Road Tips

Jake's Burger - Brookfield, WI

I'm not a restaurateur - I only know how to eat in them.  So, it was interesting to me how a local Milwaukee area chef could take what was a popular casual Mexican restaurant featuring tacos filled with eclectic ingredients and turn it completely around into a gourmet burger joint after 4 years of being in business.  That's exactly how chef Jake Replogle, Jr. did in transforming the former Haute Taco eatery into Jake's Burger in suburban Brookfield.  A tip of the hat to Dawn for giving me the "heads up" on Jake's. On a recent visit to Milwaukee, I had lunch at Jake's Burger before leaving town. 

In 1960, Jake Replogle, Sr. bought a supper club called Wally Behl's in Wauwatosa and opened his eponymous steakhouse - Jake's Steakhouse.  Living above the restaurant, he and his first wife (it was said Jake Replogle, Sr. married 8 to 10 times) worked to make the restaurant a destination for steak lovers, as well as offering duck dinners and seafood.  In 1967, he bought another Wally Behl steakhouse/supper club in Pewaukee and named it Jake's, as well.  He closed down the Jake's in Wauwatosa and concentrated on the new location in Pewaukee.  As the area grew up around Jake's, it became a favorite of thousands of people for great steaks and good food.  (Replogle also owned the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, FL, spending half his time in Wisconsin and the other half of the year in Florida.) Jake's son, Jake, Jr., helped his father in the restaurant business and he ended up buying the restaurant from his father in 2005.  (Jake Replogle, Sr. passed away in 2009.  His son, Charles, runs the Ocean Grill in Florida.)

The younger Jake Replogle - along with his wife, Karen - opened Haute Taco on the north side of the Sendik's Towne Centre in nearby Brookfield.  Sendik's Towne Centre is a small shopping complex that has a number of shops and restaurants and is anchored by a Sendik's supermarket (see map).  The shopping complex has had trouble attracting both merchants and patrons since it opened just before the economic downturn in 2008.  Proposed housing projects in the immediate area have not come to fruition as quickly as planners had hoped.   Today, the shopping complex still has a handful of empty spaces, but it's much better than the 18% occupancy rate the center had about four years ago.  

The younger Replogle had spent part of his youth growing up in Mexico and he remembered some of the casual foods that he had in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  He opened Haute Taco with the Milwaukee diner in mind.  Although beef tongue was one of the delicacies of the area he lived in Mexico, he knew it wouldn't go over well as a taco filling in suburban Milwaukee.  He developed tacos that had beef short ribs or duck as the main filling.  Haute Taco was in business for four years before the Replogle's decided to shift gears, close Haute Taco, completely remodel the space, and then reopen as Jake's Burger in the spring of 2012.  

The basic burger at Jake's Burger is the same one that is served at Jake's steakhouse - a blend of brisket, sirloin and short beef.  Extras include Nueske's bacon, port-caramelized onions, brie, Wisconsin aged-cheddar and blue cheese.  The "Haystack" onion straws at the burger place are also the same as the very popular onion rings served at the steakhouse.   Most of the burgers start at less than $10, but the extras can add up pretty quickly running the total cost of the burger to well over the $10 buck mark. 

It was right at the noon rush when I made it into Jake's Burger.  I was able to find a spot up front as there was an empty store space next to Jake's and a frozen yogurt shop on the other side of the empty space.  Not many people were hankering for frozen yogurt on a cold late winter day.  

As you walk into Jake's, there's a bar area up front with small bar and a number of top shelf and call liquor bottles on a glass shelf behind.  A couple three televisions are on the wall in the bar area.  Near the front door when you come in, there's an old Coca-Cola machine that stores vintage cans of beer.  During "Happy Hour" - which comes twice daily at Jake's Burger from 2 to 5:30 p.m. and once again from 8 p.m. to close Tuesday thru Friday - vintage can beers from the Coke machine are $2.00

 
I was seated in the dining room behind the bar area underneath a wall that had a potpourri of "Jake's Burger" logos stamped on the wall paper.  From what I understand, there used to be a colorful mural in its place when Haute Taco was in the space.

Looking through the menu, in addition to their sirloin/short beef/brisket mixed burger, they also feature turkey burgers and grass-fed beef burgers.  They also have something called "raft burgers" that are served open faced and meant to be eaten with a fork and knife.  They had an albacore tuna raft burger as well as the Cali raft burger with Nueske's bacon, butter lettuce, special burger sauce, and oven-roasted tomato with avocado.  There was a portobella mushroom burger on the menu, as well as a beer-battered cod burger.  Jake's Burger also had a handful of salads to choose from if you didn't want a burger.  

One other great thing about Jake's Burger is the beer menu.  I'm not big on Belgian beers, but they had a nice selection of those, as well as a number of lager, wheat and pale ale-style beers.  I noticed that they had the Bell's Two Hearted pale ale on the menu and I got one of those while I was looking through the menu.  

With the extras that you can order to put on a burger at Jake's, you can come up with some pretty interesting combinations.  Their signature burgers include the Truffle Burger that is topped with brie truffle cheese, white truffle oil and arugula, and the Wisconsin burger topped with beer-cheese sauce, their haystack onion straws and Nueske's bacon.  I was looking to do some additions to my burger so when my server came back to take my order I got the Classic burger - with the mixed beef - and it came with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion and topped with a homemade pickle slice.  I added a fried egg for a buck more and for $2.50 more I got a couple of slices of Nueske's bacon.  Nueske's has been called "the caviar of bacon" by a food critic for the New York Times.  My server asked me if I wanted any fries or onion straws with my burger - also an extra charge.  Something told me to order up the onion straws.  Later on, I found that I was glad I did.  

It took about 15 minutes from the time I ordered my burger to when it was brought out to me.  It was topped with a large sesame seed bun and cut in half.  On the menu they said they cooked their burgers "medium +", but I asked for a more medium burger with some pink in the middle.  They couldn't have gotten it any closer to how I like my burgers.  

 
The cheese was draped over the top of the burger with the Nueske's bacon sitting on top.  The fried egg was underneath the burger patty resting on the veggies. It was a big damned burger to say the least.  

The first bite was wonderful.  The taste of the burger meat was flavorful and juicy.  Coupled with the cheese, fried egg and bacon (I ended up pulling off most of the veggies because they were falling off anyhow), it was an excellent tasting burger.  About the only quibble I would have with the burger at Jake's is that there was a little too much bun.  But it was tasty and chewy, and didn't overpower the overall taste of the burger.   

As good as the taste of the burger was, the highlight of the lunch were the onion straws.  I prefer onion straws over onion rings and these were just outstanding.  They had a little bit of a spicy taste to them in addition to the beer-batter flavor coating the rings.  Oh, man!  My stomach is doing jumping jacks just thinking about the onion straws!  I normally don't get fries or onion rings when I order a gourmet burger, but I'm telling you - I'm glad I decided to try the onion straws.  

I've read some on-line reviews on Jake's Burger where a handful of people didn't like the place.  I thought my burger was excellent and the onion straws were out of this world.  Most of the time when people say they don't like the place, it usually comes down to price.  And I will say that Jake's Burger is not cheap.  If you want to stay basic and get one of their Classic burgers with no extras and a soft drink, then, yeah, you can stay under $10 bucks.  But to me, that's not too fun.  Yeah, the extras - especially the Nueske's bacon - really zip up the price of a burger.  Unless you live in the Brookfield area, Jake's is a little bit of a haul from anywhere in Milwaukee, but I think it's worth the trip to try it at least once.  I'd go out of my way a couple three miles when I'm out in Brookfield to try another burger at Jake's Burger.

Three Aces - Chicago

I was reading through the Chicago Tribune awhile back and came across an article on a place in the Little Italy section of Chicago - Three Aces.  Actually, the article focused on chef Matt Troost, whose "Ace" burger won the "People's Choice" award at the annual Hamburger Hop, the kick-off to Bon Appetite magazine's Chicago Gourmet event held in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago.  Not only did the burger sound good - a 50-50 mix of prime chuck and sirloin - but Three Aces, on its own, sounded pretty neat as they bill themselves as a neighborhood joint with rock and roll.  I had some time to kill before a meeting in downtown Chicago recently and I easily found Three Aces on Taylor Street (see map).  

Co-owners Anthony Potenzo and Lyle Aker opened Three Aces in the fall of 2010 on the east end of Chicago's Little Italy.  Both had bar/restaurant experience in the past - Potenzo with Gianotti's, and the iconic (and recently closed) Jilly's Piano Bar on Rush St.; and Aker with Whiskey Sky and Five Star.  The pair recruited Troost, who worked at the former Fianco restaurant and the Peninsula Hotel, to come in and fine-hone the menu which features an emphasis on "farm-to-fork" food.  Or as Aker once said, "Three Aces is like the Italian countryside meets the American farmhouse, in Keith Richards' basement bar."  I absolutely had to try this place.    

In addition to the Ace Burger, Three Aces features a number of menu items with an Italian twist including mushroom risotto and rye gnocchi.  Seafood items on the menu featured scallops, cioppino and beer steamed mussels, while meat choices included steaks from Slagle Family Farms, braised pork chops and porchetta meatballs. They also have a handful of small pizzas - called pizzettas - one of which features short rib beef with mushrooms, a roasted garlic cream sauce, blue cheese and au jus.  That actually sounded pretty interesting to me.  Three Aces also has an extensive brunch menu that is served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. 

Arriving after the lunch rush, I was greeted by Erin, a very pleasant urban chic young lady with piercings and tattoos.  She told me I could sit anywhere.  There were a number of high tables in the bar area up front, with a smattering of booths along the wall.  There was another room toward the back that was void of any diners at that time.  Contemporary rock music was playing at an acceptable level and the whole place had a dark edge to it, yet a somewhat cozy and welcome feel.  

Three Aces also has a number of eclectic beers from throughout the U.S. with an emphasis on many microbrews from the Midwest.  Erin dropped off a menu with me and asked what I wanted to drink.  I saw that they had one of my favorite pale ale beers available on tap that day - Great Lakes Burning River out of Cleveland.  I asked if she could bring me one of those.   

 
There's artwork throughout the Three Aces with one of the most noteworthy being the Three Aces sign out front that was designed by Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick.  Fitzpatrick has works of art hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, as well as in the Art Institute of Chicago.  Fitzpatrick has also designed album covers for the likes of Steve Earle, the Neville Brothers and Lou Reed.  In conjunction with Three Aces, Fitzpatrick hosted an "Outcast and Newcomers" art show on the patio last summer. Many of the works of art throughout Three Aces are from artists who were featured in the art show. (Picture above right courtesy Time Out Chicago.) 

Although many of the items on the menu looked pretty good and interesting, I was there for the Ace Burger - a 50/50 mix of prime chuck and sirloin, topped aged Wisconsin white cheddar cheese, bacon jam (Oh yeah!), aioli, red onion slices and mesclun greens and served on a pretzel bun.  In doing some research on the Ace Burger, I also found that there is a secret ingredient added to the beef - bone marrow salt.  To make bone marrow salt, Troost packs fresh bone marrow in salt for six months to allow for the meat flavor to blend into the salt.  When Erin came back with my beer, I told her that I'd take the Ace Burger - cooked medium.  She told me fries with a side of homemade ketchup came with the burger.  That was fine.  The one caveat I asked for was the aioli on the side.  Erin said, "No problem!"    

Good food takes time and I was able to finish my beer and order another from Erin before she brought out my burger.  A large pretzel bun stood majestically on top of the thick ground chuck/sirloin burger patty.  Hand cut French fries sat on the side next to the garlic aoili and a small container of what I thought to be homemade ketchup.  The aged white cheddar cheese was melted down the side of the burger patty.  A dill pickle spear that was marinated in hops and garlic completed the scene on the plate.

The first bite of the Ace Burger yielded an "Ummm..." from yours truly.  The pretzel bun had a crunch to the outside and a soft, doughy consistency on the inside.  The burger was thick, juicy and extremely flavorful.  Even without the bone marrow salt, it still would have been an outstanding burger.  I had to end up cutting it in half because with all the cheese oozing off the burger, it was getting kind of messy.  Erin came over to check on me and after I told her how great the burger was, I immediately asked her for another cloth napkin.  Actually, a beach towel would have probably come in more handy as it was a juicy and cheesy burger.  

My all-time favorite gourmet burger is the one I had at the Atwood Cafe in downtown Chicago (click here to see that entry).  But I have to say that the Ace Burger at Three Aces gave it a run for its money.  I loved everything about Three Aces - the edgy atmosphere, the eclectic beer menu, the great burger.  I'd like to come back in the summertime and have an Ace Burger on the outside patio (it's a parking lot in the winter time).  I was absolutely blown away by the burger at Three Aces.  It's clearly one of the best gourmet burgers I've ever had.     

BRGR - Prairie Village, KS

The Pitch is a local weekly newspaper in the Kansas City area that focuses on local entertainment, restaurants and other goings-on.  Whenever I'm in Kansas City, I always try to pick up a Pitch to see if there's anything that I'm missing in terms of new or interesting restaurants.  A couple years ago, I had picked up a Pitch and it was the "Best of" issue that named both readers and the editorial staff's top restaurants in the greater Kansas City area.  One place that caught my eye was a "modern burger joint" by the name of BRGR that was given the title of Best Burger in Kansas City in 2010.  It immediately went on my "restaurants to visit" list.  However, it took me a little while to finally get to BRGR.  On a trip late this last year to Kansas City, I stopped at BRGR before I left town.

The group behind the concept and direction of BRGR is Bread and Butter Concepts, a restaurant holding company run by partners Alan Gaylin and Glynn Roberts along with Roberts' wife, Jean.  Gaylin (pictured at right - photo courtesy Prairie Village Post) comes from a long lineage of restaurant management, formerly as the Senior Vice-President for Business Development of the group that oversaw Bennigan's and the former Steak and Ale restaurants.  He then moved over to Houlihan's as the operations director before taking the same position at T.G.I. Friday's.  Roberts doesn't have much of a background in the restaurant business - he is the President and co-founder of Northstar Offshore - a Houston-based oil and gas exploration company.  

Gaylin and Roberts were middle school friends from Houston who decided about six years ago to partner up to develop restaurant concepts in the greater Kansas City area where Gaylin had taken up residence.  It took them a little over two years from the time they started their Bread and Butter Concepts partnership to open their first restaurant - BRGR - in March of 2010.  A little over a year later, they opened their second restaurant - Urban Table - that offers an eclectic mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner in a neighborhood-style corner cafe/market.  

In November of 2011, Bread and Butter Concepts opened what they called Kansas City's first "gastropub" - Gram and Dun.  The gastropub craze has hit most major markets combining an English-style public house with a restaurant that also focuses on food.  Gram and Dun goes a step further by offering gourmet-style offerings in a fun, casual and relaxing atmosphere.  

BRGR is located in the Corinth Square shopping mall on West 83rd St. at Mission Road in suburban Prairie Village, KS. (see map)  (Urban Table is also located within the mall.)  It was a beautiful, but crisp mid-day when I pulled into the parking lot in front of BRGR and found a parking spot right up front.  BRGR has a nice little outdoor seating area complete with a fireplace with heavy duty metal and glass tables and sturdy metal chairs.  Even though it was nice out, I decided to eat inside.

I was greeted by a hostess and asked if I could sit at the bar.  She said that would be absolutely no problem.  I walked across the big open contemporary/industrial style of dining room to the three-sided bar.  I found a seat at the bar and my server/bartender came over to greet me.  I asked for a menu and then asked what they had for beers.  She pointed at a big board behind me and said, "That's what we have on tap and in bottles, hon."  

It was a pretty extensive list with a number of Belgian-style beers, microbrews, regional beers and, of course, the big guys and the usual imports.  Interestingly enough, they had beers such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz, Old Style, and even Hamm's in cans.  I tell you, I do like Old Style and try to keep some in my beer fridge at all times.  But this time I decided to have a Magic Hat #9 from Vermont.  It, too, came in a can.  

Burgers are, of course, the main feature at BRGR.  But they do have salads and a number of appetizers on the menu.  They also have turkey and portabella mushroom burgers along with chicken breast sandwiches, BLT's and something called the C2 - ground chicken and ground andouille sausage with blue cheese, watercress, caramelized onions and served on a corn bun.  That actually sounded rather interesting to me.  

One of the things that caught my attention right off the bat wasn't on the menu, but what was on the bar.  BRGR has their own bottles of mustard and ketchup that they make in-house.  I thought it was a nice little touch to distance themselves from other burger places in the area.  

Some of the burgers on the menu at BRGR were pretty interesting.  The Sheboygan featured a mix of ground chuck and short rib blend, topped with fried cheese curds, Wisconsin cheddar mustard, and something called Jay's bacon sausage, and all on a pretzel bun.  The Ring of Fire was topped with chili, pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, and an onion ring and served on a corn bun.  They also had their own variation of the Twin Cities favorite, the Jucy (Juicy) Lucy.  Similar to the ones you find in Minneapolis/St. Paul, BRGR's Jucy Lucy was stuffed with American cheese and topped with lettuce and mayo, and served on a kaiser bun.  

