Try this burger with bacon and cheese served on a sugary doughnut bun, but no lard included
BY ERICA PEARSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 7th 2010, 4:00 AM
A Lebanese burger joint in Astoria, Queens, is serving up a quarter-pound cheeseburger on a sugary doughnut bun, complete with slices of halal turkey bacon.
"It sounds pretty gross," admitted Crave Shack co-owner Firas Zabib, 24. "But it's different, and it actually does taste good."
Zabib put the $6.50 Crave Doughnut Burger on the menu after a buddy tried a similar concoction during a road trip across the South and raved about it.
Doughnut burgers are new to New York, but a St. Louis ballpark has been serving one - dubbed a "Luther Burger" after soul crooner Luther Vandross, who is credited with inventing it - for years.
Zabib said that he's pretty sure he's the only one in the city with the gutbuster on the menu, and certainly the only halal version. They have been selling about 10 to 20 a day, he said.
"I had this one guy coming in every day for two weeks and getting it," he laughed.
While Zabib doesn't know the calorie count of his Crave burger, similar sandwiches have topped 1,500 calories.
Getting people to even try the over-the-top burger - especially on such a sweltering day - proved difficult.
"Wow, I can't handle that right now," said one naysayer.
"That sounds really disgusting!" said 11-year-old Caroline Hamilton, wrinkling up her nose. "Just the thought of a doughnut and a burger together..."
Those who did give it a try were raving about the salty, sweet combo. "I think it's really good. At first it was just sweet, and then it tasted like a burger," said 15-year-old Anthony Vega, who lives down the street from Crave Shack.
Mark Pierre, 32, had a more profound reaction. "It's beautiful, it tastes beautiful," he said.
Available @ 
That is just so gross.
