We shall commence this story... well, let us begin it on the shores of Dâmbovița, right near the Radio House and the Municipal Hospital.
So if you take a walk on the shores of Bucharest's own river coming from the former cemetery, on the way to Union Square you'll come, among others, across the big hospital building and other ruins of multilaterally-developed socialism. Now if, reaching the intersection between Bd. Eroilor and Str. Știrbei Vodă, instead of going forward you take a left, crossing the river and then keeping the Venus Park to your right, then crossing the (in)famous Calea Plevnei and the courtrooms, you will reach an intersection between Str. Berzei and Știrbei Vodă. From there Știrbei's street narrows down and fills itself with old buildings on both sides, some beautiful, say Crețulescu's palace, others not that much, for example that place where the local sikrit police run their business.
In this latter segment of Știrbei Vodă, right before the intersection between Str. Popa Tatu and Str. Schitu Măgureanu -- the latter passing right near ye olde Cișmigiu Gardens back towards the river -- in a small, old yet renovated house you will find Burgeria Știrbei by Malacu, a place where Laurențiu, also known as Malacu1, makes fat yet so-incredibly-tasty food from a recipe imported, I suppose, right from the heart of Northern America.
I'll refrain from throwing too many epithets at the man's work. I'll just say that I've taken friends from way across the continent to witness this deliciousness and I've encouraged everyone to try it out. But that's not all: I've been occasionally2 trying out Laurențiu's burger for more than two years and a half -- he's been in business for a tad longer, I suppose, since I remember passing by his place as early as 2017 -- and all this while I've always and only seen him work in that small place with a team of maybe three people around him. He hasn't grown his second place, and if you'll ask him why, he will readily answer that there's no other way for him to do quality control, all while he's working from 11AM to 10PM each Monday to Saturday.
He must know what he's doing, 'cause that's how you get the finest burger in Bucharest, and in these parts of ol' Europe, as far as I've tried. Take it from the Rahovian dude: he's good.
Anyways, here's my free piece of advertising for Malacu, I don't think he'll mind.
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"Malac" is local slang for "big", although the word likely arrived into Romanian via Bulgarian from the Greek μαλακός, which contains a plurality of senses, among which: soft, effeminate, weak or in some cases small, or, in the case of μαλάκας, someone who masturbates.
Language, huh? ↩
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You don't eat hamburgers every day, do you? ↩