BRGR had a burger called the Big Mock that was similar to a McDonald's Big Mac with two beef patties, Swiss cheese, topped with a special sauce and onions, lettuce and pickles on an egg bun.  And the S&P was just a basic cheeseburger with your choice of one of four different types of cheese.  

For my first visit to BRGR, I went with their signature burger, simply called the BRGR.  It featured ground chuck mixed with chopped caramelized onions, then topped with American cheese, lettuce, pickles and their homemade mustard and served on an onion bun.  For good measure - and a buck more - I got a fried egg on top of the burger.  (For $2 more per burger, you can upgrade to ground bison.)  My server asked me if I wanted any fries or onion rings to go with the burger.  She said, "We have these outrageously great truffle tater tots, too."  I thought about it for a second and then said that the burger would be enough for me on this visit.  

The burger came out about 15 minutes after I ordered.  It was a good thing I didn't get fries or tater tots or anything else with it because the burger, alone, was huge.  Pickle slices and shredded lettuce were already falling off the burger before I even picked it up.  I ordered my burger medium, meaning that they flip the burger twice during the cooking process.  Looking at the burger patty, I thought it looked a little well done for my taste with a lot of char marks on the outside. 

But the first taste told me that that it wasn't overcooked.  There was still some pink in the middle, but it didn't appear to be as juicy as I like my burgers.  The burger meat held together well and had a good flavor, but there seemed to be some "pizazz" missing from the overall taste.  The bun was good and held together well.  I liked the egg on the burger giving kind of a "steak and eggs" taste.  And I did like the homemade ketchup that I added to the burger.  It had sort of a zippy taste without being spicy.  

Maybe I went into BRGR with expectations too high.  For burgers in Kansas City, I'm spoiled by the burger at Westport Flea Market.  Each burger that I have in Kansas City from here on out is going to have to be measured against the one at Westport Flea Market.  That's not to say the burger at BRGR was bad - far from it.  It was very good, but I guess I was just looking for something even better than what I had.  I did like the atmosphere and decor in the place. My server/bartender was outstanding in taking care of me.  And the burger was above average, but there was just something missing from making it a great burger.  Still, I'm going back to BRGR at some point to try another burger, have some more eclectic beers, and probably try those truffle tater tots.  All in all, BRGR is one of the better places to get a burger in Kansas City.   

The Cafe - Ames, IA

A tip of the hat to a gentleman who calls himself "Prexcoble" who left a comment on the entry I had for Oddfellows Burger Kitchen in Ames, IA (see that entry here).  He suggested that before I do my Best Burger List for 2012 (see that entry here), I needed to try the burger at The Cafe in Ames, IA.  I didn't get there in time to do that, but I was in Ames recently working on a problem that a customer was having with one of the products we sell.  After I finished up with that, I decided to go have lunch at The Cafe.

The Cafe is located in the north part of Ames on Northridge Parkway along with a number of other businesses and restaurants in the Somer Street neighborhood. (see map)  In fact, a dealer that I called on for awhile was located just down the street from The Cafe.  But until this visit, I had never been in the place before.  

Actually, The Cafe will celebrate their 10th anniversary next month.  The original owners, Bob Cummings, Kevin Rettig and Pat Breen opened their doors in February of 2003.  In doing a little digging on the three, I found that Breen is the owner of the popular Aunt Maude's restaurant in downtown Ames, and that Cummings was the owner of O'Malley's and McGee's, a Mexican restaurant that closed down a few years ago.  I believe Cummings is the managing partner of The Cafe.  

I parked on the street in front of The Cafe (there's also parking in the rear) and went inside just before 2 p.m.  I was standing there for quite some time at the hostess stand before a young lady finally came up to me after a couple minutes and asked if I needed any help.  "I'd like to get some lunch," I replied.

She looked at her watch and said, "Well, we quit serving lunch at 2. (It was still before 2 on my clock on my phone.) Let me check."  She went away for a moment and I saw her talking to another lady and pointing in my direction.  The other lady looked at a clock in the kitchen area and she came up to me.  She cheerfully said, "Sure, we can get you in.  It's officially 1:58 on the clock."  The place was packed with diners and I thought it was rather strange to have the cut off so early, but there are restaurants that do changeovers from lunch to dinner after the noon rush.  As the young lady ushered me back to a booth, I heard the first girl who greeted me say in a not-very-nice tone to the cook staff, "We have ONE MORE for lunch!"  I half expected to hear groans and words of derision from the staff they way she said it.  But they didn't.

I was seated in a booth in one of the two dining areas at The Cafe.  There's a second dining area in the bar area in the back of the place (pictured right). There is also a small coffee shop/bakery off to the side of the front entrance.  I took a number of pictures of the place, but none of them turned out.  The lighting in the place was a mix of reduced direct lighting and natural light coming in from the large windows in the front of the restaurant.  The lighting played havoc with any type of good picture that I wanted to get.  

The hostess left off a menu with me, and even though I knew that I was just going to get a burger I wanted to see what else The Cafe had to offer.  The menu isn't that extensive so it was sort of perplexing to me why they needed a changeover between lunch and dinner.  In fact, the only thing that was different from the lunch part of the menu were five entrees that included wood-grilled salmon, a chicken entree, duck breast and couple others.  But I only eat at restaurants and don't run one, so I don't fully understand how they work behind the scenes.    

The menu items at The Cafe are locally sourced and some items are made in house.  They encase their own fennel sausage for their pizza at The Cafe and they use locally grown beef for their burger and New York strip steak.  Nearly all of the meats that are made for entrees, sandwiches or salads are cooked over an oak wood-fire grill.  The wonderful smell of smoldering oak wood was prevalent throughout the restaurant.  

Because it was still busy, it took some time for a server to come over.  Finally, after sitting for about five minutes, a tall, personable young lady by the name of Paula came by to greet me.  She said, "I'm sorry I haven't been over sooner.  Can I get you something to drink?"

I told her, "Sure, and I pretty much know what I'm going to have for lunch, too."

Surprised, Paula said, "Oh!  OK!  Do you want to hear the specials we have?"  I told her I did not.  "Go ahead," she exclaimed.  I ordered the Cafe Burger - a half-pound wood grilled burger topped with white cheddar cheese and Russian dressing, with lettuce, tomato and pickled onions served on a kaiser/rosemary bun that, I'm guessing, is made in their bakery.  For a buck more, I asked Paula to put some bacon on the burger.  Homemade potato chips came with the burger.

It took about 15 minutes for the burger to come out to me after I ordered.   The lettuce, tomato slice and pickled onions were set off to the side.  I tried one of the pickled onions before I put them on the burger and they tasted excellent.  Two thick pieces of bacon laid on top of the thick burger patty. 

The bun had enough rosemary on it that you could smell the herb from two feet away.  I was worried that it may overpower the overall taste of the burger, but from my first bite into the burger, my fears went away.  

The burger was cooked with a little hint of pink in the middle - a tad more overdone than I like, but it was still good.  I wasn't certain that I cared for the Russian dressing on the burger, but I do like Russian dressing on salads.  I should have gotten the dressing on the side. But, the wood-grilled taste of the burger was wonderful, and the burger patty, itself, was moist, but not really juicy.  

The highlight was the kaiser/rosemary bun.  It had a somewhat crunchy crown, but it yielded a moist and chewy inner core.  It was spongy and it could easily be mashed to be able to take a full bite of the burger.  The great thing about it - the rosemary didn't fall off when I mashed it down.  The rosemary was a great additional taste to what was already a pretty fine burger.  

And the burger was a belt buster, too.  I was able to finish the burger, but I was satiably full afterward.  Not to the point that I felt that I overate, but more to the point that I knew that I wouldn't need a big dinner that evening.

Where would I put the Cafe Burger from The Cafe on my best burger list?  It's probably more of a gourmet burger than one you'd find in a greasy old burger joint.  I would probably put it on my honorable mention list, but I think the burger over at Oddfellows was more pleasing to me.  That's not to say the burger at The Cafe wasn't good - far from it.  It is a very good burger and one that I wouldn't have any problem having again.  I'll just have to make sure that I'm REALLY hungry and that it's well before 2 p.m. if I get back there for lunch.  

Scotty's Lakehouse - Fishers, IN

With business picking up in Indianapolis, I've found myself heading east along I-74 more often over the past few months.  After a day that included a couple stops to visit dealers along the way, I pulled into my hotel in Fishers around 8:30 p.m., tired and hungry. I was looking for something new to try in the area and with the help of both Yelp and Urbanspoon, I found a place called Scotty's Lakehouse about a 10 minute drive away from the hotel.

Scotty's Lakehouse is sort of a misnomer because it's located in a strip mall at the corner of Fall Creek Road and Brooks School Road in Fishers. (see map)  It is, however near the Geist Reservoir, a large lake that supplies the city of Indianapolis and surrounding communities their drinking water.  Scotty's Lakehouse is part of the Scotty's Brewhouse empire, a small local chain of brewpubs and burger joints scattered throughout Indiana.

The guy behind Scotty's is Scott Wise (pictured right), a Muncie native who didn't really want to follow in his father's footsteps of running the family's construction and development business.  Wise left Muncie to go to DePauw University for a year, then returned to Muncie to finish his schooling at Ball State.  During his time in college, Wise worked at restaurants as a waiter and found that he really liked the food service industry.  After graduating from Ball State in 1995, Wise struck out for Houston working as a copywriter for a large sporting goods chain.  But he soon found himself back home in Muncie working for his father's business. 

In 1996, Wise saw that a run-down campus-area bar was for sale and he went to his father with a business plan to help him finance the purchase.  He was able to buy the bar for $65,000 and with hard work on his end he transformed the old place into the first Scotty's Brewhouse.  He wanted to have a brewing operation on the premises, but didn't have th finances to do so at the time.  Instead, he focused on serving eclectic beers brewed elsewhere.   

Focusing on locations in college towns, Wise opened the second Scotty's Brewhouse in Bloomington, home of Indiana University, in 2001.  Three years later, he opened his third Scotty's in West Lafayette near Purdue University.  In 2006, he ventured into the Indianapolis market and opened his fourth Scotty's Brewhouse on East 96th Street in the north part of town.  He opened a downtown Indy location in 2009, and just last year opened his sixth Scotty's location on the south side of the city on Southport Road.  Wise also owns Scotty's Burger Joint in Columbus, IN, a restaurant that focuses on locally sourced and organic foods; and finally was able to open his own brewpub, Thr3e Wise Men, in Indianapolis' Broad Ripple neighborhood in 2011.  Sometimes, you'll even see Wise getting back to his roots at one of his restaurants helping out behind the bar or delivering food to your table.  

One of my problems traveling to Indianapolis from the west is that I lose an hour going into the Eastern Time Zone.  So, my body clock is telling me that it's 7:30, but the clocks everywhere else are telling me that it's 8:30.  It's difficult to find a restaurant that will serve past 9 p.m. through the week and I always worry about pissing off the staff if I walk into a place 10 minutes before closing because they're wanting to get out of there sooner than later.  Scotty's Lakehouse stays open until 11 p.m. through the week (1 p.m. on the weekends and 10 p.m. on Sunday) so I wasn't worried about having to hurry up and eat. 

Scotty's Lakehouse is more like a sports bar with a couple dining areas and a number of televisions hung throughout the place.  I took a seat at the bar of Scotty's Lakehouse and a young bartender handed me a menu and took my drink order.  The beer menu wasn't as large as I thought it would be and they only had a handful of craft brews available.  I ended up ordering one of the Thr3e Wise Men Centennial Martyr Double IPA.  I like forward and hoppy tasting beers, but even for me it was a little too much.  It was definitely a sipping beer.  

Like it's cousin restaurant, Scotty's Burger Joint, Scotty's Lakehouse sources the items found on their menu from local growers with a focus on organic ingredients.  The ground beef, ground turkey, sausage and bacon items on the menu come from Moody's Meats at Lone Pine Farms, a Ladoga, IN-based butcher who specializes in free-range and organically raised poultry, beef, lamb and pork.   

Scotty's Lakehouse features a number of gourmet burgers on the menu.  In addition to burgers, they also have a number of "Not Burgers" sandwiches, salads, appetizers and three different types of gourmet "mac and cheese" items including one with rotini pasta, chicken, peas, applewood smoked bacon, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, fresh garlic and basil.  Quite actually, that was pretty tempting to me to try as a main entree that evening.

But I decided that a burger would be fine with me.  Of the nearly dozen and a half burgers, I only found a couple three that were appealing to me.  They had a bison burger with chunky blue cheese dressing, as well as a burger with Vermont white cheddar cheese and garlic mayo.  I stayed away from the burger with peanut butter, jalapenos, mild cheddar and applewood smoked bacon (although I did contemplate ordering it without the peanut butter) and ended up ordering the #3 burger - a burger topped with a fried egg, smoked gouda cheese, applewood bacon and finished with a dollop of homemade chipotle ketchup.  

I had my choice of sides and at Scotty's Lakehouse they feature three different variations of French fries.  The house fries are seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, parmesan cheese, garlic and parsley.  They also have the Thr3e Wise Men fries with a secret seasoning and vanilla sweet potato fries that are served with ketchup, a marshmellow creme sauce and a caramel sauce.  Caramel sauce?  On sweet potato fries?  Uh, no.  I'll pass on that.  I just ended up ordering the house fries.  

The bartender gave me my silverware wrapped up in what appeared to be a ratty old hand towel.  That was my napkin for the evening.  It was sort of tattered on the edges and looked to be much older than the two plus years Scotty's Lakehouse has been open.  I didn't know if it was intentionally tacky or if they just needed to get a slew of new towels.  It was about the only thing out of character for Scotty's Lakehouse that I found.

Good gourmet burgers take a bit to cook, so about 20 minutes after I ordered another person brought my burger out to me.  I had finished the Double IPA and the bartender asked me if I wanted another one.  I took a look through the beer menu again and was having trouble finding one to my liking.  I ended up just ordering an IPA from Flat 12 Bierwerks, a local microbrew in the Indy area.  It was not quite as hoppy as the Thr3e Wise Men Double IPA and more smooth to drink.  Still, I wasn't overly enamored with the taste.  

The burger was thick and juicy, covered with the smoked gouda and topped with a hard fried egg (I ordered it that way to keep the messiness at bay) and criss-crossed with the applewood smoked bacon.  The taste of the burger was good, well above average for your typical burger, but down the scale on what I would call a good to great gourmet burge.  I couldn't discern much chipotle spiciness in the ketchup, but it wasn't overpowering in the least.  The bun had a hard, but thin crunchy outer shell and was chewy and flavorful, as well.  It was a good complement to the burger.

The fries were served in a small container with wax paper that was designed to look like newsprint.  The thick cut fries were a little too salty to my taste and the parmesan cheese made them even more rich. Three different dipping sauces came with the fries - the chipotle ketchup that, once again, wasn't all that spicy, a garlic mayo sauce, and a spicy brown mustard sauce made with Wee Mac Scottish Ale from the Sun King microbrewery in Indianapolis.  None of the dipping sauces were spectacular, but the garlic mayo had a hint of the spicy brown mustard in it along with an essence of lime and lemon juices.  

While I can't say the burger I had at Scotty's Lakehouse was spectacular, it was still a pretty good burger. I couldn't put it on par with some other gourmet burgers that I've had in the past and I would possibly give it an honorable mention if I stacked it up against other burgers that I've had in the past.  Still, the burger at Scotty's was good enough, but probably nothing that I'd seek out again if I was in the area.  I'm definitely going to try out a Scotty's Brewhouse at some point as I was disappointed in the beer selection at Scotty's Lakehouse.  But all in all, it was a good burger and one that I'd recommend trying at least once.  (Picture courtesy Yelp.com)

Best Burger List - 2012

It's the end of 2012, but never too late for updating Road Tips' Best Burger List for the year.  I've done some things a little different.  I still have the Top Ten Burger List, as well as the High Honorable Mention and Honorable Mention selections.  There's now a "Gourmet Burger" list, as well as a list of "Best Chains" combining the best local, regional and national chain burger places.  There's also a listing of "Americana Burgers" - places that have been around for years and adored by locals.  And I now have a list of those burger places that I wish were still around.  By clicking on the highlighted link, you can go directly to the Road Tips entry on each place.

Top Ten Burgers -

1 - Duffy's Cherry Cricket - Denver. (Pictured left) Still the best.  Period.  

2 - Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger - Ann Arbor, MI.  It's been 8 years since I've been to Krazy Jim's and I would love to go back again at some point.  But from what I remember of how great the burger was on my initial visit, I'm almost certain it is still the same.   

3 - Westport Flea Market - Kansas City.  After my visit earlier this year, I've been back one more time to make double damn sure the first burger I had wasn't an anomaly.  The second one was just as good as the first one I had.  It's the type of burger where you go, "Mmmmm..." during the first bite.  

4 -  Monk's Bar and Grill - Wisconsin Rapids, WI.  They dropped in the poll because I had a mushroom/Swiss cheese burger there earlier this year that didn't taste all that good.  But their regular cheese burgers are still outstanding.    

