If the burger is a portrait of America, as “The New York Times” recently proclaimed, the veggie burger is a smeared still life. It can be anything: a light and colorful garden, densely packed with grains and legumes or even rich and paradoxically meaty. You know a winner when you taste it.
But real plant-based heads understand that a good veggie burger is much more than just a mouthful of roughage. The absence of beef provides a blank canvas onto which chefs can create unexpected triumphs using beets, chickpeas and even meatless meat sauces.
In 2023, food educators at Virginia Tech pointed out that one-quarter of Americans had reported reducing their red meat intake between 2020 and 2022. Restaurants around Rochester offer plenty of options to cater to this growing population of eaters (this writer included). Our mission is clear: Seek out interesting takes on what was once considered an afterthought on the menu.
Veggie burgers are powerful. They’re mysterious. Now, in an age of culinary innovation brought on by a widening contingent of plant-based eaters, they’re what’s for dinner.
This list doesn’t include any dishes made with Impossible or Beyond Meat patties as they’re designed as meat substitutes and available at the supermarket. Instead, our veggie burger tour focuses on novel, veg-only takes on America’s sandwich. Here’s where to start experimenting.
Feel the beet
Red is not just for medium rare. South Wedge’s Swillburger, which began serving beet-based burgers in 2015, boasts patties of deep red hues thickened up with black beans, brown rice and golden raisins. “For years, people were fucking baffled,” said chef Brian Van Etten. “‘Why are there raisins in my veggie burger?’ We do it to really emphasize the sweetness (of the beets).”
Van Etten came up playing in punk bands, and, typical of the vegetarian scene, survived on cheap, frozen Boca Burgers as a touring musician. He kept that foundation in mind when designing Swillburger’s menu, though he aimed to elevate it with a whole vegetable.
“You know what's in there, and you can see it,” Van Etten said. “It’s a pretty veggie burger.”
Chefs prepare the beets in a giant rice cooker then dry it out, in Van Etten’s words, “so it's not just mush.” Swillburger makes about 50 pounds of veggie patties per week, ultimately served on soft, springy potato rolls.
As a general rule, always order house-made sauces, but this goes double at Swillburger. The eatery’s Swillsauce — “a top-secret mayo-based sauce with ketchup, mustard, pickles and spices,” per the menu — elevates each bite.
A plan with leg(ume)s
It’s a different story about a mile north at Van Etten’s other venture with co-owner Jeff Ching, Owl House, on Marshall Street. The not-so-secret ingredient is chickpea, yielding a more fritter-like patty served on a toasted bun from Baker Street Bakery. The BVE chickpea burger, with its sriracha-strawberry jam and crispy onions, is a showstopper.
Van Etten said that idea for a chickpea burger came from founding partner Andrea Parros — who subsequently opened Red Fern in 2013. With an entirely vegan menu boasting faux-steak bombers and the beloved Compost Plate, burgers are actually some of the least exciting of Red Fern’s offerings (though no less delicious). The spot’s formidable lentil burger comes dressed with roasted tomatoes, field greens and lemon mayo.
“We've had people in here — they'll almost drop their fork and be like 'Oh my god, this is vegan?'" Parros told CITY in 2023.
The lentil burger’s standout attribute may just be the bread, a heavenly focaccia that gives each sandwich the culinary equivalent of a Tempur-Pedic mattress.
Meat sauce, hold the meat
DogTown, too, understands the value of balancing the patty with a lighter carb. Its pressed veggie burger bursts with garden color from carrots and edamame, but the airy French bread sends it skyward. Complete with lettuce and tomatoes, DogTown’s offering feels very much like a salad, dressed with just the right amount of mayonnaise.
Or get a Split Veggie Plate — one patty and one veggie dog over a bed of home fries — to introduce some starch into your garden. DogTown’s Three Bean Veggie Chili even acts as its own meat sauce, minus the meat.
It’s an approach GateHouse knows well. Each burger at the Village Gate staple gets its name from a famous Rochesterian; the veggie — honorably called The B. Anthony on the menu — arrives coated in its own meatless hot sauce that likewise hews closer to a peppery chili.
The flavors complement the minor heat from pickled jalapeños, balanced out by avocado and hummus. The patty itself can be substituted into any other burger on the menu for a veg spin on, say, the cozy Wambach (brie, apples, maple honey and pesto) or the pinky-up Golisano (gruyere, mushrooms and truffle black pepper aioli).
Fast and casual
The cravings won’t always wait. Sometimes crinkle-cut fries and a chocolate milkshake beckon alongside the quick sandwich itself. In these scenarios, take solace in the knowledge that Bill Gray’s and Tom Wahl’s both sell veggie burgers; the former boasts a black-bean patty as well. In fact, there’s an entire tier of black bean-based veggie burgers that we simply don’t have room to highlight. (Next time.)
Is Shake Shack’s melted cheese-filled fried portobello sandwich technically a veggie burger? Sure! Its more conventional veggie patty — made from mushrooms, sweet potatoes, carrots, farro and quinoa — is also available and quite colorful, loaded with crispy onions on top.
No matter which burger you seek, an important factor to keep in mind is simple eatability. The so-called three-finger rule dictates that the mouth can only be opened so wide for a bite of food. How wide, exactly? The width of the pointer, middle and ring fingers stacked vertically.
In other words, stunt burgers the size of pumpkins are only made to be shared on social media, not enjoyed over a meal. Burgers, veggie or otherwise, really are like portraits. They look better in person than on a screen.