Liverpool, N.Y. — The chicken sandwich wars have come and gone. Now, at least locally, we’re engulfed in the smashburger war.
Multiple restaurants specializing in these pressed, juicy burgers have popped up across Central New York over the last year or so, including Double Cheese, one of two that opened in the village of Liverpool only a few weeks apart.
Double Cheese is the latest restaurant from Feast Coast Hospitality & Design, the minds behind XO Taco, the recently shuttered Original Grain, the Hot Stuff line of bottled hot sauces and Fly Bird, their brand of chicken tenders that coexists on the menus at both XO Taco and Double Cheese.
The Instagram-friendly presentation and whimsical menu that have fueled XO Taco’s popularity can be found here at Double Cheese. The calm ambiance and muted, cinnamon-brown walls of the space’s predecessor, Cafe at 407, which closed at the end of 2023, have been replaced with TVs in the dining area and bar, a wall-length mural and a little nook with a neon sign that reads “Say Cheese!” and Polaroids of satisfied customers pinned to the wall. Unfortunately, the camera was out of film during my visit…