5 - Thurman Cafe - Columbus, OH.  Even with just one visit, the Thurman Cafe was still one of the best burgers I've ever had.  Thick and juicy, the Thurman burger is full flavored and served with a fresh-baked bun.  One of these days I'll make it back for the "Red 'shroom" burger.

6 - Booches - Columbia, MO.  A long time institution near the University of Missouri campus, Booches has been open since 1884 and was once a "men's only" establishment until the 1970's.  Their flat-grilled burgers are to die for.

7 - B&B Grocery - Des Moines, IA.  Appearing the Top 10 for the first time last year, a couple more visits to B&B to try their burger has solidified their standing.  The burgers are large, meaty and juicy.  And don't forget that their sandwiches are "killer", too!  (Pictured at right, a B&B Grocery double cheeseburger.)

8 - Bulldogs Grill - Wauconda, IL.  A newcomer to the Top 10 list.  Bulldogs Grill is a small cafe in a small town north and west of Chicago.  It's definitely a destination and sort of out of the way, but the trip is well worth it.  

9 - Burger Barge - East Peoria, IL.  Consistency problems have plagued Burger Barge in the past, but the past few times I've stopped in has yielded the great tasting burger that I first found a number of years ago.  The Illinois burger - topped with a fried egg and a slice of ham - is my favorite.

10 - Green Gables - Hudson, IL - My trip earlier this fall moved them back into the Top Ten.  Green Gables also had consistency issues (thanks to an overzealous worker) a few years ago that they've since overcome.  The flat grill taste of the burgers is one of the best in Midwest.  

High Honorable Mention - (in no particular order) - 

Sobleman's - Milwaukee, WI.  Formerly a Top 10 burger, if there was an 11th place, this would probably be it.  Located in a historic old tavern building just west of Milwaukee's downtown area, Sobleman's has a great burger and cold beer to go along with it.  

Louie M's Burger Lust - Omaha, NE.  One of my favorite burgers from the place with my favorite name for a burger joint.  Lou Marcuzzo's funky little place south of the downtown area of Omaha has been cooking up great specialty burgers for years.  

Tom & Eddie's - Chicago Suburbs.  (Pictured left) A newcomer on the scene of hamburger joints, Tom & Eddie's is the brainchild of two retired McDonald's execs who wanted to take their knowledge of making burgers a couple steps further.  Their "fast casual" concept has garnered a following in the short time they've been open.  It also doesn't hurt that their burgers are damn good, too.  

Lion's Tap - Eden Prairie, MN.  It may be the best burger in the Twin Cities.  Flat grilled and tantalizingly juicy, it's tough to beat a Lion's Tap burger.   

Moonshine Store - Moonshine, IL.  See below in the Americana section. 

The Ritz - Arnolds Park, IA.  The runner-up in the 2012 "Best Burger in Iowa" contest.  After having the burger at The Ritz earlier this summer, I wondered how in the hell they could get beat out by 2/10ths of a point.  Great burger, great bun, fun atmosphere.  They also have excellent pizza at The Ritz.  

Dinkers Bar - Omaha, NE.  I was sort of embarrassed that I hadn't heard about Dinker's before this year.  This cash only establishment makes a great burger and their sign out front says, "Omaha's Best Burger".  I don't know about that, but they're definitely in the top 3 when it comes to best burger in Omaha and one of the top places I've found in the Midwest.

Solly's - Glendale, WI.  Also a former Top 10 burger, Solly's "Butter Burger" is an artery-hardening burger of goodness. I haven't been in Solly's for a couple years and I really need to do a better blog entry than the original one I have.  I think there's a couple other places in Milwaukee that have a better burger, but Solly's is a longtime favorite of Milwaukeans.   

Smoking Harry's - Creston, IL.  If you can get past the fact that this little bar in the small town of Creston, south of Rockford, is not very fancy and only features a long bar in what was probably the living room of an old farm house, then you can enjoy one helluva burger.  Smoking Harry still sneaks smokes in the bar when patrons aren't there, so you may smell cigarette smoke in the establishment.  But don't let that deter you from enjoying a great burger served on a wonderful bun. 

Creekside Bar and Grill - Davenport, IA.  I still think their mushroom/bacon/Swiss cheese burger (pictured at right) is one of the better ones I've had in my travels.  I wish they would have a flat grill instead of a flame grill, but the burgers are still top notch.  It's still one of the biggest secrets in the Quad Cities.  

Rusty Duck - Dexter, IA.  The winner of the "Best Burger in Iowa" contest in 2011, this small steakhouse west of Des Moines makes their burgers by grinding up excess cuts of steak meat.  The Ultimate Cheeseburger is huge, so you need to bring a healthy appetite - or another person with you!

Blue Door Pub - St. Paul, MN.  The cheese-stuffed "Juicy Lucy" is the signature burger of many Twin City burger joints.  There are places that are more famous for their cheese-stuffed burgers, but - in my opinion - none are better than the Blue Door Pub.

Stella's - Bellevue, NE.  An old favorite in the Omaha area.  Stella's has been in business since 1930 making great burgers.  It's a small place that caters to blue collar workers, company executives and some of the top brass at the nearby Offutt Air Force Base.  

Starlite Room - Cedar Rapids, IA.  (Pictured left) The oval shaped burgers at the Starlite Room have been satisfying the hunger of Cedar Rapidians for years.  The half-pound, flat-grilled "Super Cheeseburger" could be the best burger between Interstate 35 and the Mississippi River in Iowa. 

Zombie Burger - Des Moines, IA.  George Formaro's fun and hip burger joint features a number of funky and eclectic burgers made from smashed patties - sorry, BASHED patties - and South Union Bakery homemade buns.  A double burger is my norm, but a triple is do-able.  

AJ Bombers - Milwaukee, WI.  Right up there with Sobleman's for the best burger in Milwaukee, AJ Bombers has a char-grilled burger that isn't overpowering in smoky taste.  The juicy burger is definitely helped by a great tasting bun - one the of hidden characteristics of a great burger.  Prepare to use at least six napkins when eating an AJ Bombers burger.

Town Hall Tap - Minneapolis, MN.  A surprising find of a great burger joint on the south side of Minneapolis.   Town Hall Tap is the offshoot of the Town Hall Brewpub.  With it's open windows, large bar and outside seating, Town Hall Tap is a great summertime place to have a burger and a cold beer.  The burger is just excellent.

Honorable Mention - (also in no particular order) - 

Serious Burger - Appleton, WI.  The owner's legal troubles now behind him, Serious Burger is still going strong in the Fox Valley region.  I just had a burger there earlier this fall and it was still as good as the first visit I had.

Top Notch Beefburgers - Chicago. A legendary Chicagoland burger joint for the past 70 years.  The ground round steak they use is a different taste and one that thousands have enjoyed for years.

Cafe Bolero - Chicago.  A Cuban restaurant with a great burger?  Yep!  The burger with mixed up chunks of jalapenos, onions and cheese is very good.  (Pictured at right)

The Nook - St. Paul, MN.  The owners suffered a devasting fire two years ago, but they've rebuilt and reopened serving an excellent "Juicy Lucy" burger.  It's only second to the Blue Door Pub in the Twin Cities.

Grinnell Steakhouse - Grinnell, IA.  This "grill-your-own" steakhouse just off of Interstate 80 south of Grinnell has a mighty fine char-broiled burger that they cook up in the kitchen.  It's meaty, juicy and flavorful.   

Jack's Locust Street Tap - Davenport, IA.  One of my all-time favorite dive-bar hangouts has a great burger.  But you have to go during the day, Tuesday thru Friday because that's when Karen works and no one else can make them as good as she does at Jack's.  I need to do a better blog entry on Jack's than the one I have now.

Burger Jones - Minneapolis.  Owned by the same people who run the world-famous Manny's Steak House, Burger Jones is an upscale burger joint that features good burgers, a great beer selection and good service.  Why anyone in the Twin Cities want to go to a Red Robin when they can get a much better seasoned burger at Burger Jones?

Dotty Dumpling's Dowry - Madison, WI.  While I don't think they're as good as they were in their old location, Dotty's still makes the best burger in Madison.  They have a great beer selection and their jambalaya is actually pretty good, as well.  

Major Goolsby's - Milwaukee, WI.  (Pictured at left) One of the top sports bars in Milwaukee, their flame-broiled burgers are big and juicy.  A long-time mainstay at Summerfest, a Goolsby cheeseburger just melts in your mouth.  

Two Mits - Elkader, IA.  See American section below.

Charlie Beinlich's - Northbrook, IL.  This little longtime burger joint/tavern almost looks out of place with all the upscale stores that are around the immediate area.  Their burger is very good - the best in the northern shore suburbs of Chicago.  

Alfie's Inn - Glen Ellyn, IL.  And old time supper club-style place, Alfie's ground sirloin burger is one of the best in the western suburbs of Chicago.   

Duffy's Tavern - Utica, IL.  An long time, old style tavern in Central Illinois that serves a great burger along with a good selection of cold beer.  It's a destination point for many motorcyclists and you may have to wait for a table on a warm day.  

Newt's - Rochester, MN.  Minnesota Monthly magazine called Newt's the 17th best burger in Minnesota a few years ago.  They need a recount.  This is a damn fine burger.

Hackney's - Glenview, IL.  The original Hackney's on Harms features their excellent "Hackney Burger" served on dark rye bread.  I'm partial to the original, but actually all the Hackney locations make a very good burger.   

Oddfellow's Burger Kitchen - Ames, IA.  A newcomer to the restaurant scene in Ames.  Their green chile/cheeseburger (pictured right) I had on my first visit was outstanding.  I'm hoping they're able to make a go of it.  

O'Connell's Pub - St. Louis.  Still the best of the best in St. Louis, a town that really isn't known for burgers.  This old style tavern/eatery serves up an excellent burger in a place that probably hasn't been updated since the 30's.  

Paradise Pup - Des Plaines, IL.  A little place near O'Hare in suburban Des Plaines, I think they use a little too much cheese on their burgers.  But it's a gourmet cheese that helps the overall taste of what is already a very good burger. 

Blue Moon - Madison, WI.  Locals in the Madison area will debate what is better - Dotty's or the Blue Moon.  I'm still sort of partial to Dotty's, but I don't think you can go wrong with a Blue Moon burger.

Gourmet Burgers -

Atwood Cafe - Chicago. (Pictured left) I've tried a number of gourmet burgers over the years, but I was just floored by the taste and quality of the burger at the Atwood Cafe in downtown Chicago.  It's not cheap, but the taste of the burger was one of the best I've ever had.  If I included gourmet burgers in my Top Ten burger list, Atwood Cafe would probably be in the top three.  

Merriman's Market Cafe - Waikoloa Beach, HI.  If the burger at Atwood Cafe is the No. 1 gourmet burger on my list, Merriman's burger would be 1A.  The thing that still sticks out in my mind is how fresh the tomatoes were that were on the burger.  I've never had tomatoes that tasted as good as the ones I had in Hawaii.

DMK Burger Bar - Lombard, IL.  DMK burgers are outstanding.  I've only eaten at the western suburban location, but I'm certain the other location is just as good.  

I ♥ Burgers - Las Vegas.  This was a great find by one of my colleagues.  Nestled into a corner of the shopping area at the Venetian, the Standard burger with a fried egg, pepper jack cheese and roasted green chilies that I got was just outstanding.  I ♥ Burgers is on my "must eat at" list when I get back out to Vegas next month.  

Blanc Burgers + Bottles - Kansas City.  Blanc Burgers is branching out into Omaha and their burgers are just outstanding.  They also have an outstanding selection of beers to choose from.  Expensive, but damn well worth the price.  

Bru Burger Bar - Indianapolis.  (Pictured right) A newcomer to the restaurant scene in Indy, Bru Burger Bar combines great gourmet burgers made from a mix of natural-raised sirloin, chuck and brisket, and a list of great craft brews.  The burger and the service was just outstanding.    

Jack Fry's - Louisville.  Still sort of a pretentious and somewhat snooty place, they have a great burger at Jack Fry's.  I've been there a couple times to order the burger and both times I sort of got looked down the nose by the server when I ordered the burger.  Getting past that, it's tough to beat the taste.

Stack'd - Milwaukee.  Although it is somewhat expensive, the Stack'd grass-fed beef burgers are very good.  This trendy place also has a great beer selection and their onion rings are pretty damn good, as well.

Best Americana Burgers -

Hinkle's - Madison, IN.  Located in a small historic town along the Ohio River, Hinkle's has been serving White Castle-style burgers for nearly 80 years.  It's popular with the late night crowd as they stay open 24 hours a day on Friday and Saturday.  The history and quaint nature of the place is worth at least one trip. 

Canteen Lunch - Ottumwa, IA.  (Pictured left) People from Ottumwa are fiercely loyal to their little 12-seater diner that features loose-meat beefburgers.  The secret to a Canteen burger?  Order them "moist".  

Powers Hamburgers - Fort Wayne, IN.  Another White Castle-clone that dates back to the 1930's, Powers Hamburgers is an institution in Fort Wayne.  They're small and have a pretty good taste.  

Maid-Rite (Mr. Dan's Sandwich Shoppe) - Newton, IA.  Of all the Maid-Rite-style sandwich shops out there, I'm partial to the one in my hometown of Newton, IA.  This is the longest continuous Maid-Rite in existence, even if they're not technically a Maid-Rite any longer.  

Nick's Hamburgers - Brookings, SD.  Students at South Dakota State University have known for years that Nick's makes the best burgers in town.  And they keep coming back even years after they graduated from college to have a burger at Nick's.  They've recently remodled and upgraded their little place, but they didn't take the charm out of the place.  

Taylor's Maid-Rite - Marshalltown, IA.  Debates about who has the best Maid-Rites have raged for years.  Taylor's was the third Maid-Rite in existence (behind the original in Muscatine, IA - now closed, and the one in Newton,IA) and many still think it's the best.  

Moonshine Store - Moonshine, IL.  (Pictured right) Not only is the Moonshine Store a big slice of Americana, their Moonshine burger is worthy of a High Honorable Mention.  These flat-grilled, thick and juicy burgers are excellent.  But you have to get there before 12:30 because the grill turns off at precisely then.   

Gross' Burgers - Danville, IL.  A few people may be turned off by the outward display of patriotism - and don't let the name of the place fool you.  The smashed burgers cooked on a flat grill have a unique taste and are pretty damn good.   

Frank's - Zeeland, MI.  Frank's has been serving delicious burgers since 1940.  Once a popular teen hangout in the 50's and 60's, Frank's now caters to the baby-boomers now in their 60's and 70's.  We were, by far, the youngest people in the place when we were in there.   

2 Mit Burgers - Elkader, IA.   Much better than the original Pete's Hamburgers in nearby Prairie du Chien, WI, these flat top, boiled burgers are moist, juicy and flavorful.  It's a completely unique burger.  

George's Buffet - Iowa City, IA.  George's is a unique type of tavern near the University of Iowa campus.  Starting out as a speakeasy in the 30's, then starting to sell beer after Prohibition, they called themselves a "buffet" to ward off the temperance crowd that picketed beer joints.  The burgers are actually nothing special, but it's worth the trip for just the old time dive ambiance.  

Triple XXX - West Lafayette, IN.  Named after brand of root beer and not a porno movie house, Triple XXX has been serving burgers since 1929.  Their "chop steak" burger is actually ground sirloin grilled on a flat grill that has been seasoned with years and years of cooking burgers for students at nearby Purdue University.   

Best of the Chains -

Schoops -  (Pictured left) The Northwest Indiana-based chain of hamburger joints have been serving up their flat-grilled style of burgers since 1948.  

Five Guys Burgers - Huge juicy burgers and a sack full of thick cut French fries, it's no wonder Five Guys is one of the fastest growing burger chains in the nation.

Whataburger - It's been years since I've been to a Whataburger, but it remains one of my favorite of the "made-to-order" fast food places.  A Doublemeat with cheese continues to call my name. 

Fuddruckers - Although they've gone through some hard financial times over the past few years, and they've closed a number of locations, Fuddruckers is still tough to beat.  Big juicy burgers with a great "fixin's" bar.

In 'n' Out - The West Coast icon.  I try to hit an In 'n' Out when I make it out to Las Vegas for trade shows.  It's probably my favorite of them all.

Smashburger - This Denver-based chain of burger joints where they smash the burger patty to give it a nice crusty outer shell will top over 200 locations in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica in 2013.  While I'm still not big on smashed burger patties, Smashburger is very good.   

Meatheads - Based out of Bloomington, IL and now with 10 locations (and soon to be 11) in Central Illinois and the Chicagoland area, these guys are in direct competition with Five Guys.  The burgers at Meatheads are pretty good, not as good as Five Guys, but a very good alternative.

Runza - I loved the old Kings Food Host burgers and the closest place I've found to their burgers are the ones at Runza.  Runza's burgers are one of the best kept secrets in the Midwest, but you can only find them in Nebraska.   

