The HiHi System

New York’s foremost regional-food geeks revive the criminally underrepresented slider.

- ROBIN RAISFELD AND ROB PATRONITE

ONE THING WE’VE learned from the crippling effect the coronavirus has had on the hospitality industry is that when a shuttered restaurant reopens—if it’s lucky and brave and crazy enough to reopen—it’s not going to be quite the same place you remember. Maybe it’s shifted to takeout only, or the menu’s former ambition has been reined in, or its entire identity has morphed into something strange and new. In the case of Boerum Hill’s HiHi Room, which resumed operations in late June, the changes have been subtle—new chef; new, more casual, comfort-foody menu; new focus on delivery and takeout. What’s monumental, though, at least for the city’s hamburger connoisseurs, is that the HiHi Room is now home to a spot-on slider that’s not just a perfectly reverse-engineered version of a style many consider the Ur-burger but also one of the best new burgers in town, period.