Meyer's Olde Dutch Beacon — Restaurant in City of Beacon

I came here for lunch this past Sunday afternoon with my Millennial Chum. Not being familiar with Beacon, we made our meal decision by walking up and down Main Street and looking for a storefront that appealed to us - a decision that has burned me more than once in the past, but it wasn't the case here.

I was surprised (not unpleasantly so) by how casual Meyer's was. Based on the exterior, I definitely assumed this would be more of a formal sit-down restaurant with waitstaff, but this is more in the realm of a slightly upscale fast-food place like a Smashburger. I was definitely intrigued by the cocktail bar aspect, but since I'd been extremely negligent in my hydration in the morning, I bypassed the opportunity this time around.

In a marked departure for me, I went with the New York State Special ($7.50), a burger featuring muenster cheese and garlic aioli. The burger itself was pretty scrumptious - a little on the greasy side, but very solid. In hindsight, I'm not a huge condiment person and I can't explain why I even bothered with toppings as a result (I guess they looked more intriguing than the standard ones?), but I found the muenster cheese to be too messy, especially in conjunction with how juicy the burger was. The aioli was fine, but taste-wise a little too overwhelming for my palate. Again though, that's really on me - 98% of the time I get my burgers plain because I don't want the toppings to distract me from the essence of the bovine. We will not make that mistake again. The Millennial Chum got the Crispy Chicken Sandwich ($10) and loved it. She commented that the tiny pickle slices were not evenly distributed but I didn't get the impression she took points off for that. The price point is amazing (which we found to be the case throughout our Beacon consumer experience) - my burger would have been at least $5 more in NJ.

On the service side, we were both impressed by the proactiveness of one of the employees. We each just got a cup for water, which you filled up in the back via a cooler-like dispensary. However, the water ran out before I got a chance to fill my cup. When we alerted the staff member, he immediately went outside to restock the inventory, and my mission to rehydrate resumed.

I wasn't quite as blown away by this place as my chum was, but I'm chalking most of that up to my poor decision to put shizzle...

New York State Special - the garlic aioli made such a difference. The burger looked plain at first but with one bite, I was pleasantly surprised. We didn't add any of the free toppings (lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle) but glad we didn't so it didn't dilute the flavor. I would have this again 🤤

Double Dutch - this thing is massive and looks more delicious than the NY State Special. Unfortunately, it was not the case. The paties were thicker than the NYSS, even though they were 1/4 lb each too. It was also dryer than expected, even though the place claims that "all burgers are served medium". There wasn't enough special sauce to combat the dryness.

Loaded Fries - spicy beef isn't that spicy... The meat was in larger chunks than I expected and it was a bit dry. Pimento cheese looked like 2 scoops of ice cream. It was good but I wish it was more distributed. Not a big fan of the cole slaw on top...

You order first, get a small little number, and then wait for the server to bring the order over. The numbers are so small that the servers waste time trying to look at numbers. They should swap to standing signs with numbers instead to make it easier for themselves. Or call out the order number for pickup.

The weekend lunch hour had such a long line! But everyone was seated and most took their orders to go.

One bathroom was clean.

Condiments, utensils, and water dispensers are on the side. Seems like everything is self service but there isn't a sign saying to place trays back (other people were also confused what to do with their finished trays). The servers are quick to take your dirty tray away, though. Ketchup, fry sauce,...

I first saw this place on social media and was enticed to go as I was going to be in Beacon.

I would not have time to dine in so I placed an online order for pickup. When doing so they gave an address of X, Yet when I went to X, there was a sign telling me that they were relocated to Y. Something you'd think they'd tell you on the order or confirmation pages...

Anyway, I walk in to Y to pick up my order and since it's food, I figure I'll wash my hands. NOPE. The hipster behind the counter quips "no public restrooms.

The space they're in is pretty small but it does have a number of eat-in counter style seats which I didn't know you could have without a restroom. I wonder if this is up to code?

Anyway, the burger tested pretty good but was a bit greasy and messy to consume. My wife wanted the chicken fingers which were underwhelmingly thin making them more breading then chicken. They also carried some odd deasoning I couldn't place - it was like a cross between old bay and Chinese 5-spice powder.

The sweet potatoe fries were tasty but again cut very thin and like the chicken fingers waaaaay too salty.

End result: Skip MOD. Maybe I'll give it another try once they're in a real space, but even then I'm interested by the atmosphere and libations - both of which were non-existent in this location. Date of my...