Don and Millie's - Found in Omaha and Lincoln, Don and Millie's also has a burger that is similar to the old Kings Food Host burgers.  I like to stop at Don and Millie's from time to time to get one of their juicy, made-to-order burgers.

Rest in Peace -

Newstead Tower - St. Louis, MO.  While this place is now closed, I understand that the burger they served at Newstead Tower is now available at its sister restaurant, Five Bistro.  The burger featured locally sourced hormone-free beef and was an outstanding burger.  

The Kitchen - Stillwater, MN.  I had the chance to get a burger at The Kitchen in the Twin Cities suburb of Stillwater before they closed up.  It was just fabulous.  Unfortunately, I had the chance to go back and found that they had closed down.   

Cardinal Lunch - Newton, IA.  Growing up in Newton, IA, the Cardinal Lunch was attached to the Stockton's grocery store and it was a treat to get one of their flat-grilled burgers where they basted the face of the bun with a butter sauce and grilled it next to the burger.  There was no taste like it.   

The Overrated Burgers -

Nitty Gritty - Madison, WI.  I've been there twice.  The first time, they overcooked the burgers so bad that it was inedible. (Pictured right)  And that's not to mention the large hair I found dangling from a piece of one the burgers I was served.  The second time was not much better.  I can't see what the deal is about the Nitty Gritty. 

5-8 Club - Minneapolis, MN.  Cheese-stuffed "Juicy Lucy's" are the rage in the Twin Cities and the debate rages as to who has the better of the two who claim they have the original - 5-8 Club or Matt's Bar.  The two times I've tried 5-8 club, the cheese cooked right out of the burger.  Matt's would have made this list, as well, as they are just so inconsistent on the visits I've had.  But the last time I went in there a couple years ago, I had a great burger.  So, I guess it's hit or miss.   

BLT Burger - Las Vegas, NV.  I've probably eaten at BLT Burger at the Mirage five or six times, and only because of convenience.  The first two times I had their burger, I thought it was good, but not the best.  After subsequent visits, I wondered why anyone would be willing to spend that kind of money on this average of a burger.  Chef Laurent Tourondel needs to focus on his specialty - French bistro food - and not worry about putting his name on an overpriced and very average burger.

Cheeseburger in Paradise - Middleton, WI.  A chain of about two dozen restaurants owned by singer Jimmy Buffett, Cheeseburger in Paradise is nothing more than a money grab for unsuspecting tourists.  Usually found in locations near malls or area attractions, the burgers are far from paradise.     

Cozy Inn - Salina, KS.  "Where's the beef?!"  You need to check out my entry on the Cozy Inn and see the puny amounts of misshapen beef patties they tried to pawn off as a historic piece of Americana.    

BRU Burger Bar - Indianapolis

While in Indianapolis for the annual CEDIA Expo in early September, we had a company meeting one day that took us deep into the middle of the afternoon before we broke for lunch.  We had dinner reservations at 7:30 p.m. at El Sol de Tala, one of my all-time favorite Mexican places, but after having lunch at 3:30, when 7:00 p.m. rolled around none of us were much hungry.  But about 8:00 p.m., a few of us began to get a little rumble in the stomach.  Suddenly, I had to find a place that could accommodate 10 of us - and quick.  I remembered hearing about a new gourmet burger place near the downtown area - BRU Burger Bar.  I called over there to see if we could get in right away and the young woman on the other end of the line said, "Sure!  We can get you in!"  I told her we'd be there in less than 20 minutes.

BRU Burger Bar is the newest restaurant concept for the Cunningham Restaurant Group (CRG), headed by Cincinnati native Mike Cunningham.  Since 1997, CRG has developed Indianapolis-area restaurants such as Boulder Creek Dining Company, Charbonos, Mesh, and Stone Creek Dining Company with six locations in the greater Indy area.  CRG opened BRU in December of 2011 in the Mass Avenue arts and entertainment area on Massachusetts Avenue just north and east of the downtown Indy area, not far from its sister restaurant, Mesh.  

It was a 15 minute walk from our hotel to BRU Burger Bar located at the corner of Mass Avenue and Alabama.    (see map)  We entered the stylish and contemporary restaurant and was greeted by a hostess.  When I told her that we had just called for a table for 10, she pointed to a long table that was along the wall near the stand.  Banquette seating was along the wall with chairs on the other side.  It was perfect for our group.  

BRU has an outdoor seating area, but they couldn't accommodate a larger group outside.  There was a nice bar area and a smaller dining room (right) that was off the bar and going out to the patio.  The restaurant had a very appealing and festive vibe to the place.  

The concept behind BRU Burger Bar is simple - gourmet burgers and craft beers.  The menu consists of a number of classic and eclectic burgers made with hormone-free natural beef from Creekstone Farms in Kansas.  The beef is a house-made mix of sirloin, chuck and brisket ground fresh by BRU each day.  In fact, everything is made in house at BRU, from the ground beef, to the buns, to the ketchup, and even the mayonnaise.    They also feature a number of appetizers and salads on the menu.  And for those who aren't looking for beef, BRU features Amish-raised chicken sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, a mahi mahi sandwich, as well as a veggie burger, a turkey burger and an ahi tuna burger.  

Their beer menu is very eclectic featuring a number of Midwestern-based breweries such as Boulevard, Bell's, and Founders.  They also featured a handful of local microbrews with a number of Belgian beers on the menu, as well as the usual domestics and imported beer.  Beer was welcome at our table, as it normally is when our company gets together.  

Our server for the evening, Jackson, was a lively girl who grew up in Oregon, but made her way to Indianapolis to follow a boy.  "Surprise, huh," she playfully asked us after we asked her what brought her from the Oregon coast to Indy.  She was fun and did a great job with us all night.  

Jackson told us the signature burger on the menu was the BRU Burger - a half-pound patty topped with Taleggio cheese, bacon, homemade tomato jam, caramelized onions, lettuce and tomato.   But they had some other interesting burgers such as the Garlic Three Cheese burger topped with roasted garlic and truffle aioli, and Swiss, American and mozzarella cheese.  The one that caught my eye was the Bourbon Burger that had a peppercorn-bourbon glaze on the burger, then topped with bacon and horseradish/Havarti cheese.  Mmmm...  Then this one popped out - the Blazing Saddles consisting of toppings such as mozzarella cheese, roasted jalapenos, chipotle remoulade, and lettuce and tomatoes.  BRU's Classic Burgers featured a Swiss and mushroom burger; a classic bacon cheeseburger; or just the plain old "Beginning" burger with American cheese, with homemade ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles, onions, lettuce and tomatoes.  

Most of the people at the table ordered the signature BRU burger, while a couple ordered the Blazing Saddles.  My colleague, Todd, whose tastes for burgers are usually out of kilter with most of us, had the Mexicali Barbecue burger - a burger topped with white queso cheese, roasted chiles, guacamole, fried onions, lettuce and tomato, and finished with BRU's homemade barbecue sauce.  I looked at him when he ordered it and said, "Really?  I saw that on the menu, but I just thought there'd be too much on it and it would be too 'busy'."  

Todd said, "That's what what it interesting to me!"   

I ordered up the Bourbon burger and asked Jackson if I could get green chiles added to it to go along with the bacon and horseradish/Havarti cheese.  "Absolutely," she cheerfully exclaimed.  For my side, I got an order of their homemade onion rings.  Jackson warned us that since the burgers are made from scratch, it takes a little longer than normal burgers.  We didn't care, we were having fun.  

About 20 minutes or so later, Jackson and a couple other servers brought our burgers out to the table.  The presentation was very nice with the burgers and sides on rectangular China plates.   Homemade pickles were stuck to the top of the homemade buns with a toothpick.  Below left is Todd's Mexicali burger.  He said, "Uh, I think I'm gonna need a few more napkins to eat this thing."  Toppings were just oozing off the top of the burger onto the plate.

Above right is the signature BRU burger.  As I said, most of the guys ordered the BRU Burger and from the grunts of approval, they all seemed to like what they were eating.  A couple of my colleagues at the far end of the table got the Blazing Saddles burger with the roasted jalapenos.  I asked one of them how it was - since it was a close second in my choice that evening - and he said, "Excellent.  Great burger."    

This is my Bourbon burger with the horseradish/Havarti cheese, green chiles, and bacon.  It was a big burger so I needed to cut it in half just to be able to manage it.  

The burger was cooked to a perfect medium for me with a little bit of pink in the middle.  The meat was flavorful, juicy and had a great consistency with the combination of brisket, sirloin and chuck beef.  I couldn't taste much of the bourbon or peppercorns on the burger, but that was all right.  The bun was light, fluffy and full of air holes - it was a great complement to the burger.  As were the toppings - the horseradish/Havarti cheese wasn't too forward in taste, but offered a little bit of that "zip" that you get with the taste of horseradish.  The bacon was delicious and the green chiles gave the burger a little more overall flavor that I was looking for.  It was simply an outstanding burger. 

But like most gourmet burgers, the ones at BRU Burger Bar aren't cheap. But compared to other gourmet burgers I've had, the price is actually a pretty good value.  Most of the burgers run 8 to 11 bucks and adding a side of fries is $2 extra, while adding onion rings, like I did, was a $3 up charge.  (But my onion rings were very good - it was worth the extra 3 bucks.)  I believe everyone in our group thought BRU was pretty damn good.  The burgers were great, Jackson did a good job of taking care of a big group who were constantly running her toward the bar for more beer, and we really enjoyed the fun and casual atmosphere at BRU Burger Bar.  BRU was a hit!

Stack'd Burger Bar - Milwaukee

A place I've been wanting to check out over the past couple of years has been a new-ish burger place in Milwaukee by the named of Stack'd Burger Bar.  Opened in July of 2009 and located just south of downtown Milwaukee in the Walker's Point neighborhood (see map), Stack'd features grass-fed burgers along with locally sourced meats, produce, baked goods and libations.  I had driven up from a meeting with my dealer in Kenosha earlier in the day and pulled in front of Stack'd around 1:30 p.m.

The man behind Stack'd is Tim Dixon, a local entrepreneur who is also behind the The Iron Horse Hotel, an upscale boutique hotel that caters to Harley-Davidson fans who are in town to visit the nearby Harley-Davidson Museum, couples looking to get away from the kids for the weekend, or people in town on business.  The Iron Horse features the upscale restaurant Smyth and Branded, a classic style bar.  Word is that Dixon is on the verge of opening a wood-fired pizza restaurant on N. Hubbard Street where the old Roots restaurant once was.  

Stack'd is located in what was the former Kramer Foundry building.  Prior to Stack'd opening in 2009 the building housed Social, a trendy restaurant that featured unique foods and drinks.  Dixon bought the building after Social closed up and turned it into a boutique burger joint. 

I was lucky to find a place to park just outside the front door of the building on S. 1st St.  I went in and was greeted by a hostess who guided me to a table in the center of the restaurant.   The restaurant featured wood and steel beams going from the floor up to the exposed wood rafter ceiling.  Black leather banquette seating was along the south wall, the east side of the restaurant featured an open kitchen, while the north side had a bar that went nearly the width of the restaurant with a huge thick glass window that allowed a lot of light into the dining area.

I was given a menu by the hostess and she also pointed out the beer and drink menu on the table.  Stack'd featured a number of local and Wisconsin-brewed beers on their beer menu.  When my server, Nora, showed up, I ordered a Capital Supper Club in the bottle.  She brought it back to me moments later and it was ice-cold.  Mmmm....

Nora asked me if I'd been to Stack'd before and I said I hadn't.  She said, "Well, the drill as most people do it is to build your own burger."  She pointed to a page in the menu that featured five separate steps.  "First you choose the type of meat you'd like," she said as she pointed out that I had my choice between grass-fed beef, bison, turkey, chicken - and for vegetarians - a black-bean veggie burger and a portabella mushroom burger.  Then she said I had my choice of 8 different types of cheese.  After that, I had my choice of toppings including lettuce, tomato, raw onions, jalapenos, pickles, mayo, fried onions, sauteed mushrooms, thick-sliced Nueske's bacon and more.  

Nora said, "Then you pick out the type of bun you want.  They're all locally baked for us."  They had a classic style bun, a pretzel bun, a gluten-free bun, or you could have your burger bun-free laid upon a bed of lettuce greens.  After that, you had your choice of sides including cole slaw, fries, mac and cheese, baked beans, and for an upcharge, you could get buttermilk-battered onion rings, or chili or a salad.  There were a lot of decisions to make before you could even order.

She also pointed out Stack'd feature burgers that included the "Hangover Stack" - a grass-fed burger topped with a fried egg, bacon, aged cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and fried onions.  The "Don't Mess with Texas" burger featured a bison patty topped with pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, an onion ring and loaded with homemade barbecue sauce.   One of the featured burgers that got my attention was the "Kick in the Pants" - it featured a grass-fed beef patty, Extreme Heat jack cheese from Beechwood Cheese Factory, avocado mayo, and peppered bacon on a pretzel roll.  Nora gave me a few minutes to figure out what I wanted.    

I decided to build my own burger - a grass-fed patty - medium - with Swiss cheese, bacon and sauteed mushrooms on a pretzel bun.  I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted for my sides and I asked Nora if the onion rings were good.  "My favorite thing on the menu," she quickly replied.  She said it so quickly and with such conviction that I had to believe her.  

Nora told me that it takes a little time for the burgers to be cooked at Stack'd.  "We cook them at a lower temperature than most other places," she explained.  "Can I bring you another beer in a little bit?"  I couldn't say no.

After what seemed to be about 15 minutes after I ordered - maybe longer, come to think of it - my burger came out to the table.  Thick Nueske's bacon (the New York Times once called Nueske's bacon as the "caviar of bacon"), Swiss cheese and sauteed fresh mushrooms were swimming between the burger patty and the top of the pretzel bun.  Interestingly, the top of the bun was adorned with fried pickle slices held in place by a knife through the top of the burger.  After eating the fried pickles, I wish I would have gotten them as an appetizer.  They were wonderful.  Four buttermilk onion rings were on the side.

After cutting the burger in half - it was the only way to eat the huge thing- my first bite showed that the burger was actually more medium-well than medium as there was little to no pink showing in the middle.  It was still flavorful, but the combination of the thick-cut bacon, sauteed mushrooms and the thick slide of Swiss cheese sort of overpowered the overall taste of the burger.  And that's not to say that it was bad - there were a lot of taste sensations going on with each bite.  The overall taste of the burger was very, very good.  

Nora oversold the buttermilk onion rings, however.  They were just OK in my book.  Actually, I kind of thought they may have been frozen o-rings from a food distributor.  But I would think that a place like Stack'd would probably do their own onion rings.   

Stack'd wasn't cheap.  My burger alone was $15 bucks with all the upcharges for the mushrooms, bacon and onion rings.  But it was very good and it should have been for the money.  I think the burger  at Stack'd would hold up against other gourmet burgers I've had at other places like Blanc in Kansas City, Burger Bar in St. Louis or Atwood Cafe in Chicago.  While I'm glad I experienced the place, there are a number of very good burger places in the Milwaukee area that I think I'd rather go to before I'd go back to Stack'd.  But if you're looking for a true gourmet burger in Milwaukee, Stack'd Burger Bar is the place to go.

Bulldogs Grill - Wauconda, IL

I have a small dealer in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago who I see from time to time.  We had a meeting one evening recently and afterward I asked him if he wanted to go grab a bite to eat at Smokin' T's, a nearby very good barbecue joint that he turned me on to a couple three years ago.  (Click here to see my entry on Smokin' T's.) He begged off citing family plans, but he said, "Hey, if you're looking for a fun place to eat, there's this place up the road in Wauconda that has these outrageously great cheeseburgers and duck fat fries."  That piqued my interest and asked him to tell me more about a place called Bulldogs Grill.  He said, "It's like a 50's diner, but they have a chef and all these wild cheeseburger concoctions.  It's about a 10 minute drive from here."  Even though it was in the opposite direction of my hotel that particular evening, on my way out of his place I decided to take his enthusiastic advice and hang a left instead of going right at the stop sign down the road to go up to Bulldogs Grill. 

From what I can determine, Bulldogs opened around 2009 in Wauconda.  The small Lake County town was undergoing a transformation from a sleepy lakeside community to a restaurant destination for the people in the area as well as vacationers.  Aaron Aagerwal had been a chef for a number of years and his friend, Joe Kafka, had once been a bartender before he entered the corporate world of banking.  After Kafka was laid off after the banking crisis in 2008, he decided to partner with Aagerwal to open Bulldogs Grill in an old restored building on Wauconda's Main Street.  Today, Bulldogs sits smack dab in the middle of a number of cafes, pubs and other restaurants in downtown Wauconda.  

I drove in front of Bulldogs Grill just around 7:30 p.m. on a weeknight evening (see map).  There was a parking spot just down the street and I was able to pull in easily.  Because Bulldogs also sells ice cream by the scoop, there were a number of people that were milling about in front of the place enjoying their cones.  I walked in behind a family of five people and had time to take a look around the place before I ordered at the front counter.

