Grime Square

Before he moved to Bushwick, @leeknoeppel had been a chef competing on the ABC cooking show "The Taste," and now he's opened a new bar and burger spot on DeKalb Avenue, near the corner of Irving.

@casey.wetherbee headed over and checked out the opening of @extrasaucebk for us. Get the scoop at the 🔗 in bio.

“He was my mentor,” Knoeppel said about working with "The Taste" judge Anthony Bourdain, whose team Knoeppel was on in the show.

“He called me his TV son, and he was my TV dad.”

A few years later, Knoeppel won an episode of Chopped, and almost made it to the final of a champions-only episode of Beat Bobby Flay. After the pandemic, Knoeppel would start a pop up with his friend Chris Hargitt and they would eventually start operating among the vendors at @the.hungry.pearl in FiDi.

And now, they've taken the idea to Bushwick, where they set up shop at where the sports bar @laparadebrooklyn used to be.

It's a place where Knoeppel has set up a mini basketball hoop in the back patio area (he has a Knicks tattoo and says he wishes that he could have been open for their historic championship win), and also brought an arcade machine, which he put up next to the bar.

Casey got the chance to try his "au poivre burger," which comes with with gruyere and caramelized onions and crispy potatoes, paired with a black pepper sauce to dip it into. It was messy as hell, but he calls it one of the best burgers in the area that he’s ever had.

“There really is a community here, and I’m opening this for everyone,” Knoeppel said. “I met this woman who has lived here for 40 years, and she was like, ‘I’m throwing a baby shower for my daughter, can we rent out the back?’ I was like, ‘Fuck yes! You can have the backyard!’”

#bushwick #openings #nyc #burgers #Bourdain