How do you know Wall Street is facing the pointy end of a recession? If the massive layoffs from the major banks and brokerages aren’t evidence enough of a slowdown, if the precipitous drop in sales of multi-million dollar condos to twenty-four year old bond traders isn’t proof enough–just witness the opening this week of the Wall Street Burger Shoppe. It is a sign of Wall Street’s straitened circumstances that in early 2008, the restaurant opening everyone south of Fulton Street is talking about is not a $30-an-entree steakhouse, but a humble and conspicuously retro burger joint–a duplex diner serving gourmet burgers for $4 and hot dogs at two for $5.

And if the crowds at Monday’s opening lunch service can be read as augury of the future, Burger Shoppe has chosen its moment well. The atmosphere among customers at the counter waiting to pick up their orders resembled that of an early-80s East Village mosh pit: a group of thirty to forty men in their 20s, heaving and impatient as they jostled one another for space at the register. Burger Shoppe was so crowded that the staff seemed unable to keep up, leading to opening-week snafus that pushed wait times to nearly twenty minutes, and by the afternoon, the restaurant was forced to close early due to a shortage of food.

Still, if you can get past the crowds and the long wait–and we expect Burger Shoppe will sort out its service kinks in short order as it introduces table service on the restaurant’s second floor– the food does offer a kind of nostalgic, caloric satisfaction. Burgers come in several variations, including the Shoppe Burger ($4) with lettuce, tomato, a spicy mayonnaise-based sauce, and a good char on the patty. The Becky Burger (pictured left, $5) is the same, but with cheddar cheese. Both are smaller than the average restaurant hamburger: about twice the size of a slider and just the right size for ordering two at a time. Naturally, there is a special two-pack on the menu–the ‘real deal, which offers two Shoppe Burgers, fries or onion rings, and a soda for $10. Unfortunately, all burgers are wrapped snugly in heat-trapping thermal paper that keeps the burgers warm but often steams the buns to a soggy, patchy mess.

Burger Shoppe’s onion rings are also a bit disappointing. They are made fresh throughout the day, but the batter is uninspiringly bland, and its sheer bulk overwhelms the onions like a thick winter coat. On the positive side, the shakes and malts are creamy, fresh and very thick, and come in flavors ranging from vanilla to banana-rum walnut to a sweet, malty Guinness-spiked shake. The vanilla and chocolate Black and White (pictured right, $4) is particularly good.

On this menu of burgers and fries, it is also possible to order healthier options. A ‘chop chop’ salad with grilled shrimp ($9, $6 without shrimp) offers romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers, a tangy, pleasing dressing. However, ours contained only three small, grilled shrimp. Three bucks for three tiny crustaceans makes sense in some venues, but not here–even when salads are not the main event, they shouldn’t feel so second-rate.

In spite of its opening-day jitters and occasionally hit-or-miss menu, Burger Shoppe remains a sound addition to the neighborhood. Excepting a strip of restaurants on nearby Stone Street, the area immediately surrounding Burger Shoppe is a desolate canyon of office towers, Subway sandwich shops and an occasional deli. Moreover, Burger Shoppe seems to understand the locals better than many lunch spots do–with deals like the Party Monster, an order of 100 burgers for $365 (one hour’s notice required), someone seems to have had the vision to imagine how to feed an entire cube farm of traders and analysts in the surrounding banks and financial companies. Well, the men among them at least–during our visits during opening week, men outnumbered women nearly nine to one, giving the place the air of a fraternity dining hall.

A romantic spot to bring your date this is not, but at the end of the day it is difficult to beat the prices, and Burger Shoppe fulfills its promise of cheap fresh food, cooked to order–and once the crowds thin, waiting for a new burger to come off the line will be the best hedge against the soggy bun problem described above. And really, there aren’t too many places downtown where two people can eat a decent, sizable meal for under $10 apiece and (when the upstairs opens officially) find a pleasant place to sit. Recession or no, we can think of many worse places to hunker down while we watch the dollar fall.

Wall Street Burger Shoppe, 30 Water Street (between Broad and Coenties Slip), 212-425-1000.