The main area as you come into Bulldogs is set up like you'd find a 50's style diner.  The area was heavy on the black and white tile, bright fluorescent lighting, a counter with old style stools, and art-deco style tables and chairs on the opposite wall from the counter.  Bulldogs also had a number of pictures and articles on the wall touting the awards they've won in the short while they've been in business.  

Bulldogs Grill features a "Man Cave" in the back part of the restaurant that has somewhat softer lighting, a couple of flat screen televisions that were turned on to baseball games, some posters and a smattering of tables.  It was more spacious than the front area, but it was still cozy enough.  I figured that I'd just sit back there after I ordered.

I went back up to the counter as the family was just finishing up with their order.  Looking over the menu board, in addition to the burgers, Bulldogs also has a number of hot dogs on the menu including the "Baconator" - a bacon-wrapped hot dog, deep-fried, then placed on a bun before being topped with chili and cheese.  Oh ho ho!  My arteries hardened up after reading that!  They also have Philly cheese steak sandwiches, pulled pork and chicken sandwiches, as well as a handful of Mexican entrees including tacos, enchiladas, and deep-fried fish tacos that are marinated in a chile lime sauce, and a number of wraps and flatbread sandwiches.  And Bulldogs Grill is famous for their award winning wings made in a homemade Buffalo sauce.  For the health conscious, they also have soups, salads and a kids menu.  Kafka's and Aagarwal's philosophy is to buy their food fresh and local, and to provide a great value for what they serve.  

But I wanted a burger.  And with 36 different burgers on the menu, Bulldogs Grill has a wide array of toppings and combinations to choose from.  I was interested in about four or five of them - The Area 51 burger (named after the secret testing military base in Nevada) had green chiles, pepper jack cheese, guacamole and a spicy mayo on it.  The Shroomer had mushrooms and provolone cheese on it.  The California BLT burger had avocado, bacon, cheddar cheese and chipotle mayo on top of the 9 oz. burger.  And just the regular bacon cheeseburger looked interesting to me.   

The menu also features a "challenge burger" - the Bluto Burger.  If someone can eat the four 1/2 burger patties, grilled onions and pepper jack cheese with Bulldogs apple barbecue sauce, with each burger topped with 3 pieces of applewood smoked bacon, jalapeno cream cheese and then finished off with a stack of onion rings - along with a pound of french fries - in 30 minutes or less, you get a t-shirt and your name on the Bluto Burger Hall of Fame.  While I was standing in line to order, a waiter brought out this Bluto Burger to two young guys, both of whom were going to share the plate (above right).  But as you can see by look and posture of the one guy, they were beginning to have second thoughts about what they ordered.  

By the time I got around to order, I had found out that the duck fat fries were only available on Friday nights.  Sort of a bummer, but, oh well, that was fine with me.  But I saw something else that got my attention - garlic parmesan fries.  And they were only something like $2.50 for a small side of them.  I decided on getting the hangover burger - the 9 oz. never-frozen patty topped with a fried egg, bacon and American cheese to go along with the fries.  And to drink, I got a couple bottles of ice cold Capital Supper Club beer.  I was given a number and went to find a seat back in the "Man Cave".  

It takes a while to get your food at Bulldogs Grill.  Good burgers take time to cook.  Plus the kitchen area isn't all that large and when they get a good sized crowd in there they can get backed up.  The food orders are picked up at the counter next to the kitchen and brought out to the table.  The wait staff yells out the number and the more they have to yell the number to get the attention of the person whose order they have, the louder they get.

I'm glad I got in when I did.  Even though they closed at 8 p.m., they had a large group of motorcycle riders - mainly older gentlemen - who came in and ordered food just before they closed.  About 20 of them came back and took over the remaining tables in the back room.  It suddenly became a little loud and crowded back there.  

After about a 20 minute wait after I ordered, a waitress came back with my burger and fries.  For a small order, I knew the fries would be too much.  Just looking at the size of the burger, I knew this was going to be a lot of food for me to try to finish. In fact, the burger was so big that I had to cut it in half before I could even handle picking it up.  

The taste of the burger was very, very good.   Even though the egg slid off the burger when I made my first bite, I could get enough the taste of it to know that it went well with the taste of the fresh burger meat.  The crown of the gourmet bun had a crispy outer shell with a light and chewy inner core.  Two large pieced of bacon criss-crossed the burger and the American cheese was thickly melted on to the burger, itself.  The flat grill taste of the burger was delicious.  It was a very outstanding burger.  And a great value for $6.50!  I've had burgers like this for nearly twice the price that didn't taste as good as the one at Bulldogs Grill.   

The parmesan and garlic fries were as good as advertised.   They were covered in parmesan cheese that had crusted onto the fries.  I couldn't find any hint of fresh garlic on the fries, but I was guessing that it was there because they had a wonderful forward garlic taste.  I was glad that I didn't have to talk to anyone else that particular evening because my breath would have warded off vampires for a two-mile radius.  If this was a small order, I'd hate to see what a large order would be.  A small order would easily satiate two people, if not as many as four, mainly because they were so rich.  I could only finish about a quarter of what they brought to me. 

They brought out a double cheeseburger to one of the guys who were in the motorcycle club.  He sort of looked at the two 9 oz. burgers piled on top of one another in wonderment.  The size of one burger is huge at Bulldogs Grill - you can almost imagine what two look like.   

This is the second time my small dealer in the far NW suburbs has turned me on to a great place to eat.  Maybe I need to go see him more often, especially in the late afternoon.  The burgers at Bulldogs Grill have been voted the best in Lake County for the past couple of years.  And it's no wonder.  The burger I had was simply one of the best burgers I've ever had.  I don't know how they could get topped, unless they open a second location - just like they recently did in nearby Grayslake.   Bulldogs Grill is a long way from most places in the Chicagoland area, but if you're ever around the far north suburbs you need to seek the place out.  You won't be disappointed.

Tom & Eddie's - Lombard, IL

Let's say, for a moment, that you're a retired executive from a large corporation.  And for funsies, let's call that corporation McDonald's.  What do you do after climbing the corporate ladder starting out as a grill cook and working your way up to be the C.E.O.?  Do you become a NASCAR owner?  Do you contemplate becoming a Smashburger franchisee?  Do you have a passion to find the perfect burger and have a place that is comfortable and affordable to have such a burger?  If your name is Ed Rensi, that's exactly what happened after he retired in 1998 from McDonald's.  And along with his long-time friend, Tom Dentice - also a former executive with McDonald's - they opened their first fast casual gourmet burger place Tom & Eddie's in August of 2010.  I don't quite remember how I heard about Tom & Eddie's, but I had it bookmarked as a place I wanted to try.  On a recent trip into Chicago for business, I had a chance to try one of their burgers.  

Ed Rensi was going to school at Ohio State, working three jobs and had no car when he saw an ad for a "grill man" at a new drive-up restaurant by the name of McDonald's.  It was 1966 and Rensi's wife, Anne, was pregnant with their first child.  In order to make ends meet, Resni ended up working 100 hours a week - at .85 cents an hour - his first year at McDonald's.  However, his dogged determination paid off and within a year he was promoted to manager of the McDonald's store in Columbus.  He ended up becoming a regional manager in Philadelphia, eventually getting promoted to regional Vice-President.  In Philadelphia, Ed was instrumental for the development of the first Ronald McDonald House, a temporary home for families who children are suffering from serious illnesses.  Rensi was eventually promoted to the Oak Brook, IL headquarters of McDonald's as Vice-President of Training and Operations.  Ed was responsible for product development and in 1983 oversaw the project that eventually became Chicken McNuggets.  He was elevated to the Chief Executive Officer position the following year.

At right, Tom Dentice and Ed Rensi (Picture courtesy Northwest Quarterly)

Tom Dentice's rise through the ranks at McDonald's is similar to the journey his good friend Ed Rensi encountered.  It was 1965 and Dentice had just finished an 8-year stint in the Air Force.  He needed a job to help pay the bills as he had a wife and a baby at home.  He saw an ad in a local newspaper for a "manager/trainee" for a McDonald's franchise in Columbus, OH.  He got the job and within the next year he hired a young college student by the name of Ed Rensi.  As Rensi rose through the managerial and executive ranks at McDonald's, he never forgot his first manager.  Dentice eventually became the V-P for Training and Operations, retiring as the Senior Executive V-P for Franchising in 1998.  

Hamburgers never left the blood of both Rensi and Dentice and both had been thinking about a gourmet burger that was affordable and served in a place that was fun for the family.  After initially looking at becoming Smashburger franchisees, the two traveled the world - together and separately - eating burgers of all kinds (Rensi said he gained 21 pounds during his travels) gaining knowledge of the upscale burger business and trying to figure out exactly what they wanted to do for their concept.   

Rensi and Dentice began a partnership program with the College of DuPage's culinary and hospitality program, working with school chefs and students to develop a unique menu that featured burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, sides and gourmet milkshakes.  Over an eight week period in late 2009, Tom & Eddie's hosted a test restaurant that served over 1000 meals to students, friends and community organizations in return for feedback about the food and concept.  Tweaking the plan along the way, the two were confident that their fast casual concept would be ready for the public.

From the beginning, they wanted to make sure that people knew that Tom & Eddie's would not be another McDonald's with cheap burgers.  They visited test kitchens, looking for the very best beef to make their hamburgers from.  They settled upon a 100% fresh Angus chuck natural beef with no hormones or antibiotics introduced into cattle who also only ate a vegetarian diet on the farm.  For the animal-rights people, the beef Tom & Eddie's uses is "certified humane" by a national non-profit organization that inspects and certifies farms and facilities that raise beef in a humane way.   

Rensi and Dentice also worked with Chef Charlie Baggs, a food industry veteran who heads his own consulting firm in the Chicago area.  They hired Baggs' corporate chef Lance Avery to help give their foods a signature taste.  Finally, they decided up on getting their fresh baked buns from the Turano Bakery in Berwyn, IL.  Turano hamburger buns are some of the best around.  

Finding a facility was the next thing and they settled on a former Boudin Bakery location in the Yorktown Center mall in west suburban Lombard, not far from the McDonald's corporate offices in Oakbrook.  They ordered in two 3-foot long flat top grills - one for the burgers, and the other for the other foods that cook at different temperatures than the burgers - and opened their doors toward the end of August 2010.  The first location was a hit and they soon opened a second Tom & Eddie's location in far west suburban Geneva, then a third one in north suburban Deerfield, then a fourth one in far north suburban Vernon Hills.  They are working to open a fifth T&E location in Naperville in the coming weeks.

The Lombard location is located on the southwest corner of the Yorktown Center mall just off Highland Avenue in what they call The Shops on Butterfield, across from Rock Bottom Brewery and caddy-cornered from Brio Tuscan Grille (see map).  Tom & Eddie's is a fitting restaurant for the mall which has a number of upscale restaurants in the immediate area including The Capital Grille, D.O.C American Bistro, and the Claim Jumper.  (There's a Cajun restaurant at Yorktown Center called French Quarter that I'd like to try at some point.)  Parking is plentiful in front of Tom & Eddie's.  

The inside of Tom & Eddie's could sort be described as contemporary art deco.  There are a number of two seater tables and a set of higher four seat tables along the large windows that allow an abundant amount of light to shine into the restaurant.  Three-sided booths are along a half wall and bench seats are along the back wall with tables.  The kitchen area is open to the left of the main counter and there is a soda pop dispenser along with shelves of hot sauces in the center of the restaurant.   An outdoor patio was available for al fresco dining.  

The front counter is where you order your food and drinks.  The menu for the restaurant is located on the wall behind the counter (or you can get a printed menu to take with you).  Burgers are the draw at Tom & Eddie's, but they also feature a "Lean and Green" part of their menu that features salads, chicken sandwiches, veggie burgers and burgers that are made out of ground turkey and ahi tuna.  And the prices are more than reasonable.  Most of the burgers, depending upon the toppings you add, are under $10 bucks.

Tom & Eddie's feature seven signature burgers including the Ampersand that is topped with gouda cheese, applewood smoked bacon, barbecue sauce and Tom & Eddie's in-house made haystack onion straws, then topped with a fried egg.  The Blue Chip features a burger topped with a sliced avocado, Tom & Eddie’s roasted garlic aioli, a tomato slice and crumbled blue cheese topped with homemade potato chips.  The Love Me Dew has Tom & Eddie’s homemade spicy mayonnaise, topped with pepperjack and peppadew sweet piquanté peppers.  And the most interesting of them all is the Bushel and a Peck - they start off with Granny Smith apple slices, then add homemade walnut butter, melted Brie cheese and finish with caramelized onions.  Although that doesn't sound appealing to me in the least, I have a feeling my wife would love something like that.

Or, you can "build your own" burger at Tom & Eddie's.  And that's exactly what I did.  You have your choice between a 1/2 pound or 1/3 pound burger and then you choose from three fresh baked gourmet buns - sesame seed, ciabatta or multi-grain.   If you want cheese on your burger, they have everything from American, Swiss, pepperjack, gouda, brie and blue cheese.  Then you get your choice of 10 different condiments that include organic ketchup, garlic aoili, Jamaica sweet relish, basil pesto and an eggplant spread.  And then you have a choice of 10 veggie or fruit toppings that include lettuce, sliced red or caramelized onions, sport peppers (for the hot dogs they have on the menu, no doubt), hot giardiniera (it IS Chicago), and something they call puckered pickles.  

From there, you can order "premium toppings" including sauteed crimini mushrooms, a fried egg, extra cheese, applewood smoked bacon and fire roasted tomatoes.  It seems like a lot of choices, but I sort of knew what I was going to get once I saw the combinations they had.  I ordered up a 1/2 pound burger cooked medium with Swiss cheese on a sesame seed bun.  I had them put the organic ketchup and yellow mustard on it (but I found that when I got to the table that there were bottles of yellow mustard and Heinz organic ketchup already there), as well as a sliced red onion.  I also had them put the crimini mushrooms and some Applewood smoked bacon on it, as well.  The girl behind the counter asked me if I wanted any sides - they have hand-cut fries, sweet potato fries, the haystack onion rings, or fresh made potato chips.  I figured that the burger would just be fine for me.  

For something to drink, I ordered a glass of the Two Brothers pale ale.  The girl who took my order was too young to pour and serve the beer, so she asked another lady, to do the honors.  As the other lady poured my beer, the girl gave me a number on a plastic strip shaped like a paddle.  She said, "This is your key and you put this in your holder on the table and we'll bring your food to you."  

The other lady, who poured my beer - Tammi - asked me if I'd ever been to Tom & Eddie's before.  Since I hadn't, she sort of showed me the ropes.  She said, "Well, you get your pick of tables, then you put this little paddle in the holder.  If you need anything like another drink or more food or whatever, you just hit this button on the base and we'll be right there!"  The contraption is called the "Key Call Table Locator System" and it is part of a system that allows for monitoring of orders and sends a signal back to the food pick-up area to show where the customer is seated in the restaurant.  It also allows  Tom & Eddie's to monitor, record and average times that it takes for a customer to receive their food after they've ordered.  

Tammi told me, "Our concept is similar to the fast casual concept like Panera Bread has where the food is made quickly after you've ordered.  Only we bring the food to the table rather than having the customer wait for it.  It just gives us a little more of a personal touch with our customers."  

About 15 minutes after I ordered my burger, Tammi brought it to the table.  The presentation was very nice - the burger was served on a concave, sculptured plate.  It had a load of sauteed crimini mushrooms on top of the bacon with all sitting on a thick slice of Swiss cheese.  Three large red onion rings were with the burger - any more and I would have taken some off.  The gourmet sesame seed bun had rack marks across the top.  It was light and fluffy, and felt substantial.  

The first bite told me this was an excellent burger.  The Black Angus beef had that wonderful flat-grilled juicy taste to it.   The burger was cooked to a perfect medium with a little pink in the middle. The crimini mushrooms were absolutely fabulous. I'm guessing the sauteed them in butter and Worcestershire sauce.  The bacon was flavorful and the red onions weren't overpowering.  The bun was also perfect - not too chewy, but substantial enough that it stayed together with all the great juicy toppings.    

Tammi came over to me to see how I liked my burger.  I couldn't lie to her, "This is simply an outstanding burger."  

She said, "Great!  Glad you liked it.  You'll have to come back and try another type of burger sometime.  That's what I like to do, experiment with different toppings."  

Tom & Eddie's is a winner.  The burger was just excellent, one of the finest gourmet burgers I've ever had.  I liked the fast casual "made-to-order" concept and the sort of laid back atmosphere in the place.  I'm hoping they don't grow too big, too quickly.  Five locations in about two years is just about enough for this place.  But I can't say enough good things about Tom & Eddie's.  For a great gourmet burger, it was about 50% cheaper than what you'd find for a burger at a fine dining restaurant.  It was a great burger at a great value. 

