Here's the deal - the cheeseburger is the quintessential American food. A couple of years back, after reading a review in the Wall Street Journal about the best burgers in the country, only to find that three of the top five were in my own back yard, I decided that I needed to see for myself. With the help of George Motz's "Hamburger America", several lists, recommendations from friends and asking everyone about burgers from "their" town, this is the result...

If you're curious about my thoughts on foods other than burgers, check out my other blog Eat to Live? Or Live to Eat?

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Western Steakburger, San Diego, CA (April 2011)

So we're in the car, leaving Hodad's reveling in  the glory of the burger when a thought occurs to me, "When , exactly, am I going to be THIS close to another burger joint, on my list, all the way across the country?"  How could I argue with that logic.  

So I pop the address for Western Steakburger, in nearby San Diego, into "Maps" on my iPhone and (to quote Art Carney), awa-ay we go!

As we pull into the North Park neighborhood, Jo decides that since she's just had a cheeseburger, she'll pass, so I park out back and run inside for a burger.  Once inside, I realized that this wasn't your usual burger place.   It served burgers.  And greek food.   For about a year, they were separate, then one day Gus (the owner) decided to throw some gyro meat onto a finished cheese burger.

When I was there, post lunch crowd, I had the inside to myself, so I got to chat and ask questions.  And take a picture of the grill.  

Looking over the menu, the choices were daunting, but I went with the "Wild West Burger" - a half pound burger, with gyro meat on top, barbecue sauce and bacon (I passed on the grilled onions).  This thing was AWESOME.   I stopped in the restaurant, before I went back out to the car and took a picture of this behemoth:


I decided, after the meal (approximately a pound of beef, bacon and french fries) at Hodad's, that I'd eat half.  

That didn't happen.  I was eating the first half, dropped Jo off to shop and went to park the car.  I had EVERY INTENTION of throwing the other half away and then thought, "no way."  It was the second burger of the day and the better burger of the day.  When we got back in the car, Jo asked for a bite of the burger, since I was only eating half.   Sheepishly, I turned up the radio...

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