BASS LAKE — Mountain area residents in search of a great burger need look no further than their own backyard — at least according to the food critic at the prestigious New Yorker magazine, whose lunch experience at The Forks Resort restaurant in 2015 made her “best-of-the-decade” list.
In a story published last week titled “The Best Things I’ve Eaten This Decade,” New Yorker writer Helen Rosner gave a juicy shout out to the ‘Forks burger.’
“At the Forks Resort, whose restaurant a friend had glowingly recommended … the burger was heaven on a bun, a juicy, crackle-edged beef patty dressed with pickles, iceberg lettuce, thick rounds of tomato and onion, and a drench of tart thousand-island dressing.”
Rosner noted that she and her husband had visited the Forks during the summer of 2015 after a quick trip to Yosemite.
“My husband and I sat in exhausted, rapturous silence on a patio … overlooking the then-drought-ravaged dregs of the town’s eponymous lake, eating a pair of the resort’s famous burgers,” the reporter recalled. “It was barely noon, and we’d been awake for nearly eight hours, having raced up the freeway from Fresno to reach the top of Glacier Point just as the sun tipped over the top of Half Dome.”
In their rush to visit Yosemite, the reporter admitted she and her husband had “neglected to pack a breakfast.”
Arriving at the Forks hungry and tired, Rosner writes that she was dazzled by the dining experience in Bass Lake, labeling the $5.50 Forks burger “the most beautiful hamburger in the whole beautiful, beautiful world.”
“Yummy! They’re known for their burgers for a reason!” wrote one Yelp reviewer after her encounter with a Forks burger.
Locals seem to concur. The Forks burger’s reputation is “well deserved,” says Oakhust Realtor Debra Kroon.
There’s been speculation the old “well-seasoned” griddle that the burgers are cooked on is a part of the secret sauce — or at least was when the Forks burger made its memorable impression on Rosner in 2015.
In her piece, the food critic admitted ‘best of’ lists were subjective and oftentimes reflected an “ephemeral” personal experience.
“The past decade in food, for me, turns out to have been very much a decade of sandwiches,” she says. “And the most important rule of sandwiches is that they always taste better if someone else makes them for you.”