I ♥ Burgers - Las Vegas

My colleague Todd did a good job of picking out restaurants in Las Vegas this year.  One that we went to which was a complete surprise for me was a place that opened last March in the Shoppes at the Palazzo, next door to the Venetian - I ♥ Burgers.  After a few hours of setting up displays at the Venetian and the Mirage for CES, we were ready for some dinner.  We took the short walk across the way to the Palazzo and after some backtracking and searching, we found  I ♥ Burgers.

I ♥ Burgers bills themselves as "a modern take on a classic American burger joint".  Just as many gourmet burger places are popping up around Las Vegas,  I ♥ Burgers tries to set itself apart from the others with homemade buns, in-house ground beef, bison and turkey, and having one of the largest selection of eclectic beers and drinks in Las Vegas.  The restaurant is part of the Fine Concepts group, a group of restaurants and food concessions run by local entrepreneur Jeffrey Fine that also include a number of Jamba Juice locations and a handful of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf franchises.  

I ♥ Burgers executive chef and general manager Errol LeBlanc (pictured right) used to own the R.E. Tapas Kitchen in Las Vegas and has worked at such renown restaurants as the exquisite Aureole at Mandalay Bay, as well as stints at restaurants at the upscale Green Valley Ranch resort and at the heralded Les Artistes steakhouse in the Paris hotel in Vegas that closed up last summer.  LeBlanc reportedly worked with 16 different types of bun recipes before settling on the one they use at  I ♥ Burgers.  They tried 50 different variations of potatoes before settling on a Yukon Gold potato for their French fries.  And LeBlanc worked with different blends of beef - primarily steak and brisket - to come up with a consistency in his burgers.  

Figuring that we'd be working pretty late getting the bulk of our product up on display, Todd had made the reservations at  I ♥ Burgers for 8:30 p.m.  However, our fearless leader, Daniel, decreed around 7 p.m. that he was hungry and we had made a significant dent in getting the displays up and running.  He asked Todd to see if the restaurant could move the reservation up an hour.  Todd called over and since it was a Sunday evening they didn't have any problem fitting us in.

I ♥ Burgers is sort of tough to find in the Shops at the Palazzo.  It's up on the second level tucked back in a corner toward the northeast corner of the mall.  We were seated at a long table and immediately given menus.  The decor of I ♥ Burgers was interesting, the most prominent feature were these large contemporary art mushrooms that seemingly rose from the checkered floor toward the well-lit ceiling.  It was a curious decor choice for a burger joint.  The open kitchen was toward the back and a contemporary bar area with high chairs was toward the front of hte restaurant.  The staff were casually dressed in t-shirts with broad "I ♥ Burgers" across the front.  Except a couple of the guys had t-shirts that said "I ♥ Beer".  I found out that those shirts were available for $15 bucks.  But they were cut small and even their XXL shirts looked snug.  

A beer menu was on the table and I immediately began to look through that.   I ♥ Burgers had a boat load of eclectic beers to choose from including La Fin du Monde, a beer that I've had up in Montreal, Arrogant Bastard Ale from Stone Brewing Co. in California (Todd had one of those because I'd accused him of being an arrogant bastard earlier in the day), and beers from the Delirium brewery from Belgium.  I found one of my all-time favorites on the menu, an Alaskan Amber from the Alaskan Brewery in Juneau, AK.  

I ♥ Burgers also features a number of specialty drinks including a bloody mary that had Cajun pork rinds, or pork cracklins, in the concoction with applewood smoked bacon salt on the rim of the glass (didn't know there was such a thing as applewood smoked bacon salt), a number of interesting ice cream drinks including one that had butterscotch schnapps and vodka, and for the adventurous milk shake drinkers - the Blueberry Panshake.  They take vanilla ice cream and blend it with pancake batter, blueberries and maple syrup.  Man, you want to talk about a gut-bomb!  

We were there for the burgers.  While the burger menu wasn't deep - they really only had six different burgers to choose from - you can personalize your burger with a number of toppings (for an extra charge) including four different types of cheese, applewood smoked bacon, jalapenos, roasted green chiles, sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions.  A couple three of the burgers caught my eye.  

The Oregon Trail burger featured lean ground bison meat with aged cheddar cheese, a variety of veggies, and roasted garlic aioli on a wheat bun.  The Dante had toppings of American bleu cheese, caramelized onion and the roasted garlic aioli.  And the I ♥ Bacon burger had applewood smoked bacon ground up with angus beef, then the patty was topped with strips of bacon, mayo with bacon bits, smoked gouda cheese, onion strings and served on I ♥ Burgers' homemade brioche bun.  It all sounded good.  

I ended up getting the Standard Burger - ground angus with lettuce, beefsteak tomato and red onion on top - then added a fried egg, pepperjack cheese and roasted green chiles.  I didn't order fries, but some of the guys near me did.  I ♥ Burgers has their regular Yukon Gold fries, as well as sweet potato fries and parmesan garlic fries.  The parmesan garlic fries got my attention and there was enough of all three ordered that we all could enjoy the different styles of fries.  

The burgers and fries came to the table and I was ready to eat.  A hard fried egg was on top of my burger, which was topped with the pepperjack cheese.  The only problem was that I couldn't find the roasted green chiles.  I asked one of the ever present waitstaff got get the green chiles on the side and he protested that they had to be on the burger.  I looked underneath the patty, then underneath the veggies and didn't find them.  When he brought out a small side of the green chiles, I immediately realized that what I was seeing on the bottom bun were the green chiles.  They were in roasted strips and not in chopped up fashion that I expected.  I was sort of embarrassed.   

The burger, itself, was good.  The patty was lean, but not overcooked.  The egg gave it a nice overall taste to the burger and the smokiness of the green chiles gave it a nice little after-bite on the taste buds.  The brioche bun was light and moist, and didn't overpower the the burger.  The lettuce and tomato were OK - I ended up taking them off halfway through the meal, and they only gave me about three or four small rings of red onion.  But that was more than enough as they were very pungent.    

The regular Yukon Gold fries were served in a basket with checkered wax paper, just like the burgers.  They were a thin cut and crispy to the bite.  They were good, but not overly outstanding.  I tried some of the garlic/parmesan cheese fries and, they too, were good, but nothing to write home about.  Actually, the best of the three types of fries we had at the table were the sweet potato fries.  They had a nice crispiness on the outside and were light and flaky on the inside.  They had a wonderful, rich taste to them.  Rich, as in filling.

Todd got the Oregon Trail bison burger (below left), but had it topped with avocado and got a side of jalapenos.  He said, "This is pretty good.  I like the avocado taste.  Very fresh."  I tried some of the jalapenos on my burger and they were pretty mild.  The roasted green chiles were better.  

My colleague John was seated next to me on the other side and he got the Dante (above right).  I almost got that as I wanted to try the combination of the bleu cheese and the garlic aioli.  John said his burger was good, but that the bleu cheese overpowered the taste of the garlic aioli.  I sort of wondered if it would.      

Todd got thumbs up from all of us for picking I ♥ Burgers for our opening dinner at CES.  The burgers were good, service was very good and the beer list was outstanding.  It was a great night to relax and get everyone together, even though we'd all just been in Montreal about three weeks before.  Still, we've got a great team that works hard and a boss that loves to see us all have a good time when we get together.  And I ♥ Burgers was a very good time.   

 

 

Serious Burger - Appleton, WI

On a late fall trip to Appleton to see a couple dealers, I drove by a new burger place in town with a name that jumped right out at me - Serious Burger. I asked one of the guys at one at the American TV store in Appleton if they'd ever eaten there before. His reply was, "Yeah, once. It was good, but it was so expensive. I don't know if it will last." I still decided to give it try before I left town that particular day.

Serious Burger is the brain child of Marc Waltzer, an Appleton area restaurateur and Culinary Institute of America-trained chef. Waltzer's primary business is consulting restaurants on developing new products. As the head of Premiere Culinary, Waltzer has not only worked with restaurants such as TGI Fridays, Rock Bottom Brewery, and Panera Bread, but also with food industry giants such as ConAgra, Sara Lee, Tyson, Hormel and Kellogg's developing new ideas for pre-packaged foods.

Waltzer is also something of a "foodie", looking for food ideas at restaurants around the U.S. After eating in a Seattle pizzeria, Waltzer decided to open his own wood-fired pizza place - Wild Truffle Pizza - in Appleton. Using only fresh ingredients and using a pizza dough recipe that took two years to prefect, Wild Truffle was an immediate hit in the area for people looking for gourmet pizzas.

Waltzer (pictured right) then turned his attention to perfecting the common burger. In May of 2011, Waltzer opened Serious Burger in a small strip mall near Fox River Mall (see map). Using grass-fed beef grown on a farm in Colorado, Serious Burger grinds a combination of four different cuts of steak to make their burger meat. Walther also contracted with a local Appleton bakery - Breadsmith - to develop a French brioche bun made with organic eggs and European butter. From there he went to a number of Wisconsin dairies to get the eclectic cheeses that he tops his burgers with, as well as using bacon from Nueske's - a small Wisconsin meat packer who has become well-known for having some of the best smoked meats in the Midwest. (The New York Times once described Nueske's bacon as the "beluga caviar of bacon".) Add to this, Serious Burger also offers other particular toppings such as organic fried eggs, garlic aioli, roasted Crimini mushrooms and charred tomatoes. Obviously, there are a number of reasons why Serious Burger is more expensive than your normal burger joint.

(As an aside to this story - Waltzer found himself in a little trouble late in 2011 when he was charged with misdemeanor prostitution and disorderly conduct for an incident in his home with a former restaurant employee who said he offered to pay her for sex when she was cleaning the Waltzer family home. A trial was to happen on Dec. 22 of last year, but evidently three similar charges from former employees of Waltzer's surfaced in the meantime and the trial is now scheduled for March 26.

Update March 20, 2012 - Waltzer was fined just under $2700 for violating a city prostitution ordinance.  Prosecutors dismissed misdemeanor prostitution-sexual contact and three counts of disorderly conduct against Waltzer saying that if the case went to circuit court, the outcome would likely be a fine with no jail time or probation given to him.) 

Serious Burger is not a large place seating only about 40 people. Most of the tables in the long and narrow restaurant are high with tall chairs. There's kind of a contemporary industrial motif to the inside of Serious Burger. There are two entries into Serious Burger - one on each end.

The menu for Serious Burger is on the back wall behind the counter. You place your order at the counter and they'll give you a number to take with you to your table. After the burger is made, they'll bring it to your table. Each burger is made to order so there is a wait. On the menu, you have your choice of three different ways to cook your burger - Red (Medium rare), Pink (Medium) and Brown (Well done), along with approximate times it will take to cook your burger - 6, 8 or 10 minutes, depending upon how thoroughly you want it cooked.

Serious Burger has six specialty burgers you can order. Or if you want to make your own, you can do that, too. Their basic burger starts out at $5.99 and from there you can add six different types of Wisconsin artisan cheeses for $1.00 extra. You can order up to three condiment and/or veggie toppings for free - each one over the limit will cost you an extra 25 cents. They also offer premium toppings (organic fried eggs, caramelized onions, sauteed spinach, roasted mushrooms, etc.) for an extra 50 cents each. Nueske's bacon is an extra buck and they have a choice of specialty sauces you can add for another 50 cents each. So, ordering a burger with the works adds up quick at Serious Burger.

I decided to make my own burger concoction and I got a burger - medium - with Swiss cheese, organic ketchup, yellow mustard, raw onions and pickles. I almost got a couple three slices of Nueske's bacon, but decided to just go with the basic burger on this trip. The girl taking my order asked me if I wanted a side of fries to go with the burger and, quite uncharacteristically of myself, I said, "Yes!" They have hand cut French fries served with organic ketchup, along with truffle fries, sweet potato fries and beer-battered onion rings made with Leinenkugel beer. I just got a small order of the hand cut French fries.

Seated at a high table near the front counter, it was about 12 minutes from the time I ordered my burger to the time the girl brought it out to me. The presentation was pretty basic - the burger was on a tray that was covered with a paper that was designed to look like newsprint with fake articles printed on it. The French fries were plentiful and served overflowing in a wire basket with a small handle.

The burger, itself, was big and juicy, sandwiched in between a very large brioche bun. But the bun was spongy and very soft. When I squeezed the buns on the top and the bottom, they became much smaller and easier to put in your mouth.

I'll have to say that the burger at Serious Burger was seriously good. Very good. It was one of the best artisan-gourmet style burgers I've ever had. The meat was lean, yet very juicy. It was cooked the way I like - medium with a little pink in the middle. The condiments were fresh and a great complement to the burger. But the star was the French brioche bun. It was moist, spongey and light. Very, very tasty. Overall, it was an excellent burger.

The fries, however, were over-seasoned with sort of a salty seasoning on them. The organic ketchup - eh, I couldn't tell if it was different from your run-of-the-mill bottled ketchup. The fries were good on their own - full of great potato flavor. But they really needed to back off on the seasoning. I don't eat a lot of salt and I think that even for someone who does salt their food this would have been too much for them.

Given Marc Waltzer's legal problems and the fact that their burgers are pretty high-priced, I don't know if Serious Burger has much of a chance of sticking around, especially in a small-town market like Appleton. But I hope they do because I thought the burger was very, very good. When I do my new Best Burger List for 2012 (coming up soon!), Serious Burger will definitely make it into the Top Five of gourmet burgers that I've had. I hope to go back and try a burger with a fried egg and Neuske's bacon - that is if they're still open when I get back up to Appleton later this year.

Zombie Burger - Des Moines

Zombie Burger is a fairly new (opened August 31, 2011) burger joint in the e300 building on E. Grand in Des Moines' historic East Village entertainment, shopping and restaurant district, near the state capitol building (see map). Their style of making a burger is similar to a growing number of places that smash the burger patty onto a flat iron grill causing the juices to char the outside of the burger. For years, that went against every fiber of burger cooking in my body. However, I've rapidly warmed up to this style of cooking a burger and I was interested in giving it a try. A good friend, Denny Duncan, was telling me about the place and I was able to stop into Zombie Burger for lunch during a recent trip to Des Moines.

Zombie Burger is the brainchild of chef/restaurateur George Formaro, a Des Moines native and the owner and head chef at restaurants such as Centro, Django, South Union Bakery (and the South Union Bread Cafe) and Gateway Market and Cafe. Formaro took his love of zombie horror movies - something that is big with the 14 to 35 age demographic group these days - and turned it into a pop-culture themed burger restaurant.

The contemporary industrial design of the restaurant is interspersed with individual and mural paintings of zombies. Large windows allow a large amount of natural light to come in, with contemporary lighting filling in when the sun goes down. One would think a theme restaurant featuring zombies would be sort of drab and dreary, but it was far from that.

It was around 2 p.m. when I made it into Zombie Burger. There is parking on the east side of the e300 building - it's angled, back-in only, a new parking concept that I had never seen before. I'm guessing that it's that way for easier traffic management - not that there's a lot of traffic that I could see on that side street. There's two entrances to Zombie Burger - the southeast corner entrance takes you into a carry-out only/overflow area (below left) where you can order your burgers to go, or pick up orders that were phoned ahead. The main dining room is on the other side of the building and you walk through outside seating to get to that entrance. I was greeted by a guy just inside the door and he asked me if I wanted to sit at the bar. Sure, that works fine with me.

The back bar area featured a full variety of liquor and main-stream and micro-brewed beers. Zombie memorabilia was placed on top of the liquor cabinets. A menu that was fashioned to be a Zombie-style newspaper, complete with fictionalized stories about zombies, was in front of me on the bar when I sat down. They had Bell's Two Hearted India pale ale on tap and I got that as I perused the offerings.

All the burgers have a zombie theme name to them. They ranged from the basic Zombie burger - cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and a homemade Zombie sauce, to the Undead Elvis - fried bananas, peanut butter, bacon, egg, mayo and cheese that pays homage to Elvis Presley's favorite food - a friend banana and peanut butter sandwich. (That just doesn't sound good to me.) They also had the Dead Moines burger - smoked gouda, fried prosciutto, ham and truffle mayo (that sounded better), and the Redneck Zombie with bologna pâté, pimento and American cheese, chicken fried bacon (ooo... that's interesting), and ranch dressing.

In addition to a myriad of different types of burgers on the menu, Zombie Burger also features a number of various styles of deep-fried hot dogs, appetizers that feature fried brussel sprouts (uh, no), fried pickles, Zombie nachos with shredded adobe pork, guacamole and cheddar cheese, and something interesting called fried buffalo bacon. They also had a number of different appetizers featuring French fries - cheese fries, chili cheese fries, VEGGIE chili cheese fries, bleu cheese and bacon fries, the list went on and on. The most interesting part of the fries appetizers was the Zombie poutine fries, a variation of the French-Canadian dish that features fries with cheese curds and gravy. I had poutine - once - a number of years ago and my arteries just recently softened enough for my blood to flow freely through my body.

Zombie Burger also caters to families as they also have a number of eclectic milkshakes including the Tallahassee - vanilla ice cream, a Twinkie and cherry Kool-Aid powder, as well as the Zombie Bride Wedding Cake Shake - vanilla ice cream with yellow cake mix. Hmm... Dunno about that.

