No lettuce, no tomatoes. Miami’s favorite new burger spot delivers on simplicity
Mikey Mayta made the mistake of telling a friend about his pie-in-the-sky idea for a burger shop.
It hit him while he was working at Michelle Bernstein’s Crumb on Parchment café, across the street from what was originally the U.S. post office building in the Design District.
His idea: Create a simple-looking burger, inspired by fast food, but using top ingredients and applying the French techniques he’d learned at Johnson & Wales and alongside one of Miami’s favorite chefs, Bernstein.
He’d call it United States Burger Service, USBS for short, and all the themes would be U.S. post-office related. The subtext: This is fast food that actually delivers.
“We wanted something that felt fast, something easy, but that also set ourselves apart,” Mayta said.
His friend, a graphic designer, was so inspired that he surprised Mayta with the logo for a business he had yet to start.
“The guy went out of his way to design it, so at that point we decided we had to do it,” Mayta said.
Mayta opened USBS in The Citadel food hall in September, after doing pop-ups at farmers markets and behind Boxelder craft beer bar in Wynwood for nearly two years, while still working for Bernstein at Café La Trova and catering. Last week, despite the pandemic, he turned his notice in to Bernstein and she wished him well as he fully committed to his burger dreams.
“I felt there was only so far to fall at this point,” he said, laughing.
Mayta had help. He partnered with his wife, Keily Vasquez, and brought in his longtime friend Manny Mendia, all of whom have worked together since their 20s at Bernstein’s Michy’s and Cena in the nearby MiMo district.
Their burgers stayed true to Mayta’s idea.
These are not burgers you eat with a knife and fork, designed for Instagram rather than human mouths. USBS’s unassuming little burgers are presented simply, but there is a lifetime of talent and technique in their creation.
USBS uses its own beef blend that they grind in house, a recipe they have perfected over two years. Scroll down on their Instagram page and you can see the burger’s evolution from a thick patty to a smash burger, a ball of meat they flatten on the plancha to allow them to build a perfect crust.
You can order it Ground, a single patty ($7.50), or 2-Day ($10), a double patty. Either way, they come topped with Priority Sauce, a tangy mayo-mustard blend that lends a French onion soup flavor profile. All of them also come topped with Government Cheese, a cheddar-fontina melted mix, unless you ask otherwise.
Each burger is served cartoon-perfect on a poppy seed bun that Vasquez bakes fresh every morning.
“The whole idea is we had to make everything,” said Vasquez, a trained pastry chef, who learned to bake at her parents’ pupuseria in San Miguel, El Salvador.
And like the post office, USBS doesn’t offer a world of options. No lettuce, tomato, onions. Just the burger as Mayta would have it. He will begrudgingly offer ketchup, mustard and mayo packets, though few ask for any changes after they take their first bite. He threatened tomato jam and lettuce foam if anyone tried to make him put lettuce and tomato on a burger.
“You either get it or you don’t. There’s no in between,” he said. “It sounds very simple, but that’s especially why you have to nail it.”
A dark-meat fried chicken sandwich and a veggie patty burger — the Carrier Pigeon and Snail Mail — are the only other options.
And like any special delivery, you’re going to want to consider adding Insurance — house-cut fries that require four days preparation (including a cycle through the freezer) to fry up crispy, while remaining meaty and tender in the middle. Consider, also, paying the Tariff, which gets your fries dusted in seasoning and served with a dipping sauce. The Southern Tariff, with chicken seasonings and a side of Green Goddess, might be the best play.
These burgers deliver.
United States Burger Service
8300 NE 2nd Ave., Little Haiti in The Citadel food hall. Open Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
