I recently received an email from a reader who would be heading to Boston, and was looking for a good burger. As I’m not a Boston resident, I had to reach out to a meat-loving friend in Beantown for a good recommendation. And as the emailer didn’t provide a return address to send an answer to, it gets its own post. Because that’s the kind of guy I am.

So the answer, at least according to my friend (who shall remain nameless until we’re able to confirm his opinion – don’t want anyone hunting him down for a lousy tip) is Abe & Louie’s, a steakhouse on Boylston St. In his words:

“…it’s a steak house but the burger is KILLER!!!”

Allow me to iterate: I have no firsthand knowledge of the quality of the burger, and the person in question has been known to eat too many generic cheese doodles and rant uncontrollably. He also may turn out to be a twelve-year-old girl, as evidenced by his use of three exclamation points.

Interestingly enough, there’s also an Abe & Louie’s south of me in Boca Raton, a restaurant I’d be happy to accept an invitation to in order to try a burger. That’s right, I said an invitation: the New York Times may have the budget to send reviewers into restaurants under cover, but I don’t.

Still though, even with a comp’d meal I can’t be bought,  so if the invitation comes, you’ll hear my real opinion of the meats they offer. Unless they give me copious amounts of top-shelf tequila, in which case maybe I can be bought.