You order your burger with either one, two or three patties, each are a quarter pound BEFORE cooking. That's a very important thing to consider when you're talking about smashed burgers - or bashed burgers, as they call them at Zombie Burger. I went with the T-Virus burger - a single - that featured Swiss cheese, a grilled portobello mushroom, topped with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo. I got a side of their regular French fries to try, as well.

The burger came out in a basket with the fries and the presentation was very nice. The bun was lightly toasted, the burger patty was smashed enough that it was sticking out over the perimeter of the bottom bun, and the golden crips fries were ample in their number. I was ready to dig in.

The burger itself, was pretty damn good. The bun - which I'm guessing was made in Formaro's South Union Bakery - was spongy-soft and chewy. The only problem was that there was too much bun for the burger that I got. The premium beef patty was pretty thin and a double would have been much better. A single patty allowed the bun to overpower the burger, something that shouldn't happen in my book. But a second patty would have been the right combination to go with the very good bun.

The portobello mushroom was a wonderful topping to the burger. It had a great sauteed taste to it and went with the burger very well. Once again, it would have been even better if there was more meat on the burger. Next time - a double, that's for sure.

The fries were very crisp and very good. They weren't limp in any stretch of the word and had a nice crunchiness to them with each bite. They'd have to be that way if you're having them with cheese, chili, cheese curds and/or gravy.

I was impressed with Zombie Burger. Everything was very good about the place - the zombie-themed decor, the sense of humor the place had, and especially the good burger. I've already figured out the burger I'm getting on my next visit - the Dawn of the Dead that features an egg, bacon, cheese, red onion and mayo. And yes, it will be a double.

 

 

DMK Burger Bar - Lombard, IL

When Cindy and I were in Chicago last summer for our little mini-vacation, we had lunch at Uncle Julio's in Lombard (click here to see that entry). We parked in the lot near the restaurant, but another place caught my eye. It was DMK Burger Bar. I'd read about DMK Burger Bar in Bon Appetit and in the Chicago Tribune and had always wanted to visit their Chicago location (see map). I went there once, but parking is at a premium and I couldn't find a spot that was close. It turns out they had just opened their second location in Lombard just a day or two before. While I was intrigued by DMK Burger Bar, we wanted to stick to our rule of not visiting a restaurant during its first three months of existence, just to allow them to get the kinks out. We had lunch at Uncle Julio's that day, but I was in Chicago recently and was able to stop into DMK Burger Bar for a burger.

The DMK Burger Bar in Lombard is located in the Fountain Square shopping and entertainment area of Lombard, in between Oakbrook Center Mall and Yorktown Center Mall (see map). It is the second location opened by partners Michael Kornick and David Morton, who also are involved with Fish Bar, next to the Sheffield Ave. DMK Burger Bar location.

If the name Morton sounds familiar, it's because David Morton is the son of Arnie Morton, the legendary restaurateur who founded the Morton's steakhouse chain, as well as the founder of the Playboy Clubs and Resorts. Some of Morton's children have dabbled in the restaurant business, as well. Peter Morton founded the Hard Rock Cafe chain, Miichael Morton is the owner of the contemporary N9NE steakhouses in Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas, and David Morton founded the Pompei Italian Restaurants with four locations in the greater Chicago area.

Michael Kornick has his own legacy as the executive chef at the long defunct Gordon restaurant (a place that I ate at a couple times years ago and it was absolutely fabulous), as well as working on various projects with Richard Melman of the Lettuce Entertain You restaurants. Kornick was also the executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston for a spell.

Kornick (pictured right) became involved with two partners to work on and open two restaurants - Marché and Red Light - but the partnership quickly dissolved. With the help of his wife, Lisa, Kornick opened mk, a highly popular eclectic restaurant in the River North area of Chicago. Kornick started his relationship with the Morton family when he was hired as a consultant/chef/partner for N9NE, then partnered with David Morton to open DMK (a combination of David Morton's and Michael Kornick's initials) Burger Bar in 2009. Kornick is also a multiple James Beard Foundation nominee for best chef in the Midwest.

The menu at DMK Burger Bar consists of nine grass-fed beef burgers that all cost $8.00 each (with the exception of the Big DMK, the bison burger, and the guacamole burger). For the more health conscious, DMK Burger Bar also has turkey burgers, lamb burgers, and salmon burgers, as well as a veggie burger and a portobello mushroom burger. They also feature sides of salads, onion straws, fried okra and dill pickles, and a number of delectable French fries - called Chicago fries - that include sweet potato fries served with a lemon Tabasco aioli sauce, salt and pepper fries with homemade ketchup, parmesan cheese fries with truffle cream, and Amish bleu cheese fries with bacon.

Since it was during the noon hour when I got to DMK Burger Bar, I had a hell of a time trying to find a parking spot in the lot in front of the business. With Uncle Julio's across the way and a Starbuck's next door, parking is at a premium during the rush hours. I was able to find a spot behind the restaurant and went in. I took a seat at the bar and the very friendly bartender greeted me with a menu. Not only does DMK Burger Bar have a number of eclectic burgers to choose from, they have a very good beer list. They had eight beers on tap and another nearly three dozen beers available in bottles. I ended up getting a Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold lager beer they had on tap.

While the bar area is bright and open with white tiled walls behind the bar, the dining area is a mix of brick, contemporary lighting and a wall lined with banquette seating. Not only was the bartender overly friendly and chatty, but so was the wait staff and the manager. They certainly were doing their best to make you feel welcome.

Picking a burger was going to be tough. At new places, I usually like to go with the basic cheeseburger, with possibly bacon and mushrooms on it, to get the feel and taste of the burger. But the were so many mouthwatering burgers being described on the menu that I was having trouble figuring out that I wanted. The Number 8 (you order by the number) was a basic cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, mayo, onions and pickles. The Number 2 was topped with chili rubbed onion-strings, Amish bleu cheese and a spicy chipotle ketchup. The Number 1 had aged cheddar, barbecue sauce, smoked bacon and charred balsamic red onions. You can see what I was up against.

But what really jumped out at me was the Number 4 - real roasted green chiles (not the stuff you get from cans), smoked bacon, Somoma jack cheese and a sunny-side-up farm fresh fried egg on top. I couldn't pass that one up, so I ordered that with a small side of the salt and pepper fries with the homemade ketchup. (I've since learned the sweet potato fries with the lemon Tabasco aioli sauce is to die for. Next time...)

About 15 minutes after I ordered the burger, one of the waitresses brought it out to me. The presentation was nice - the sunny-side-up egg was prominent on top with the bacon off to the side on the light and flaky homemade bun. It was time to dig in.

From the first bite, it was exquisite. The green chiles gave the burger a great peppery taste, but it wasn't spicy in the least. The grass-fed beef was cooked to a pink middle - exactly as I like it. Although I'd rather have a hard fried egg on my burger, the sunny-side-up egg wasn't all that messy. Along with the jack cheese and the smoked bacon, it was a superb burger.

The salt and pepper fries were absolutely great, as well. I normally don't like to get fries all that much, but these were fabulous. They were crispy on the outside, but moist on the inside. The homemade ketchup was tangy and somewhat tart. Overall, it was an outstanding meal.

I like to stay out in the western suburbs of Chicago when I'm in town for more than a couple days, mainly because it's centrally located for the dealers I call on in the area. DMK Burger Bar is about a five mile drive from where I like to stay and I'm sure that there will be more visits to this particular restaurant in the future. It was a burger worth of mention when my updated Best Burger list comes out in 2012. As I said, it was an outstanding burger.

 

Blanc Burgers + Bottles - Leawood, KS

I've been wanting to stop at Blanc Burgers + Bottles for quite sometime, ever since I first read about the place in a local Kansas City magazine a couple years ago.  They're known for not only their delectable gourmet burgers, but for their large and eclectic selection of beer and wine.  On a recent trip to K.C., I went to the south Kansas City Blanc Burgers location in the Mission Farms shopping area of suburban Leawood (see map).

Actually, the Blanc Burgers location in Leawood is one of three locations for Blanc Burgers.  The original location opened in Westport in 2008 when chef Josh Eans and three investors opened the doors.  The road Eans took to becoming a chef was not like other chefs.  First of all, he had no experience working in a restaurant growing up.  Many chefs either started out working in a restaurant or their family was in the restaurant business.  Eans had an academic scholarship to Arizona State University with hopes of becoming a doctor down the line, but dropped out after a year and moved back to Kansas City to re-evaluate his life.  It was during this time back in Kansas City when he met his wife-to-be, Abbey-Jo.  

(Josh Eans pictured at right) 

Living in a rental house in suburban Kansas City, Josh and Abbey-Jo talked about what they would like to do with their lives.  They talked about owning a restaurant and Abbey-Jo came up with the idea of going to culinary school together.  Josh and Abbey-Jo enrolled in the Le Cordon Bleu/Scottsdale Culinary Academy in Arizona.  After graduating from there, Josh first worked at the Sea Island Resort in Georgia before getting a job as a line cook apprentice at Seeger's, a now-closed upscale restaurant in Atlanta.

Now married and expecting their first child, Josh and Abbey-Jo decided that back home in Kansas City would be a good place to raise a kid, so they moved back to the area.  Josh took a job on the line at the upscale 40 Sardines restaurant (which, too, is now closed).   

During his time at 40 Sardines, Josh met Ernesto Peralta, Jr. (pictured at left) who was a bartender for the upscale Capital Grille in Kansas City.  Peralta and his wife, Jennifer Price, were looking to do their own restaurant/bar and recruited Eans as a consultant in the project.  A co-worker with Peralta, Eddie Crane, was also one of the partners of the new restaurant which eventually became The Drop, an acclaimed bistro near the Westport area of Kansas City, MO.  Eans became the chef at The Drop as well as their sister restaurant, Martini Corner.  

As The Drop was developing into a new dining destination for foodies across the Kansas City area, Eans, Peralta and his wife, as well as David McMullin came up with the Blanc Burgers concept, seeing that there was a void in the market place for upscale burgers.  The four formed their own restaurant company, The Circle Restaurant Group.   

Josh Eans moved from The Drop to Blanc Burgers + Bottles to become the executive chef.  The first Blanc Burgers opened in the Westport area in March of 2008.  It was an immediate hit with people with their burgers made from corn/grain/alfalfa fed beef from California (the group found that customers didn't care for the grass-fed Kansas beef that was suddenly becoming the rage across the Midwest for natural beef foods).  The second location in Leawood opened in 2009 and a third location opened in January of this year up in Omaha. The group opened a more downscale burger joint in Lee's Summit, MO called B2, but it closed up after about a year in business.  It appears the upscale burger is what people want.  So much so that the group closed down their original Westport location and moved to a much larger building in the Country Club Plaza area in 2010.  

In addition to using natural beef in all their burgers, Blanc Burgers uses locally baked brioche buns, as well as locally grown produce and herbs.  Plus they make their own ketchup and their own pickles.  The one thing that will set Eans off quicker than anything is when a customer asks for store-bought bottled ketchup instead of his homemade condiment.  

The lunch rush had subsided when I made my first visit to Blanc Burgers.  I had my choice of sitting out on their patio as it was a lovely early fall day in Kansas City, or their narrow, but well-lit dining area, or at the bar.  The selection of bottles - wine, beer, liquor and pop -  behind the bar was intriguing to me, so I opted for a seat there.  The very personable and helpful bartender greeted me, gave me a menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  The chalkboard behind the bar featured a number of beers and natural soda pops that Blanc Burgers rotates in and out on a seasonal basis.  One of my favorite Oktoberfest beers is Bob's 47 from the local Kansas City brewery, Boulevard.  They had just gotten them in and I ordered one of those.  

Bright and white is the interior design of the Blanc Burgers. The main walls are white as are the chairs and table tops.  Contemporary lighting with white lamp shades hung low from the ceiling.  Peralta's wife, Jenifer, came up with the color concept for Blanc, which, of course, means white in French.  

Blanc Burgers + Bottles has a very impressive roster of beers to choose from.   I was very surprised to see that they featured Capital Brewing Company's Supper Club beer - a beer you don't find that far away from their brewery just outside of Madison, WI.  It turned out that they were out of it that day or I would have gotten one just to have one.  Supper Club is one of my all-time favorite beers.  

And even though I'm not a pop drinker any longer, I was equally impressed with the list of soda pops Blanc Burgers had to offer.  Many of them were eclectic and made from natural ingredients.   They had a Thai basil and clove soda pop, as well as sarsaparilla, birch beer pop, and lemon-lime 7 up.  They also had bottles of Mexican Coca-Cola, the more sweet - and some say better tasting - Coca-Cola.  

The burger menu was intriguing.  Topping the list was an American Kobe beef burger served with a mustard/mayo aioli sauce, truffle butter and topped with watercress greens on a salt and pepper brioche bun.  They have the "Classic" burger that they top with aged white cheddar, lettuce, tomato and a red onion slice along with their homemade pickles, ketchup and mustard and served on a sesame-seed bun.  They also had the "Oscar" burger that is basically the same thing as a steak Oscar, only on a bun.  The take the American Kobe beef and top it with poached blue crab, asparagus and bernaise aioli, and serve it on a rosemary brioche bun.

In addition to the burgers on the menu, Blanc Burgers also features a ground pork burger, a chicken sandwich, a grilled mahi-mahi sandwich and a couple of vegetarian burgers.  They also feature a small list of salads and appetizers, as well as a number of handful of sides, such as hand-cut French fries, truffle fries, sweet potato fries and Boulevard beer-battered onion rings.  

Two burgers that caught my eye were the "Au Poivre" burger - a cracked black pepper encrusted burger, topped with a creamy green peppercorn sauce, grilled onions and watercress, then served on a salt and pepper brioche.  The other one - the "Bison" - featured a lean bison burger topped with a fried egg along with peppadew jam, peppadew havarti cheese, red onion, mayo and lettuce on a four seed brioche bun.  Oh man - both sounded wonderful.    

As I said, the bartender was very personable and was eager to answer any questions for me.  I told him that I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted and he immediately stopped me.  "The Au Poivre burger is, hands down, my favorite on the menu."  

I said, "That was easy.  The Au Poivre is one that I was looking at."  

He asked what the other ones were and I said, "Oh, just the Bison burger."  

"The Bison burger is very good, too," he said.  "But I just sort of like that little pepper 'pop' in my mouth with the Au Poivre."  

He asked if I wanted any sides and the Boulevard onion rings looked intriguing.  "But I couldn't finish a whole order," I told him.

The bartender immediately replied, "I'll put in a half-order for you.  How about that?"

Sold! 

When the burger came out, it looked scrumptious.  The burger had an ample amount of cracked peppercorns around it, the green peppercorn sauce wasn't drenched over the top, but rather subdued under the burger patty.  And the salt and pepper brioche was light and spongy.  From the first bite, I knew I had a winner.  The peppery taste of the burger was just exquisite.  The bun turned out to be a little chewy, but still light enough not to be a detriment to the overall taste.  I tried some of the homemade ketchup and it was sweet and had a more strong taste than regular ketchup.  It was very good. 

The onion rings were also very good.  The Boulevard beer batter was flavorful and flaky.  They were very, very good.  It was a tough lunch to beat.

After I finished up, my bartender asked, "So, how did you like the burger?"

I said, "Awesome!"

He said, "Yeah, it is, isn't it?  I just love all that pepper taste in my mouth with every bite I take."  

The burger at Blanc Burgers + Bottles was outstanding.  The beef was overly flavorful, even without the cracked pepper it in.  The natural taste of everything from the toppings to the beef to the bun was simply superb.  Josh Eans is looking to expand throughout the Midwest and I'm hoping that at some point he'll look at expanding into Iowa so Blanc Burgers will be closer to me than Omaha or Kansas City.  The burgers are a little more expensive than your regular burger joint, but not by much compared to chain restaurants.  And the burger is a helluva lot better.  Blanc Burgers is going to get a strong consideration when I do my Best Burgers List in 2012.  

 

 

Atwood Cafe - Chicago

During our stay at the Hotel Burnham, Cindy's principal goal was to have tea at the Atwood Cafe, the in-house restaurant at the Burnham.  Actually, that's been her goal for quite sometime.  She fell in love with the decor at the Atwood Cafe on an earlier look through a few years ago and thought it would be sort of quaint to have tea there.  The only problem is that she couldn't get anyone to go with her.  I told her that I'd at least have lunch at the Atwood Cafe, but sitting drinking tea wasn't very high on my list of things to do.

The Atwood Cafe is named after architect Charles Atwood who designed the upper floors of the Reliance Building in the late 19th Century.  Atwood was a protégé of Daniel Burnham (the person who the Hotel Burnham is named after) and John Root who designed the first level of the building.  After the Kimpton Hotel chain bought the building in the late 20th Century to turn it into the Hotel Burnham, they brought in the Puccini Group- a San Francisco design company that specializes in the planning, building and operations of upscale restaurants situated in fine hotels - to oversee all aspects of the Atwood Cafe for the Kimpton chain.   

