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Chicken Charlies http://www.chickencharlies.com
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a big deal around here. Being from Louisiana my experience with rodeos was somewhat limited to small 4h type events. For the HLSR the entire Reliant Center is used for three weeks to host a BBQ competition, a carnival, livestock auctions, championship rodeo events, and every night there is a concert with some pretty big names in country and pop music. To kick off the rodeo a parade of cowboys and covered wagons rides from downtown all the way to Reliant Center. I’ve lived in Houston for four years and had not had the chance to go to this gigantic ode to all things Texan until last week. A friend of mine at work had some extra tickets that he wasn’t going to be using and gave them to me. Excited for the chance to finally see what all the fuss is about, I rounded up my wife and my parents who were in town visiting. We got to ride Houston’s light rail (which for 49 weeks out of the year is almost completely pointless) which drops you off right at the front gates of the rodeo.
Immediately we were met with a barrage of food, cowboy hats, boots, and animals! The rodeo is known for its wide array of deep fried novelties. From deep fried Oreos to chicken fried bacon to funnel cakes to fried Coca Cola (it’s true), you can get almost any artery clogging fix you can imagine. I had heard from a friend that there was a place that was offering a deep fried cheeseburger. That’s right, an entire cheeseburger that is battered and fried in grease. Sound delicious? Not really. Did I want to try it? Absolutely! We walked around for about an hour in search of this deep fried white whale only to find deep fried everything else but the burger. Finally I asked someone at the info station if he could tell me where I could find it. He didn’t know so he called it in over their radio. After some staticky chatter the name “Chicken Charlie’s” came through. So off we went. When we rounded the corner, leaving the main thoroughfare of food establishments, we entered a realm of carnival stands. These are basically dolled up trailers that sell food. After an hour of searching for the deep fried cheeseburger we finally found Chicken Charlie’s. I had to admit, I was getting nervous.
There in the window, among images of deep fried avocados and corn dogs was the sign “Totally Fried White Castle” – $4.95. This is it. Apparently they are using the frozen White Castle burgers you can buy at the grocery store. No matter. After all of this anticipation I still wanted to try it. I waited in line and much to the chagrin of my wife, was finally able to place my order, “One deep fried cheeseburger, please”. The girl asked if I wanted anything to drink. “I better get a bottled water”, I responded. The wait was like watching a parade of fried foods. Plate after plate of deep fried everything was being passed through the window to rodeo goers. Finally, my plate came through. What I saw resembled a biscuit covered in fried chicken breading sitting on top of some rather weak looking fries. Loaded with a few small cups of ketchup, I found a spot to sit and dove in.
Upon my first bite I realized why no one else is selling deep fried burger… The bun retained an amazing amount of the grease. This was by far one of the worst things I’ve ever tried to eat. I quickly gulped down half of my water. The only way to get the greasy taste out of my mouth was to eat as much ketchup and fries as possible. My wife just shook her head not needing to say “I told you so”. In spite of my initial horror with this abomination… I tried another bite. Again, terrible. So only two bites in, I gave up. This was such a fantastically terrible burger experience that I had to document it.
Folks, the rodeo was a lot of fun. This burger, although disgusting, was a fun quest. After the absolute failure of filling up on deep fried Burger Tyme, we headed back into the main area and had some good barbecue, fresh potato chips, and funnel cake. I also picked up a huge bag of my personal favorite, Fresh Popped Kettle Corn! This was a great experience that I was glad to be able to bring my family to and I would not hesitate to go back to again.
(2 votes, average: 5.50 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
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Port of Call http://portofcallnola.com 838 Esplanade Avenue New Orleans, LA 70116
The Christmas holidays are a wonderful time. It’s a time for both my wife and I to head back to Baton Rouge, LA and spend time with family and friends. Being that this was also the first Burger Tyme Christmas holiday I thought it to be extremely appropriate to add yet another Louisiana burger joint to the list. For years I’ve had friends tell me how great Port of Call in New Orleans is. This was also confirmed by being the only burger joint in Louisiana to make the book Hamburger America. It was also voted Gambit Weekly Best Burger in 2008 by local New Orleaneans. So with much free time and a few willing burger tymers, we made our way down to New Orleans on probably one of the coldest days in South Louisiana history. It was about 30F which is about as cold as it gets. When we arrived in the French Quarter we parked by beautiful Jackson Square and the St Louis Cathedral. The cold weather actually made it quite pleasant as usually bad smells in the French Quarter are usually compounded by the heat and humidity. We made our way past many world renowned restaurants, past art shops, and past a few other unknown burger places, to Dauphine and Esplanade, about half a block just North of Bourbon St to Port of Call. Like many other shops and restaurants in this eclectic and misunderstood part of New Orleans, Port of Call is inconspicuously situated in an old house with a sign hanging out front. I had heard tale that this place was kind of a dive but it was actually nicer than I expected. Something that surprised my was how every table was full inside even though they did not even look open from the outside. We made our way in and it was very dark inside at 1pm. After our eyes adjusted we were directed to take a seat. As we sat I looked around at what everyone else was having. Other than the many fruity drinks they offer, everyone was having the burger. That’s why we were here too.
