JG Melon, the burger joint at 480 Amsterdam Avenue (83rd Street) will close after Sunday night, a company source and a customer both confirmed.
The source did not give an explanation, but said the company will be opening a new restaurant in the space soon.
JG Melon had just opened this location in 2017, expanding from its original famous Upper East Side burger joint.
The East side location was just cited by Michelin as a “Bib Gourmand” choice, the honor given to less-expensive restaurants that stand out to reviewers.
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Burger photo by Alissa Salvatore.
There was over an hour wait at 7pm Friday nite!
How many people for breakfast, lunch or dinner the other days?! In most cases the answer is none.
Not sure when folks will realize that in order to pay rent and pay decent wages and run a healthy business that you can’t just be busy Friday and Saturday night.
You need a restaurant that does decent business just about every day at just about every meal.
— “There was over an hour wait at 7pm Friday nite!”
To get in, or to get out??
why can’t we have anything nice!!!
Bec no commercial rent laws.
What!!! No!!! 🙁 say it isn’t so!
Perhaps a better Burger option will open up in the neighborhood like a Wendy’s!
Bareburger is coming close by…lol
Stop embarrassing yourself.
Good riddance! It wasn’t anything special. It felt too old school. You want a burger? Try HiLife, Fred’s, E’s Bar, or the many place in an earshot of the joint.
You know what had a better burger? Joe’s the bar JG replaced and last for much longer. Can they come back please? Also the bar in JG was tiny and had no one but retired white men. No thank you!
Also probably didn’t help that they were under scaffolding for much of their time.
Joe’s really was better!
agreed Joe’s was a great spot!! Not going to miss this place; honestly just makes it more likely that i cross the park to go to the real JG.
“Also the bar in JG was tiny and had no one but retired white men.”
Are you too fancy for a retired white man to pour you a drink? Seriously.
UWS location was never as good as the original: different menu, different burgers, higher prices.
Theres better burgers in the UWS like nobody told me.
Boooooooooo!!!
Went once. Was underwhelmed by the size of the burger; was overwhelmed by the size of the bill. Will not be missed. Nothing has ever taken root in that location since the “Racoon Lodge” closed back in the day.
my experience exactly
Everything was a la carte. I’m paything much for a burger I expect it to come with fries. I just never warmed up to this place.
They were getting by on their reputation from other locations. After my wife and I were halfway in on their burger we were so underwhelmed that we were making plans to go back to Five Napkin one street over. This and the Jin Ramen place next to it need to go.
What!?! Literally went 2 (sometimes 3) times per week for the last few years, and they were never empty. Good, casual, unpretentious inexpensive everyday food. There is nothing like it in the UWS; Freds etc serve gross bar food which not comparable. Lovely service. Will be sorely missed!
the only good thing about it were the fries. burgers were awful
So disappointed. I loved the cheeseburger, cottage fries and caesar salad. Will really miss this place.
Awful and expensive burgers. No loss
Hmm. Was there scaffolding marring the ambience?
Scaffolding was an issue for me. I assumed it would only be up for a couple of months and figured I’d wait for it to come down to go back (I like going on sunny weekend afternoons, so the scaffolding made it feel a bit too dark). Then I quickly realized the entire summer went by and I never went to JG in part because of the scaffolding.
But honestly, JG Melon wasn’t one of my favorite spots in the neighborhood, and as far as Danny Abrams restaurants go, I prefer The Mermaid Inn and Sirenetta anyway. So I’m more excited to see what new restaurant they’ll be bringing to the space.
I’m guessing they did not do much delivery business as that is the only way for these types of places to actually make money – dine-in business is largely break even at best.
What a disappointment! JG Melon’s on the UWS is one of our go-to places. Despite the negative commentary here I prefer the UWS to the UES location.
Unfortunately this location did not live up to expectations. Upper westsiders are picky. We have lots of choices.
Bummer! I loved the burgers. Way better than anything close by in my opinion.
This JG Melons was a big disappointment. My friend and I ordered a burger and it was so small we were still hungry at the end of the meal. It wasn’t cheap either. Never went back.
I liked the place on the East Side but found the West Side location to be very uneven. My last trip there the burger was sub-par as was the service.
New Amsterdam Burger Bar on 93rd & Columbus just opened a couple of months ago and it is a great local spot.
The prices at New Amsterdam Burger Bar are wild. $21 for a standard burger — without even a side of fries — is unreasonable for anyone who isn’t specifically looking for a Kosher establishment. And they only do a medium-well cook on it.
I feel like Brad’s Burgers on Columbus (next to Good Enough to Eat) is a great new alternative. And with two new UWS locations of Bareburger opening, Five Napkin on Broadway, and Hi-Life, Fred’s, and a wealth of pubs on Amsterdam, I feel like there are plenty of solid options remaining.
Was ok, but half the fun at the UES location is the ambiance, which is almost impossible to replicate.
RE: New Amsterdam
Can you even get a cheeseburger at a kosher joint? Automatically disqualifies it….
This makes me really sad. We live one block over on 84th street. The staff was so friendly, and went out of their way to accommodate the fact that I use a cane. My Husband and I always support local, and are regulars at Fred’s (the owner David and his team makes every experience there awesome). However, for a lower price quick meal nothing in the neighborhood beat JG’s.
Yes. Will miss JG’s – Delicious and always great service
Everybody complaining of how much the food cost on UWS… does anyone know how to cook or have a kitchen in their beautiful upper West side $3000 plus apartment?
$3,000 apartments? You must mean studios only. That’s the bottom
We need a Fuddruckers
very sad to hear this. Was perfect for quick bite, with or with out kids. Found their burgers better than the UES location. Really a bummer.
I enjoyed many delightful meals at the previous UWS JG Melon, and hoped to visit this one. Sad, as it looks nice, from this picture.
By the way, whatever happened to Modern Bread & Bagel taking over the neighboring Spring space on Columbus and 83rd? It looks like Spring is rolling out a fall menu soon, so it seems like they’ll at least be sticking around for a bit.