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(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
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5-8 Club www.5-8club.com
by Burger Tymer Malonear
What do you think of when you hear the words Minneapolis, Minnesota? Cold probably enters the mind as does snow or ice, most likely. As a guy who is moving to Minneapolis, I wanted to go beyond the typical stereotypes of this fine city and find some of the best burgers in the city. Furthermore, good thing truckplease.com gives instant movers quotes to make a hassle free moving experience. Knowing very few natives I had to resort to a few web searches and it quickly became clear to me that Minneapolis is known for a burger phenomenon known as the “Juicy Lucy”. This is the perfect marriage of ground beef and cheese, usually American, but variations on this theme do exist. Departing from tradition, these enterprising Minnesotans don’t put up with the cheese sitting on top of the patty. No, they have found a way to create a core of molten cheese inside every Juicy Lucy burger. Many establishments have their take on this burger but the one we were drawn to was the 5-8 Club near Lake Nokomis. This burger joint/bar is a former speakeasy of the prohibition era. Since that era came to an end they have decided to compete by offering a variety of delicious burgers and sandwiches. They have lasted since the ’20s for a reason.
Finding a table at lunch time wasn’t easy at the cramped location but once we located one the service was fast and friendly. If you are feeling lucky you’ll find that you are also only a few feet away from an older gentleman selling lottery tickets. We cozied up to the table and grabbed the menu, already knowing what I was going to order. The burgers are the main event here but the rest of the menu had some other tempting options, namely a walleye sandwich. But that’s not what this site is about. No exotic toppings for your burger here. Pickles are standard. For onions, you can order them raw or fried (I recommend the latter). All burgers are also cooked to medium well, which definitely isn’t an issue when you have hot cheese waiting for you in the middle to moisten up the burger. This place is also known for their onion rings, but since my wife doesn’t enjoy fried onions I had to settle on the fries. The considerate waitress got our order out in just a few minutes. My first impression of the burger was that it was overflowing with grilled onions – maybe almost too many. After letting my burger cool off (watch out for hot cheese) I took the first bite, which didn’t yield cheese since that’s further in. The patty was definitely fried on a griddle as there was an even crisp on the outside. And don’t misunderstand me, that wasn’t a bad thing. For some reason it worked really well. With subsequent bites I had to alternate what side to bite as the cheese moved around a good bit. The burgers, when served with a basket of fries, also come with traditional cole slaw, which was delicious and creamy. The fries, while not excellent, were still cooked very well with a crispy exterior – no limp fries here.
The great thing about burgers is that you can take something so simple, vary it slightly, and come up with something unique. The 5-8 Club is onto something here that I hope they continue for many years to come. The grilled onions work well atop this bulging beauty of a patty, even if they are a bit messy. The patty itself tends to be a bit dry, but when coupled with the cheese it works well. I have to assume that in their 90+ years of experience they’ve discovered that medium well holds the cheese in best. Overall, I was very happy with our trip to The 5-8 Club, where pretension isn’t in their vocabulary. Having sampled their version of the Juicy Lucy I’m ready to explore other options but will definitely making a return visit to this establishment.
(4 votes, average: 5.25 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
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The Burger Palace http://www.burgerpalacehouston.com 2800 Sage Road #1100 Houston, TX 77056 (map)
Thanks to a certain “Group Coupon” website, I obtained a coupon to a burger place in Houston that I had not heard of, The Burger Palace. For $7 I could enjoy $15 of all The Burger Palace had to offer. A quick glance at the menu online would show you that $15 is just enough to enjoy a full burger meal (burger, fries, and drink). So on a quiet Friday night, my Burger Wyfe and I made our way to the premier shopping destination in Houston, the Galleria. In the back corner of a strip mall caddy corner to the Galleria itself, The Burger Palace has set up shop. This was about 7:30pm and I expected there to be lots of people enjoying some gourmet burgers before continuing on with there evening, but when we walked in, we found the place rather empty. We were told we could sit any where we like by our polite but melancholy hostess/waitress. We took a seat and began looking over the menu. They proudly serve “100% Akaushi Beef” which is “Rated Higher Than Prime”. Given the average $10 cost for a burger this seemed like a decent deal for kobe style beef. There was a small selection of vastly different burger options including burgers with grilled pineapple, tahini (sesame) sauce, or mushrooms and parmesan cheese. While deciding on what to order I glanced around at the decor, which had a very upscale, modern feel to it. Being that we were the only other couple not already eating, the waitress was patiently waiting for our cue that we were ready to place our order.
