Bonnie's Place, Lansing, MI (December, 2011)

It's a been a while since I've posted, so I was checking to assure that I hadn't missed one.  And, sure enough, I had.   Bonnie's Place is a bar (there's really no other description for it) in Lansing, MI, just off the campus of Michigan State.

I was in Detroit on business and realized that if I left the office by 5:00 pm, I could make it to Elderly Instruments, over in Lansing, for an hour or so before they closed.  Elderly is one of the guitar meccas in the country and I had never been so I jumped at the chance.  As these guys seem to know everything about vintage music, who would be better to ask about a good burger?  They gave me a series of turns to follow that led me to the gravel parking lot in front of the building above.

Walking in, it was Wednesday night and all of the regulars were carrying on lively conversations at the bar.  Did I mention that this was a bar?  The seating, to the right, was more like a Denny's, with a bar down the left side.  The waitress led me to a table, and listening to all of the folks around me, they all seemed to be ordering the same thing.  So I ordered a Bonnie Burger (1/2 pound cheese-burger with 1/4 pound of shaved ham on top (??)).

I've never had a burger with ham on it before.  Bacon?  Sure.  But, it actually was good.  Not great, but good.  Industrial (read: Wendys-like) fries, but it sure beat eating in the restaurant at the hotel.

Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger, Ann Arbor, MI (August 2011)

Stop number four.

After Motz's, I don't know that I could have a BETTER burger, but I still had two hours before I flied, so I could have a DIFFERENT burger.

Looking at the map, where I was, and the Hamburger America app, I realize that I can make it to Ann Arbor in time for a stop at Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger and still get to the airport in time for my flight.  I was looking for a different burger and I had heard that Krazy Jim's was a different kind of burger joint.

The menu was daunting, particularly compared to the rest of the menus for the day.  And the format was very different.  No pleasant waitress who has worked there for twenty plus years.  Three young guys, who took  the order cafeteria-style and did so in the manner of an interrogation.   You didn't volunteer what kind of burger you wanted, you waited to answer the questions as they were asked.

The Menu at Krazy Jim's

How many patties?  Double?  Triple?  Quadruple?  Quintuple?   What kind of bun?  Regular?  Onion?  Kaiser?  Pumpernickel?  Anything grilled?  Onions?  Banana peppers?  Sauteed mushrooms?  Black or green olives?  Fried egg?  Bacon?  Hard salami?  

That was the first round of questions.   And don't talk to them about cheese, until they ask you what kind you want.   After the cheese, they slap it on a bun and hand it to the last guy who puts on the condiments and rings you up.   

The two most interesting exchanges that I heard from behind the counter:

Exchange 1, to the lady behind me: "What kind of burger do you want?"

"Two doubles."

"They both for you?"

"No.  One's for [points behind her] him."

"Can he not talk?"

"[Obviously flustered] No."

"You know, we have deaf folks in here.  We have blind folks in here.  They all manage to order for themselves."

It actually worsened for him when he tried to order his own cheese and the line cook told him to tell the woman what he wanted so she could tell him.

Exhange 2, overheard from my table:

"Hey, guy - you do know that you've got a really big burger on a really small bun.  You sure you don't want to change that to a Kaiser roll?"

I paid attention and knew what I wanted.  So I ordered confidently.  

Double

On a Kaiser roll

With grilled Salami

[pause]

Feta Cheese

[pause]

Mayonnaise and tomato

It was a novel combination.  And a good burger.   

But I did wonder, on the way to the airport, if I had time to get to Motz's for another double.

Motz's Hamburgers, Detroit Michigan (August 2011)

Stop number three.

I was highly disappointed at Hunter House and still had more than two hours before my plane home, so I pulled up the address and headed over to Motz's.   

Motz's is south of the ballparks downtown, which are very close to Canada.  I had no idea that the closest point to Canada in Detroit was on the southeast corner.   

When I got to Motz's it was 5:30 and they closed at 6:00.  I had the place to myself.  About ten stools in front of a long counter.  The waitress asks me what I want, so I go with a double, no onions.  While this is cooking, we start talking.   

