerli.com

Beach Burger, Boardwalk @ Grand Blvd., Long Beach, 516-431-8800, beachburgerlbny.com

By Andi Berlin

andi.berlin@newsday.comAndiBerlin

Andi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she’ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.