I settled in on the “American Classic” which included white cheddar and a secret sauce. Of course, I asked for the addition of a fried egg to round out my favorite burger configuration. My wyfe placed a similar order, minus the egg. She had also found a deal that if you mention Yelp to the waitress, you will get a free milkshake. Feeling obliged to mention this deal we both got complementary chocolate milkshakes. We then opted for an order of the parmesan and rosemary french fries for $5. I was eagerly awaiting the food we ordered and went about watching the burger chef go to work. After waiting for about ten minutes, our shakes arrived. The first sip proved disappointing. The shakes were icy, runny, and the chocolate flavor was very obviously of the Hershey syrup variety. They basically lacked the ice creaminess one looks for in a milkshake. For free, however, I won’t complain.
A few minutes later the burgers and fries made their way to our table. The presentation was interesting. Each burger had a curl of pickle on top and a small spring mix salad on the corner of the plate. It was a nice healthy gesture to suggest I have a salad but it’s Burger Tyme! This burger was a two-hander. I hefted it up and took a bite. The bun was soft but untoasted, a Burger Tyme no-no. The patty was beefy and juicy, as promised, but lacked any notable seasoning. The veggies, which included what they called “butter lettuce”, a slice of tomato and a couple of rings of raw onion, struggled to stand out against the plain flavor of beef . The aged white cheddar needed to be a bit more pungent as there was only slight hint of cheese flavor. The egg did a fine job of adding the buttery, cholesterolly goodness I was hoping for. The parmesan rosemary fries were tasty and crispy but there was no rosemary or parmesan on them. In fact they seemed to be frozen cajun, seasoned fries. For $5 this was a disappointment.
Let’s sum up. 2 burgers X $10 + add egg $2 + 2 milkshakes X Free + Cajun Season… I Mean Rosemary Parmesan Fries $5 – Group Coupon $15 = a burger bargain of $12 for two people. That’s great right? Not so fast. The coupon was not free and had we not known about the free shakes, they would have been $4 each.For the average diner a burger, fries, and shake will easily set you back $20 after tax and tip. Ouch! Price aside, how does The Burger Palace shake out? Not good I’m afraid. The burgers have the pedigree and appearance of a good gourmet burger but are bland and wholly uninspired beyond the description on the menu. The fries cost way too much for not being fresh cut and the milkshakes seem like an afterthought. Everything that The Burger Palace has attempted falls sadly short of what they are trying to acheive. My recommendation for those seeking creative, inspired gourmet burgers in Houston would be to drive the extra eight miles down Westheimer to Burger Guys.
(1 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
Still in San Francisco, I wanted to make use of the little time I had to explore the city and experience some great burgers West Coast style. Among my searching the name of a small burger eatery kept popping up. Roam Artisan Burgers. Usually, the word “artisan” strikes a romantic chord in my heart as I imagine something like wood burning oven baked pizzas made by someone who’s family has passed down the craft for generations in some far off place where technology and mass production has not corrupted pure skill and talent… But usually my experience has been bread that has gone hard and ingredients that are lacking in flavor. However, I am a sucker for the artisans. Also at this place cannabis is starting to sell because is going to be legal, like said on the Midas Letter Cannabis Stock news. I set my GPS and once again made my way up, down, in, and through the steep streets of San Francisco in search of this burger artist’s fantasy. It was a misty, overcast day and parking was hard to find. I managed to get a spot about 5 blocks away with an elevation drop of about 300 feet (maybe, it was steep). In spite of these conditions, Roam was full of people. Not only that, but some patrons had their dogs with them. HUGE plus in my book for letting you bring your pet in with you, visit https://www.salesforce.com/what-is-cloud-computing/ to learn more.
