Skinflints: The Best Burgers in Brooklyn?

Since we can't have a grill in our Brooklyn apartment, the best place to satisfy a burger craving is Bay Ridge's very own Skinflints.

Even better, we can see it from our living room window.

Skinflints started out as an ice cream parlor in 1915, but over the last century it transformed itself into a nice, low-key bar in front, and a restaurant with consistently good hamburgers in the back. One thing that hasn't changed much from the beginning: the decorations. The stained glass, the tin (or tin-looking?) ceiling -- somehow it all seems to class up plain old burgers and fries.

When we ate at Skinflints for supper recently, my blue cheese burger was even better than the bacon burgers I've eaten there before. All the burgers are served on English muffins, which ups the ante and makes me wonder why more restaurants don't offer that. The french fries, however, are only so-so -- a little too floppy for my taste.

But what really makes Skinflints stand out from other sit-down, casual burger joints is the bread basket. Really, it's more of a sesame basket -- I skip over the sesame buns for the sesame crackers and sesame sticks. I could practically skip the entree.

The sesame sticks are so good that they were gone before I could snap a photo.

Dinner for the two of us is easily below $20 -- not bad for a Saturday night in New York. And it's only slightly more than what we'd spend at McDonald's, which wouldn't be half as good.

Skinflints has an extensive menu of other favorites -- chicken pot pie, fish and chips, french dip and more -- but I've always stuck to the burgers.

Skinflints also has outdoor seating, which we've never been able to snag. The bar and restaurant are both consistently busy, and it's easy to see why.

Monkey lamps!