This Pancake Burger Is What Brunch Dreams Are Made Of

If you've ever wanted to figure out the most efficient way to eat as many brunch foods as possible in a single bite, look no further than the pancake burger. Yes, you read that right. A pancake burger, as in a cheeseburger served between two pancakes rather than inside a traditional bun. The cheeseburger is topped with a fried egg and some strips of bacon, because it's a brunch burger, and you can't have a brunch burger without a fried egg. The whole stack is then drizzled with maple syrup (or doused in the sweet stuff, depending on your preference. There really are no judgments when you're eating a pancake burger).

The trick is that this pancake burger, available at the Horny Ram in midtown Manhattan, actually tastes really good. The grass-fed hamburger meat comes from Pat LaFrieda, a New Jersey-based meat purveyor renowned for its high-quality beef. The pancakes are light and fluffy, because they're made with buttermilk. But they're not too sweet, even if you dunk the whole burger in maple syrup. Perhaps most surprising, however, was how well the pancakes held up to the cheeseburger and syrup and yolky, fried egg. The structural integrity of this pancake burger was sound—but it was so good that we couldn't even give it a chance to get soggy before devouring it.

We went to the Horny Ram to see the making of the architectural breakfast masterpiece that is the pancake burger from start to messy finish.