Hamburger Helper: Is 2009 the Year of the Burger?

The hamburger -- the succulent, savory, American staple -- has continued to thrive and even grow during tough economic times.

(Nick Solares )
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A Burger on Every Menu?

The fact that a lot of people are buying burgers runs counter to all the trends in the restaurant business, which is effectively flailing right now.

"Things are bad and they aren't going to get better for awhile," said Ozersky. "A lot of places are circling the bull now. A lot of traffic is down. People are not going out to eat in restaurants."

Ozersky says that a struggling restaurant would be smart to put a burger on their menu.

"They would be very well advised to use all of their arts and all their powers to creating a very, very good burger at a price that people can afford to pay," he said, "[That's] the thing about a burger. You can make a great burger and still have it be affordable."

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Next, we headed to Pat LaFrieda Whole Sale Meats. It is one of the oldest and most respected meat suppliers in New York, selling to nearly 500 of New York's top restaurants. Their business has changed drastically over the last year.

They have an entire room devoted to making burgers.

"Our hamburger sales have tripled in the last year," said LaFrieda, "and like I said with the economy coming down almost every restaurant has a burger on their menu... 2009 will be all burgers. I tell you that right now."

LaFrieda says the high-end restaurants aren't selling nearly as much of his dry-aged steaks, the kind that sell for $40 or $50 per steak at a Steakhouse. So he decided to turn them into burgers.

"We wanted to still bring that dry-aged flavor to the table and to do it at a third of the price from what a steak would cost [so] we made the Black Label blend. That's just how it developed."