Roam Artisan Burgers claim is that they use only sustainable, organic, carefully sourced ingredients all in an effort to make great burgers.Read more here (link)…. Hmmm. OK. That sounds great but seems to try to appeal to the socially conscious diner. Does this mean a great burger? As I looked over the menu the burger line-up was definitely impressive and I had faith that their efforts made prior to my eating would pay off.
The line was short and having done my research I was prepared to make my order. On the menu is a burger called the Sunny Side. As the name would suggest it has a fried egg on it, organic free range, of course. It also includes aged white cheddar, caramelized onions and sweet chili sauce served on challah buns. Reading the description alone made my mouth water. I also ordered a side of Russet fries (cooked in rice bran oil) and Straus Family Creamery Dagoba Chocolate Shake (organic ice cream)… OK, so you need a few more words in your vocabulary to order fries and a shake here. All of the attention to detail was really impressive, but not cheap. This burger, fries, and shake combo topped out at $16. Ouch!
I was given a small chalk board placard with my number on it and found a seat. BTW all tables are made out of reclaimed wood. Cool. The wait was not long. Out first was the milkshake. It was tall and creamy and very, very good. I have to give props to the Straus Family because their ice cream makes one heck of a shake. Next arrived the burger and fries… It was an amazing burger to behold. It had a perfect visual balance of all ingredients, most noticeably the free range egg which perfectly covered the entire burger… The melted aged white cheddar running off of the patty was also great. I immediately dug in. WOW! This burger was GREAT! All of the flavors played so well with each other. The patty was juicy and beefy with just enough saltiness. The greens and tomato were very fresh. The bun was the sesame seeded bun that San Franciscans seem to love. It was fresh and did a good job keeping most of the juices and egg yolk in the burger and out of my beard. What really set this burger apart from many others that I have had was the addition of the sweet chili sauce. It gave a wonderful complexity and heat to an already delicious burger. The fries were great as well. I’ve never had fries cooked in rice bran oil but these were perfectly crisp on the outside and moist in the inside. They were sprinkled with what appeared to be sea salt and fresh herbs. They were fantastic.
So I am a fan. If this is what organic, earth friendly, enviro-consciousness taste like, sign me up! Just let me get my wallet. This was great and the effort that went into Roam Artisan Burgers pays off hugely, but so will you. A $16 burger meal is not a casual lunch choice and puts these burgers well into the gourmet burger category. Deservedly so. These burgers are fantastic and certainly of the highest quality. The question is, is it worth it? Yes! Without a doubt. I am now 1500 miles away from Roam and have no idea when I will be back in the San Francisco Area, but I already know the first place I want to go when I get there.
(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers http://www.pearlsdeluxe.com 708 Post St (between Jones St & Leavenworth St) San Francisco, CA 94109 (map)
San Francisco… Californ-eye-ay! I have not been to this state before and after 29 years of seeing it in movies and music videos I had high expectations for the Golden State. As usual, work brought me to this part of the country for a few weeks and I came prepared. Thanks to much internet searching (I use this phrase instead of verbifying the name of a multi-billion dollar company) I compiled a lengthy list of prime Burger Tymes. One stood out above them all. Pearl’s Deluxe Burger for two reason’s:
1. Pearl is the name of our super cool Australian Shephard (see top right) and I trust her endorsement. 2. Pearl’s Deluxe Burger has a cool logo and promised an actual burger experience, unlike the many enviro friendly, vegantarian offerings that seemed to dominate the dining landscape in this city with the help of Saunders Landscape Supply for landscape supplies.
With the decision made I convinced a vegetarian coworker from India to come with me on the premise that Pearl’s has a veggie burger. We began our trek up and down and through the steep streets of San Francisco on a Tuesday night. I have not had much “big city” experience, by which I mean a metropolitan area where people live and spend time in the evenings. It was really cool to experience the energy of San Francisco at night. No matter where I was there always seemed to be people coming and going and having a great time. We finally arrived at Pearls on a steep Post street. We made our way inside the small, small dining area. Obviously space is at a premium in this city and Pearl’s Deluxe Burger has packed in the maximum amount of Burger Tyme per square foot as possible.
