Slow Club, San Francisco, CA (October 2011)

On Monday, we decided that the weather opportunity was as good as it was going to get during the rest of our visit to walk the three miles back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge.   Into San Francisco we drove.  Man!  I thought Atlanta traffic was miserable - the ride in through Berkley and Oakland was equivalent to driving down 400.   After the bridge, it was lunch time and I was in a quandary.   I had two more burger places on my list, but neither was in San Francisco and Jo does get burned out on burgers fairly quickly.   So I googled San Francisco's best burgers and found this article from the local CBS affiliate.  We had been to Gott's the day before and while an In N Out was inevitable, I was looking for more.  That left 4505 Meats, Magnolia Pub, Slow Club, Umami (this one is on my LA list - didn't know that they had one in SF) and Zuni's Cafe.   When I looked at another list, the only dual entry was Slow Club, so it was decided.

When we got there, mid lunch hour, the restaurant was busy but not full.    The first thing I thought when I got there was, "This place is WAY too hip for me."   Chrome, polished wood, menu on a clipboard, beautiful people all around and wait-staff speaking in hushed tones.   What kind of burger could I expect here?  

This one - what a great burger!  Bun lightly toasted.  Red RIPE tomatoes.  Perfect pink center.  I don't care how upscale the place, they understood that to cook a great burger, all you need is a griddle (and according to Tammy at Motz's, that special ingredient - "love".)  Whoever cooked this burger had the love knob cranked to eleven.   Nice!