The menu states :
“All our burgers are half pound ground fresh daily, and come with baked potato with butter.”
This seemed like a very promising start. Fresh beef, a baked potato instead of fries, a soft drink cup that I get to take home!!! I went ahead and placed my order for the cheeseburger which comes in at a hard to swallow $10.75 soft drink not included. But I’m willing to pay extra for burger perfection. The wait was not too long and we were able to fill our time listening to the bartender (who coincidentally spoke like a pirate, although I don’t think it was intentional) give parenting tips to his coworkers. When our burgers arrived there were mixed emotions running through my mind. The first thing I noticed was the cheese. The unmelted, shredded cheddar cheese on top of the patty. My eye was then drawn to the very uninspiring bun. It was at best a regular seeded bun from the grocery store with little if any toasting. This is OK at this point. The veggies served on the side were very plain. A whole slice of an onion, a leaf of iceberg lettuce, and a slice of tomato. The condiments were on the table for your use including mayonnaise (doesn’t this need to be refrigerated?). I assembled my burger and took a bite. It was juicy. The meat tasted fresh and of good quality but that is about all I can say good about it. The meat lacked almost any kind of seasoning. Almost everything about this burger was pretty unimpressive… Well, except for the baked potato. I actually really liked it in place of french fries. But even it was just basic butter, bacon bits, sour cream, and chives.
In spite of all of these objections running through my mind I ate the burger rather quickly. I have to give credit to the fresh and high quality of the meat used. The other ingredients, however, could definitely stand to step up their game. As I was talking to a friend in Baton Rouge about this burger his comment was that I was the first person he had heard say bad things about this burger. No doubt, Port of Call has it’s fans. They have been making the same burger there for almost 50 years. That being said (and it pains me to say this about a Louisiana Burger), I think there are better burger out there in the world and possibly New Orleans has a better one to offer. For a total of about $15 I would recommend trying some of the other excellent cuisine the French Quarter and getting some beignets and hot chocolate at Cafe du Monde while the weather is still cold.
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
Rouge http://www.rouge98.com 205 South 18th Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 (map)–
GQ does it again. While in Philadelphia I was continuing the search for the best burger in the WORLD and came across Rouge. It was highly touted by many online reviews but the one that made up my mind for me was GQ’s “20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die” in which Rouge was ranked 4th…. 4th! It must be amazing then, right? If you recall, I followed this list’s suggestions when in Seattle, WA and ate at Red Mill Burgers. It was good but only ranked 17th. So, with the recommendations from other burger reviewers and GQ telling me that it was essentially a “life experience” burger I decided that Rouge would be my next Philly Burger Tyme! Fortunately for my wife and I we have some friends that live in Philadelphia who were kind enough to let us stay with them. So as a vote of thanks we treated them to this “one of a kind”, “inspirational” burger experience. On a cool Saturday morning before our adventure to Valley Forge, we made our way to downtown Philly, to enjoy a nice lunch. Philly is a cool city with a lot of really impressive old architecture and deep history. Rouge sits across the street from a nice inner city park and across from that a centuries old cathedral. With this view in site its no wonder that the outside is prime seating at Rouge. Fortunately for us the weather was pretty chilly so there was plenty of outside seating. We took our seats and thus began the fanciest burger experience of Burger Tyme history.
The Rouge Burger. $16. Reading the menu, the Rouge Burger seems like a culinary masterpiece. “Challah Roll, Caramelized Onions, Gruyere Cheese & Pommes Frites”. How could one resist such fine ingredients. While I was not sure what a Challah roll was, we placed our order for four Rouge burgers. While we waited we were treated with a warm roll and salted butter. I’m sure this was traditional for all of the entrees that Rouge serves, but it was a little odd to start off a burger with more bread. In fairness the roll was very good. Rouge was pretty busy at the time we were there which might explain the long-ish wait. After about 20 minutes we were brought our burgers. The first impression based upon how the burger looked was “Wow”. I could hardly wait to try it. It was served open face with the veggies on the side. So after a little assembly I was finally able to dig in. The patty was huge. It had to be 3/4 of a pound of beef and 3 inches thick. It completely overpowered the rest of the burger. Every bite all I could taste was beef. Some liked this as it was high quality beef. I however was looking forward to the mingling of the other flavors such as the caramelized onions and the gruyere cheese. This was not a very well balanced burger. The veggies were also of high quality and the pomme frites, or in English, french fries, were very good as well.
The Rouge Burger. $16. This was the most expensive burger in Burger Tyme history. At $16 and being 4th on the list of “Burgers to eat before you die” I expected this to be the pinnacle of our burger journey so far. I was sadly disappointed. The Rouge burger, while consisting of high quality components, which in and of themselves are great, was a poor assemblage of a gourmet burger concept. I blame the overly thick patty. It was absurdly thick. I would recommend dropping the price a few dollars and shedding a 1/4 pound to allow the other flavors to come out. The balance was just not here. When in downtown Philly would I go to Rouge for a burger? No. I would walk a few more blocks and enjoy the $12 Good Dog Burger.