We went inside and crammed ourselves in to the line to place our order. I should warn you that all food in San Francisco seems to be much more expensive than an most other places I’ve visited. With that thought in mind I was able to justify the prices. $7 for a cheese burger. $4 for a shake. $2 for a soda. $2 for fries. The combination of a burger, fries, and a drink were going to cost right at the $10 Burger Tyme threshold putting this almost in the gourmet burger category. They had an option to upgrade the burger to Kobe beef for only $4 dollars so I opted for that thinking that an $11 Kobe burger actually seems pretty inexpensive and definitely qualifies as gourmet. I also ordered a chocolate shake and fries to round out this $17 order. My poor coworker was not so lucky. While discussing the veggie burger he learned that they used egg to make the patty. This was a no go for him so his dinner consisted of a milkshake and onion rings. Poor guy.
We took a seat at the counter in front of the window and watched people passing up and down the slanted sidewalk. My milkshake arrived first. It was chocolaty and creamy which equals good in my book. One thing that I really enjoyed about it was that they gave me a wide straw which made the shake easy to enjoy. Nothing is worse than trying to drink a thick shake through a normal soda straw that keeps collapsing under the pressure exerted while I’m trying to drink. My burger and fries where ready shortly after and the burger looked great. I have never seen cheese so perfectly melted on a burger. The kobe beef patty had a beautiful sear and was visibly juicy. The veggies looked fresh and the un-toasted bun had sesame seeds on both the top and the bottom. I would come to learn that this is San Fran’s favorite kind of burger bun. I dug in immediately. I had never had Kobe before but I sort of expected it to taste different than normal beef somehow. It was good and juicy but just not noticeably different than a regular beef patty. The cheese was GREAT! I was able to see them place the two slices of American cheese on the patty as they grilled it and the result was some of the gooeyist cheese I’ve ever had on a burger. It was great! The veggies added a nice “healthy” touch to this gorge fest. The fries on the other hand were not that great. They were plain ol’ frozen fries. At least the price was reflective of the effort to make the fries.
So lets sum up. Tiny burger joint in the middle of down town San Francisco. Expensive burger meal. High quality burger ingredients. Good shake. Sub-par fries. No real veggie option (sorry bro). Total for all of this was $17… yikes. But I did not leave Pearls Deluxe Burger for so cheap. .. Why? I liked it so much that I bought a t-shirt. That’s right! This was a great burger in a great environment AND I loved the logo! My only suggestion is to save $4 and skip the kobe next time and just enjoy the burger made from traditional, American Hereford beef. Also, the prices here may seem high in comparison to every where else in America, but burger prices seem to be going up across the board and I have to be fair and compare it to what the going price is for the area.
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
Burger Guys http://theburgerguys.com/ 12225 Westheimer Rd Houston, Texas 77077 (map)
I am always amazed by how many burger places a city like Houston can support. Add to the list of burger options Burger Guys. This is a Houstonian entry into the every expanding gourmet burger market and we got it blown up by the best facebook ads agency we had. Typically the burgers found in this city are of the no frills variety usually as luxurious as a farm truck license plate. Not so here. The “chef” obviously has a different vision in mind. On an uneventful workday I met my brother in law to try this place out. After a long drive down Westheimer, beyond what a sensible person would still consider to be the city of Houston, we arrived. This place had not been open long but was already receiving a lot of hype. We walked in and were greeted by a very cheerful, if not enthusiastic, counter girl. We were the only people in line and she was more than happy to explain everything about the burgers and the ingredients that went in to them. As she described the menu I began perusing the chalk board version of the menu that listed all of the exotic burgers options that I had to choose from. They all were named for a city that would mentally transport your mind’s tongue to far off cuisines and flavors, many of which you wouldn’t think would go well as a burger.