Heather Terhune was the original chef at the Atwood before she moved over to Sable, the restaurant within the Hotel Palomar in the River North neighborhood - also a Kimpton property.  Derek Simcik, born in Greece to American parents, took over as the Executive Chef of the Atwood Cafe in 2010.  Simcik's educational background was primarily as a pastry chef, but he worked his way up to chef du cuisine at Jackson 20, a Kimpton restaurant that is located inside the upscale Hotel Monaco hotel in Alexandria, VA.  He moved to Chicago early last year to take over as the executive chef at the Atwood Cafe. 

The decor of the Atwood Cafe is rather unique.  Situated on the corner of the Hotel Burnham, the restaurant features large windows that afford great street views along Washington and State Streets (see map).  The high ceilings, various colors of red, yellow and black abound throughout the restaurant.  Persian rugs over intricately designed flooring, tasteful lighting with etched diamond patterns in the sconces and elaborate chandeliers give the Atwood an elegant art deco feeling like you're transported back to the 1930's and 40's.  The lobby of the Burnham is an extension of the Atwood Cafe with that space used as more of a waiting area for the restaurant.  There's a small bar in the corner of the Atwood where you can get your drinks, then retire to the lobby of the hotel to wait for your table.

After Cindy and I checked in to the Hotel Burnham on her birthday weekend, we decided to head just down the street to Daley Plaza and the Christkindlmarket that has become a Chicago holiday tradition.  It was colder than hell out, though and the market was packed - elbows to assholes, as my cousin so colorfully describes large crowds.  We decided to go back to the hotel to warm up and get lunch at the Atwood Cafe.  We got to the lobby and there was still a number of people who waiting to get seats in the restaurant and the restaurant only served lunch up until 2:30 (it was 1:45).  We went up to our rooms to drop off our coats and I called down to the restaurant to see if we could get our names on the waiting list.  The man who answered the phone told me that they weren't taking reservations for lunch any longer, but he said, "Since you're staying in the hotel, we have two seats that just opened up at the bar.  I'll hold them for you if you like."

Cindy has an aversion about eating at bars, especially at fine restaurants, but this time she said, "Yeah, go for it."  Less than two minutes later we were settling in at the bar and looking over the lunch time menu at the Atwood Cafe.  The lunch menu consists of a handful of salads, sandwiches and main entrees with a much smaller and less diverse selection of what the Atwood Cafe has on its dinner menu.  The Atwood Cafe also serves breakfast Monday thru Saturday, and features a popular brunch on Sunday's. 

The first thing that caught my eye on the menu at the Atwood Cafe were the prices.  Sheesh!  It was not cheap!  Pan fried lake trout was $18 bucks, a chicken salad sandwich was $15, and an Ahi Tuna salad in Asian slaw with a soy/wasabi dressing was $18.  Woo!  My wallet was going to get a workout.  

The bartender asked if we wanted a drink.  Cindy got a glass of the house cabernet and I got a bottle of the New Holland Mad Hatter India Pale Ale.  I'd never had it before and it was pretty good.  But it had better be - the Atwood charged me $6.00 a bottle for the beer.  Ouch!  I was beginning to wonder if the food was going to be worth the price.  

With not much on the menu and time running out as to being able to order lunch, we were a little rushed in our decision.  I ended up getting the Wagyu beef patty - a gourmet cheeseburger topped with Big Ed's gouda (Big's Ed's is from a line of gourmet cheeses from the Saxon Homestead Creamery, a small boutique-style dairy operation outside of Milwaukee), pickled onions, a slice of heirloom tomato, a bib of butter lettuce and Russian dressing on a sesame-seed brioche.  It sounded pretty damn good.  And at $17 bucks, it had better be!  

Cindy got the chef's selection of the day - a half-sandwich and a bowl of soup for $15 bucks.  The sandwich was a glorified ham and cheese sandwich and the soup was a homemade cream of asparagus.  All right - that was fine.  We were eating at the Atwood and Cindy was happy.

As we waited for our meal, we were situated right near where the shelves of tea leaves were stored at the cafe.  They must have had seven or eight different types of teas to choose from including black tea, green tea, white tea (I'd never heard of white tea before, but Cindy had) and herbal teas.  Also, the Atwood Cafe is widely known for their extensive "sweets" menu and some of the elaborate desserts were passing by us in a constant stream.  The sweet potato bread pudding looked especially scrumptious.  

 
Our lunch got set down in front of us about 20 minutes after we ordered and I was ready to eat.  I have to tell you, the presentation on the burger was not overly impressive.  But from the first bite, I have to say that it was just wonderful.  Now, I've had gourmet burgers before, but I can easily say that NONE of them were as good as the Wagyu beef burger I had at the Cafe Atwood.  I devoured the burger, not even offering Cindy a bite (much to her dismay).  But the beef was cooked perfectly, the pickled onions were a great taste sensation, the bun was to die for and the Russian dressing was a great complement to the whole burger.  Even the heirloom tomato tasted fresh like it had just been picked out of a garden out back.  It was, by far, the best gourmet burger I've ever had. 

There isn't much to say about Cindy's grilled ham and cheese sandwich other than they used Black Forest ham and a gourmet Swiss cheese on the sandwich.  The soup, according to Cindy, was pretty good.  She wished she would have gotten the burger instead.   

We were tempted by getting some desserts - especially the sweet potato bread pudding - but decided to pass on it for now.  The bill for tip and drinks was hefty - over $50 bucks for lunch.  Not quite your average lunch counter greasy spoon.  But as Cindy said, "Hey!  It was the best gourmet burger you've ever had, so you've got that goin' for you!"

We went back in to the Atwood Cafe for brunch the next day.  Once again, it wasn't anything overly special - I got the homemade corned beef hash with two eggs over easy and toast for $15 bucks.  Whoa!  And the corned beef hash, while good, was not worth the price of the meal.  Cindy got the Eggs Benedict - $14 bucks for that dish.  She did notice that the Wagyu burger was on the brunch menu as were a lot of non-breakfast items.  But she decided to go the breakfast route at 9:15 a.m.  She said the Eggs Benedict were good, but not worth the price.  

All right, so we went to the Atwood Cafe, but Cindy never had tea on either of our visits.  I'm sure she'll want to go back at some point for her tea in the afternoon on a visit to downtown Chicago at some point in the future.  Overall, it was the best gourmet burger I've ever had.  But the value vs. quality of food was not very good.  The best thing was the burger, but the breakfast and Cindy's lunch were vastly overpriced for what it really was.  You're definitely paying for the ambiance and frills at the Atwood Cafe.  But it's still kind of a neat place to go.  That is, if you're prepared to spend some money. 

BLT Burger - Las Vegas

Gourmet burgers are becoming the rage with many upscale restaurants across the nation.  I sort of relate the surge of high-profile chefs coming up with their idea of a top burger as something I learned long ago from some loudspeaker designers - anybody can make a good sounding high-priced speaker, but how speaker designers really get their jollies is to make a good sounding low-priced speaker.  Same thing with top chefs - they can do a great high-priced meal, but they get their kicks out of making something as simple as a burger.  Chef Laurent Tourondel throws his hat into the gourmet burger ring with his BLT Burger restaurant at the Mirage in Las Vegas.

Tourondel is the head chef and partner in the BLT (Bistro Laurent Tourondel) brand of restaurants including the BLT Steak House in New York City and 10 other locations across North America, Hong Kong and Puerto Rico; along with BLT Prime, BLT Market, BLT Fish and The Fish Shack in Manhattan.  In addition to Las Vegas, Tourondel has BLT Burger restaurants in New York City and in Hong Kong.   Tourondel is French-raised and trained in the art of cooking.  He was once  the personal chef of the head of the French army in addition to working in a number of three-star restaurants before coming to the United States. 

I was able to sneak away from our suites at the Mirage one afternoon during the recent Consumer Electronics Show to have a burger and a beer at BLT Burger.  The restaurant opened last summer in the spot where the viewing area of the Mirage's white tigers would frolic in a pool habitat.  Actually, I was looking for the white tigers a couple days prior and found BLT Burger instead.  I sat at the bar and got a menu from the bartender and ordered up a Bud Light.  A couple guys seated next to me were drinking a Schlitz out of the can and one of them said, "Hey, you ought to get one of these." 

We struck up a conversation about the new Schlitz formula that had come back.  They didn't know this was the "new" Schlitz.  "My dad used to drink this stuff when I was growing up," the other guy said.  "I saw this on their beer menu and thought it would be fun to try."  After I told them the story of the fall and subsequent recent rise from the ashes of Schlitz, along with information about Old Style beer, and the popularity of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the Northwest, the first guy said, "I'm very impressed of your knowledge of shitty beers." 

BLT Burger uses Certified Angus Beef for their burgers.  Each patty is a hand-formed 7 oz. patty.  They have a handful of specialty burgers, or you can order their "Classic" burger and add your choice of cheese for a buck and toppings such as a grilled red pepper, a fried egg or barbecued onions for $1.50 each.  

Some of their other specialty burgers include a lamb burger, a turkey burger, and something called "Banh Mi" which is a burger consisting of ground pork and shrimp together.  That just didn't sound too appealing to me.

I ended up ordering the "BLT" - a 7 oz. burger with smoked bacon, lettuce and tomato and something called "BLT Burger Sauce".  The bartender tried to talk me into getting a combo with fries, but I figured that would be enough for me.  They serve their french fries in a metal cup with a paper wrap around them.  One of the guys next to me had the fries and they looked good.  The other guy had the onion rings and they looked a little overdone for my taste.  No, I'll just go with the burger.

 

 

The decor in BLT Burger could be categorized as a somewhat modern/industrial theme.  They featured a number of wood-trimmed booths and formica-topped tables with wooden chairs.   The railings around the elevated bar area are metal and wire.  The prep and cooking area of BLT Burger is sort of out in the open.  There is a kitchen area in the back where they do the french fries and onion rings while all of the burger cooking is directly behind the bar area.  It was a beehive of activity with cooks, wait staff and bartenders trying to keep out of each others way.

I waited about 12 to 15 minutes for my burger to show up.  The bartender brought it to me on a plate along with a half kosher pickle spear.  It was piled high with the lettuce, tomato and bacon along with red onion and pickle slices.  My "medium" burger was a little more medium-well and sort of charred.  The sesame-seed bun was a little stiff and didn't add much to the taste of the burger.  The toppings were fresh and the bacon wasn't overpowering, as bacon can sometime be on a burger.  Overall, it was an average burger, at best.  For $13 bucks, it was an overpriced average burger.

My final assessment of BLT Burger is that Laurent Tourondel should stick to what he does best - French food.  I could have easily gotten in the SUV and driven over to In 'N' Out Burger and gotten a much better burger, quicker and better tasting.  And much cheaper.  I was not impressed with BLT Burger. 

 

Jack Fry's (Revisited) - Louisville

I promised that I'd give my nieces, Amy and Sara Geiger, a shout out at some point in Road Tips.  And since Jack Fry's in Louisville is one their favorite all-time restaurants when they go back home to visit their parents, this is as good a time as any.

I first wrote about Jack Fry's here when I went out to eat there with my sister, Nan, when I was in Louisville last year.  She told me that Jack Fry's is somewhat famous around Louisville for having a great gourmet hamburger.  I made a note on that and promised myself that I'd give it a shot at some point.

After having dinner with my sister and brother-in-law, Vic, at their house the night before, I decided to give Jack Fry's burger a try before I left to head down to Bowling Green.  The Highlands area on Bardstown Road where Jack Fry's is located (see map) is always hustling and bustling.  Finding a parking spot in the small lot on the side of the restaurant is usually done by pure luck.  It just so happened that as soon as I was pulling into the lot to see if anything was available, a car was pulling out of a space. 

I walked in the side door and was greeted by a hostess.  I asked if I could sit at the bar for lunch and she gave me sort of a surprised look.  "Why, of course," she semi-exclaimed.  She took me to the bar and handed me the lunch menu as I sat down on a stool.

Actually, Jack Fry's is almost too nice of a place to have a bar.  But the place was established back in the 1930's just after the repealing of Prohibition.  Jack Fry was a reputed bootlegger and bookie who ran the place as a beer and shot kind of place.  In the 1970's, and under new management, Jack Fry's went through a metamorphosis into an upscale dining establishment.  It has been hailed as one of the finest places to eat in Louisville for a number of years.

The lunch menu isn't too deep in choices.  And quite honestly, I really thought about getting the pork tenderloin sandwich, roasted in spices and topped with a red peppers, onions and Havarti cheese on a toasted roll.  But I came for the burger and that's what I got.  I got it topped with swiss cheese and caramelized onions.  A side of hand cut fries came with the burger.  

As more people filtered through the restaurant during the lunch hour, I patiently waited for my burger.  I kind of got the notion from the bartenders that sitting at the bar was sort of gauche. The two guys behind the bar were efficient, but not very friendly.  When I was served my burger and fries, it was given to me with not much of a word from the server.

Getting over the rather chilly service, the Jack Fry's burger was everything my sister told me it would be.  The meat was fresh, moist and flavorful.  The bun - what I think makes a good burger - was light, flaky and wasn't chewy.  It was very, very good. 

But it should have been good given the level of cuisine served at Jack Fry's.  I probably would have given it five stars had I eaten it in a greasy burger joint with the smell of stale beer in the air.  But Jack Fry's food is top notch and no matter what you get on the menu it's going to be very, very good.  I don't know if I'll go back to Jack Fry's specifically for a burger, but any meal at Jack Fry's is a big treat. 

The 16 Dollar Burger - Burger Bar - St. Louis

Hubert Keller is a French born and educated chef whose claim to fame in the culinary world is the renown Fleur de Lys restaurants in San Francisco and Las Vegas.  However, Keller is also somewhat of an innovative man who jumped into the world of casual dining with the Burger Bar which opened in Las Vegas in 2004.  I'd heard about the Burger Bar in Las Vegas and had wanted to try it, but either never had the chance or the time to do so.

Luckily, for me, Keller's second Burger Bar opened late last year at the Lumiere Place casino and hotel along the riverfront in St. Louis (see map).  The St. Louis Burger Bar is a mix of casual and class with dark wood paneling, a nice bar area and cozy booths throughout in a mid-20th century motif.  I met a friend of mine for lunch at Burger Bar at Lumiere for a good burger one Friday earlier this summer. 

The Burger Bar at the casino is in the far southeastern corner of the place.  There is an entrance near the restaurant, but it's a long way from the parking lot.  If you go through the main doors of the casino, you have to walk all the way around the perimeter of the casino floor to get to the Burger Bar.  And when you do walk that way, you'll pass Keller's other restaurant on the property, the upscale SLeeK steak house.   

The overall concept of Burger Bar is not all that unique, but the meat, buns and toppings are somewhat unique.  You choose from various kinds of beef, turkey, lamb or veggie burgers.  They have five different types of buns and a dozen different varieties of cheese to choose from.  And they have interesting toppings from black truffles, to beet root pickles, to grilled lobster meat.  You can also get pan-seared foie gras, if you like.  One of the interesting beef burgers they have to offer is American-raised Kobe beef.  It is the best of the three beef offerings Burger Bar has on their burger menu. 

The only problem is that a Kobe beef burger at Burger Bar runs $16.00 without the toppings.  But as my guest said, "C'mon!  At least it's not the Rossini!"  He did have a point.  The Rossini is a Kobe beef burger with foie gras, truffles, a Madiera sauce.  It was *only* $60 dollars.   Quite honestly, I thought a basic Kobe beef burger would have been much more expensive.   

I ordered up a Kobe beef burger, medium, on an onion bun, topped with pepperjack cheese and jalapenos.  My guest got the Kobe beef burger on ciabatta bread, topped with Swiss cheese and chopped oyster mushrooms.  We both got fries - I got the skinny fries and my guest got the fat fries, basically Burger Bar's idea of steak fries.  And we both got a bottle of Budweiser to wash it all back. 

The waitresses were all young, good looking and hip.  It wasn't all that busy so the waitress we had was pretty attentive.  And it wasn't long before another waitress brought out our burgers and fries. 

My Kobe beef pepperjack cheeseburger was cooked a perfect medium.  And the burger had a good moist texture to it, as well.  The jalapenos weren't all that hot, but made for a nice little kick to the taste of the burger.  The fries - I should have gotten the fat fries.  The skinny fries were lifeless and not all that tasty.  But the burger more than made up for it.  Onions, a tomato slice and lettuce accompanied the burger on the side. 

My friend's Kobe Swiss cheese burger topped with the grilled mushrooms was reported to be also excellent in taste and quality.   I thought the ciabatta bread was a unique twist to the burger.  He told me it was fresh and chewy.  As much as I liked the in-house-made onion bun, the ciabatta bread on his burger did look good. 

With the pepperjack cheese and jalapenos, my Kobe beef burger ended up to be $17.45 before tax.   Now, you can get just a regular burger that sells for $8.00, or they have specially raised Black Angus beef burgers that start at $9.00.  But I'm glad I gave the Kobe beef burger a try.  I don't know if I'll have another one when I go back to Burger Bar, but it will certainly be tempting.  Hey, you gotta try it at least once.