A second lesson learned here is that GQ and I have very different tastes in what makes a good burger. So far I’ve had number 17 and number 4 only to be disappointed at both when there were much better burger options nearby. Oh well… fortunately there are plenty of resources for the burger tymer to find the best buger in the world. Many of which can be found linked to this site!
Is there a burger that you think is the best? Or Maybe you want to feature a burger on Burger Tyme that hasn’t been reviewed yet. Well, I can’t possibly review every burger myself but together we can get close!
If you are interested in writing for Burger Tyme please indicate it here by registering a user name and leaving a comment. I will add you to the group of contributors and you will then be able to write your reviews and load photos… Oh yeah, the important photos! Let’s be real, the main thing people want to see on a burger review site is BURGERS! So the bigger, the juicer, and the hungrier a photo makes us, the better!
(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Register to vote.Loading...
Good Dog http://www.gooddogbar.com 224 South 15th Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 (map)
The city of Brotherly Love! Philadelphia! Home of Rocky, cheese steaks, and the liberty bell (not listed in order of importance). I was fortunate enough to attend a training for work and stayed in the heart of Philly. My hotel was across the street from the famous City Hall with the infamous statue of William Penn standing on top of the clock tower. It was a great location in a pretty cool city. This was my second time here. The first time I did all of the typical Philly tourist things; I ran to the Rocky stairs (aka The Philadelphia Museum of Art), I had some locally recommended cheese steaks, and saw the Liberty Bell. This time around I had a different goal in mind… Find the best burger in a city that gets their cheese in Whiz form. Much of my research turned up a solid list of candidates. On my first night in Philadelphia I was talking with a guy who had worked in Philadelphia for the past six months or so and was attending the same training. I asked him the questions “Where can I get a good burger around here?” was met with the immediate, unhesitating response “Good Dog!”. Lucky me! Good Dog showed up on quite a few of the best burger lists that I had been perusing. Being the extra lucky dog that I am, Good Dog was only a few blocks from where we were having this conversation. We were able to convince another person to join us and we headed down the narrow streets of downtown Philadelphia in search for a Great Burger Tyme. As we approached Good Dog, I almost walked right past it. It had a very cool, old pub facade that made it rather inconspicuous. As we entered I noticed that Good Dog had won the award for the “Best Gourmet Burger at a Dive Bar” in Philadelphia for 2005. While that seemed like an overly specific accolade, it was still impressive. We entered in and were greeted by low, pressed tin ceilings and a lot of people. We made our way down the bar and found a booth near the back. All along the walls were framed pictures of puppies and other dogs which is funny because they also sell food dog for the pet of their clients, I bought one of the best calming treats for dogs for my dog there. Go Here if you are a dog lover, as it would be great! There was heavy metal music playing when we arrived but it quickly moved into other genres providing quite an eclectic atmosphere. Over all it was cool place. But all of this would be meaningless if there was not decent food. I opened the menu and then the real excitement began!
As I read the menu I couldn’t believe what I was about to order. The good dog burger consists of 1/2 pound of sirloin that they grind themselves, the patty is stuffed with roquefort cheese, and topped with caramelized onions, all served on a brioche bun. Did I mention that this falls under “Gourmet Burgers”? It seems that if people in Philly want a burger, it has to be gourmet. Anyway, I placed my order for the Good Dog Burger cooked medium. I honestly couldn’t wait to get this burger not just b/c I was hungry from my Rocky stairs run earlier that evening (what can I say, I’m still a tourist). As we waited the music changed genres about 4 more times and we all chattered loudly. It was really a great atmosphere. Our food was brought to the table and I have to say I was extremely impressed. This was a big burger, and the cheese that was stuffing the patty was running over the side of the bun it sat on. The first bite was amazing! I can’t say that I have ever had roquefort cheese before but it added a great savory, pungent flavor to the juicy beef patty. The sweet caramelized onions were a great counterpoint to the patty. The bun was great too. It was soft and just chewy enough to complement everything else. This was a burger that required NO ketchup. It was so juicy and flavorful the way it was that I don’t think you could have added anything to it and had it taste better. The fries were a mix of regular and sweet potato fries. They were good but did not really stand out at all compared to how much I was enjoying this burger! While it was big even for a 1/2 pound burger I managed to finish it with relative ease.
Ohh man!!!!! I couldn’t have possibly imagined a better start for Burger Tyme in Philadelphia. This was seriously a great burger! I talked about it for days after I had it. Being delicious however was not my only consideration. Did I mention that this was a “Gourmet Burger”? While “gourmet” means better and non-traditional ingredients (in theory), it also means that it is not a cheap burger. Now this burger and fries meal was $11 but with a soft drink and tip it came out to about $15. That’s pretty steep for one meal but I have to admit, I would eat it again in a heart beat! While a few notable burger review sites were not extremely impressed with Good Dog, I would recommend it to anyone who loves burgers and will be in the downtown Philadelphia area.
