This is from The Herlad’s always-excellent ForkLift food blog.

November 24th, 2010
Craigie on Main takes $18 burger off menu; riots ensue
Posted by Julia Rappaport at 2:34 pm

Well, kind of.

Last night a Chowhound.com user posted that the Central Square restaurant Craigie on Main has removed their popular burger and done away with the bar menu – an alternative to the high-priced dinner options.

Cue angry crowds. As of right now, 32 people have responded with comments ranging from the rational (”I’d be sorry if this change were permanent” from Chowhound regular and Boston Phoenix contributor MC Slim JB) to the slightly deranged (”God!!! I’m so steamed about this… they can take their ugly dropped ceiling that looks like my parents’ basement and shove it! It’s never going to be really fancy in there so just give me my god-damned burger!”)

Craigie chef Tony Maws took to Twitter this afternoon to address the outrage:“Hey you COM burger and bar fanatics-whoa!!!Calm down.Format different and trying to keep quality high with recent demand.Details to follow.”

Finally, clarification landed via user KenjiAlt, who picked up the phone and called Maws: “First off, the bar menu. According to him, the only change that’s been made is that the items off of the bar menu have been incorporated to the regular menu, with a few of the less popular items (like the mussels and the potato galette) being 86′d except for specials and brunch…All of the old bar staples are still available, and at the same prices.”

Except for the burger.

Kenji explains:“After much national coverage over the summer, burger sales went through the roof. He went from selling 20 burgers a night to over 40. Seems good, but the problem is, the beef he was using is sourced from Hardwick beef in Western Mass (same supplier as Dan Barber). It’s a small producer of 100% grass-fed beef and he’s given a specific allotment. He can’t simply call up and ask for more. As such, when demand started getting too large, he resorted to ordering the short rib for the burger from a different supplier but was not as happy with the quality. Basically, he says, ‘The burger we were serving was not the Craigie on Main burger that people have come to know,’ and he didn’t feel right doing it. They’ve subsequently switched back to 100% Hardwick beef, and as it is, they are making as many burgers as their beef allotment will allow, which comes to about 20 per night.”

Now the real question is, who’s ready for a burger?