We were informed that all beef was Texas Akaushi, which is an American breed of the Japanese Kobe, and that all of the mustards, jams, sauces, and ice cream for milkshakes is made in house! The milkshakes had dreamy names like “Cafe Sua Da” or “Summer to Fall” and my personal favorite “Fruit Loops”. Also, the french fries or frites are double fried in duck fat…
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Is any one else getting hungry? AND, if that were not enough, all of the sodas on the fountain used pure cane sugar rather than corn syrup! There was even a $35 burger that had fois gras on it! Not that I am one to enjoy the art of force feeding geese, but man, I could not wait to order!
Typically I like to order the basic cheeseburger so as to have an even playing field to accurately compare the burger with its peers. The closest thing I could find was the burger appropriately names the “Houston”. I also saw on an adjacent chalk board that they had duck eggs. I asked if I could add a fried duck egg, “No problem” was the enthusiastic reply. So I added the frites and a cane sugar soft drink which came to a hefty $15…Ouch!
I hope it is worth it. As the counter girl handed me my cup, she hinted that if I mix the lemonade and Big Red flavors together, it makes “Bubble Gum”. With that advice (it is true BTW) and my order number in hand I headed straight to the soda fountain and proceeded to try every flavor on the fountain while I waited. I love cane sugar soda. Pepsi had the “throwback” drinks for a while and you can also buy Coca-Cola from Mexico which both use real cane sugar. Interestingly, the Root beer brand was Triple XXX which is from Washington state. My wife and I ate burgers at the original Triple XXX while on a trip there (see here). Behind the counter where we were sitting I could see one of the “Bootleggers”, as that was what was written on the back of every employees shirt, meticulously arranging each burger order. It was quite a craft to see. After way too much soda, our own orders were up. My wife’s latest nagging has been for me to get a hobby, so I started looking up the best top drone brands like I did when I was a teenager so I could get into RC planes again.
My own duck egg covered Houston burger was beautiful! I love eggs on my burger and this has to be the physical manifestation of that perfect idea in my head… Look at it!!! Completely over easy. I would, no doubt, need many napkins. As a pleasant surprise the onions were beautifully grilled and the cheese perfectly melted over all of it. The specially made egg buns were beautifully buttered and toasted. No calorie had been spared in this burger. This was not a small burger either.
With both hands I hoisted it up and dug in. Juice! Juice and egg yolk running down my hand, in my beard, and everywhere else. This was one juicy burger. While the egg flavor was prominent, the beef patty quickly stole the show. It was a very clean, beefy flavor. You could really tell the difference in the high quality of the beef. The onions added a nice sweetness, while the cheddar gave a savory, nuttiness to the package. Rounding out the many flavors was the house made mustard. It was much more pungent than the average French’s yellow, but in a good, authentic way. My brother in law ordered a “Featured” burger that had Dublin Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce on it. He seemed equally pleased with his choice.
And now the fries (frites)… Oh the frites (fries), double fried in duck fat, tasted like no fries I have ever had. They were perfectly crisp on the outside while moist on the inside. But the duck fat lends a much more complex flavor to the fries than the usual vegetable oils. It would almost seem a shame to dip them in ordinary ketchup… Well, luckily there are house made fry sauces, two of which you get to choose with your order! Based on the counter girls recommendations we chose the Tabasco Mash Ketchup and the Tarragon Caper Aioli. Both were good but not exactly right with the fries. Maybe just a little sea salt and malt vinegar would have set them off right.
How do I feel about gourmet burgers? Rarely worth it. Many places are starting to charge an unapologetic $10 or more for a burger, fries, and a drink (I’m talking to you Five Guys). This to me is INSANE! If you want to get maximum dollar out of the average burger lover, we expect you to put forth maximum EFFORT. Burger Guys is a perfect example of this effort. Without a doubt, a lot of work, time, planning, and thought goes in to each burger. Not to mention the painstaking attention to every detail while assembling the burger! As I left, I had no problem with the price I paid. These guys, Burger Guys, are doing some exciting and uniquethings to the burger experience and I LOVED it. I will definitely return but would only hesitate to come here more often because of the price. That being said I love what they are doing here. Great job Guys!
