The art of Kevin Blythe Sampson

THE ART OF
KEVIN BLYTHE SAMPSON

5/6/10

Nieves Cinco de Mayo Gourmet Burgers, Oakland, CA | The Hamblogger

I love Mexican food almost as much, if not more, than burgers. Blasphemy, I know. For me, it was a tough choice to pass up one of the five awesome looking taquerias that are within eyeshot of the newly opened Nieves Cinco de Mayo Gourmet Burgers in Oakland’s Fruitvale district. No burrito for me today, a hamburguesa is in order. Luis Abundis, who makes homemade ice cream and has a small ice cream store around the corner from his new shop, decided he wanted to spice things up and offer food to his menu, specifically hamburgers. Luis was motivated to open his second location in a tiny storefront after realizing that there were no burger joints in the predominately Latino neighborhood. Originally from Mexico, Luis worked for years at a restaurant where the head chef taught him the art of making a good burger.

Even though it says so on the sign, you would never know that this place sold hamburgers. Walking by the nondescript storefront, it just looks like a place that sells ice cream and even that takes a minute to figure out. When I first stepped inside the place I wasn’t sure that they were even open. The menu, penned in Spanish on a dry erase board, gets right to the point. Hamberguesa, hand cut fries and ice cream. End of story. Not the slew of “gourmet” burgers piled high with crazy add-ons like peanut butter, jalapenos or foie gras like I had expected. Sure made my life easy when it came time to order. I had no other choice than to go with the hamberguesa ($4.99) which comes with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo.

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