I tell her that I'm from Atlanta, and I'm here on the Hamburger America trail.  She says, "So you know George!  He's the NICEST guy."  I ask her how long the two of them have been working together.  She says for the entire fifteen years she's worked there she has worked this shift.  Tammy, on the grill, has been there twenty-seven.  The girl that makes the burgers on the morning shift?  Forty-three.  

You know, there's a lot to be said about working in a diner for THAT long.  You get to know each other.  You get to know your customers (several other folks came in while I was there and Tammy knew their orders and their names).   And you really get to know how to make a burger.   The burger?

This was one of the best burgers I've ever had, in its simplicity.   Two eighth pound patties.  Steamed bun.  Mustard.  Ketchup.  It was incredible.  

I left out an ingredient.  I asked Tammy what made her burgers so good.  "I add a secret ingredient."   What is it, you ask?  "I put a little love in each burger."  Then she laughs. 

I did, too.  Then I ordered another burger, for dessert.

Hunter House Hamburgers, Birmingham, MI (August 2011)

Stop number two.

Open since 1952, Hunter House Hamburgers had a big sign out front that they had been named the best burgers in Michigan.  Yesterday, I took the challenge.  Like Carter's before it, and Motz's after it, it's all about the onions.

In fact, the T-shirts at Hunter House say "Onion breath is better than no breath."  I guess everyone needs a motto.  Apparently, they also take their breakfast serving hours quite seriously.  I REALLY don't like onions, but I decided if all the cool kids were eating them.....  So I ordered a double with onions and a small cheese fry.  

Check out the amount of onion on this burger!  

I'll have to say that I can't judge this burger fairly.  The onions were SO BAD, that even after I scraped them off, this burger still didn't taste good.  It also was a little pink in the center - not the best sign when the patty is only an eighth of a pound.  On top of that, the cheese fries were awful.  The fries themselves were bland and the cheese tasted worse than the sauce they pour onto nachos at the dollar movies.

The "best burgers" in Michigan were a disappointment.

Carter's Hamburgers, Dearborn, MI (August 2011)

Well, yesterday was a red letter day in burgerdom for me.  I had to be in Detroit on business and I knew I'd have a couple of hours, post-meeting, before I caught my plane.  

On my way from the airport, I had to make a U-turn when I missed my turn due to a road closing.  While I'm sitting at the light waiting to get back on M-39, I see Carter's Hamburgers out my window, on the access road.

Walking in, I see that they are open 24 hours, and I'm in luck because Thursday is $0.99 Coney Day!! 

Talking with the waitress, which is an experience until itself, I find out that Carter's has been open for 49 years and she's been working there twenty-seven, although they are not contiguous.  She has, by her own admission, "left a couple of times for greener pastures," but she's "always come back."

So I order a double with cheese, fries and, since it is Thursday, a Coney Dog.  

The burger was good, crisp edge with a moist bun.  The two things I noticed about Michigan burger joints:  they love Spanish onions (every place I went had grilled onions for the burgers and assumed you wanted them) and they're Pepsi people.   The latter could ultimately lead to a problem for me.

While the burger was fine, what was really surprising was the Coney Dog:

I asked the waitress what, exactly, makes it a "Coney Dog".  

"It's the chili."

What makes Coney chili different from regular chili?

"Regular chili has beans.  Coney chili has no beans."

After another three or four minutes of pulling answers out of Gabby Hayes, she divulges that the chili recipe is 49 years old, too.  

The chili was GOOD.  Kind of like a yellow-jacket dog, or one from the Varsity.  Maybe the key to a good chili dog IS "no beans".

Miller's Bar, Dearborn, MI (June 2011)

I had the opportunity to be in Detroit earlier this summer and with some time to kill before I had to catch a plane, I realized that I had a chance to hit Miller's Bar in Dearborn.  The sign on the left is actually the outside wall, facing the cross street.  

Inside, it is a long, narrow, window-less, menu-less bar.   Wood bar lining the right wall, red leather and wood booths lining the lefts and tables in the middle.   The griddle is in the near corner as you walk in and can't be any larger than a normal stove-top.  Yet they serve up to 1,200 burgers a day.

And it is a really good burger - seven ounces of fresh beef with American cheese, served on a sheet of wax paper.