Miller Union, Atlanta, GA (April 2011)

April kicked off with a bang.  In 2009, Esquire Magazine named Miller Union as one of the best new restaurants of 2010.    We had tried it before, for dinner twice.  It was upscale new Southern - fried pig ear salads, rabbit, quail breast and pork belly combos, etc.  

It is a really nice new restaurant.  But lunch time is the surprise, for me.  On their lunch menu, served Tuesday to Saturday, exists the "daily grind".   I ordered it for the first time on April 2, 2011.   I think I've had at least four since then.   

In my opinion, this is the best burger in Atlanta.  Period.  Better than the Ghetto Burger at Ann's, the double at Holman & Finch, or my current second favorite burger, the Komodo-grilled glory at Muss and Turners.

Juicy.   

Cooked perfectly to order.  

House made ketchup.  

Absolutely wonderful.
  

I SHOULD have gone there today - I was just down the street.  But there's always tomorrow.

Leon's Full Service, Decatur, GA (March 2011)

I first heard about Leon's Full Service in an article in Atlanta magazine last year about "Cheap Eats" and they were going on about the selection of pub frites. 

Then a lawyer friend told me about this place in Decatur that served bacon, by the glass.    By the glass, you ask? 

Yep.   With a side of peanut butter for dipping.  How in the world they came up with that combination, I'll never know.  I don't think it's the kind of thing where you're sitting around and trying to decide what sandwich spread goes best with breakfast meat.  I guess it is just serendipity.

How is it?  I don't know.  I don't eat peanut butter.  I had gone with Jo and Colleen, so I turned to Colleen - she didn't eat bacon at that time.  So we turned to Jo to give the verdict on the combination.  According to her, it was a winner.   

I will say that it was pretty tasty bacon.  But then, you have to ask the universal question - "Is there really such a thing as BAD bacon?"  I believe there is good bacon, better bacon and great bacon, but, intrinsically, there is no bad bacon.  Just good bacon prepared poorly.

I did order a burger with the pub frites.   Burger was good.   Fries were excellent.

 

Tune Inn Restaurant, Washington, DC (March 2011)

The third stop in our DC burger adventure was just behind the Capitol building, the Tune Inn Restaurant.   In the same family since 1955, the thing that struck me most was the note on the menu that they hold the District of Columbia's second oldest pouring license, dating back to 1947.   This place is a bar.   Not a restaurant, not a diner.  A true dive.

This is another place that I found in the original edition of Hamburger America.

When looking to see if they have a website, I see on yelp that they are currently closed due to a fire.  Looking in from the door, you get a feel for the place, but it's only when your sitting at your table, right between the 

the beer-swigging bear and the "deer ass" that you get a true feel for the place (this is actually the view above, and to the right of our table.

What they seem to be most known for, at the moment, subsequent to an appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, is their "Beer Battered Burger".  You take a griddled burger, dip it in beer batter and then deep fry it.   Kind of like a chicken-fried steak burger with cheese, but not quite that good.

Ray's Hell Burger, Arlington, VA (March 2011)

 

The second burger stop in the DC area was triggered by that USA Today article, 51 Great Burger Joints - Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, VA.  Apparently ever since Medvedev went for a burger, the place has been hopping.  They've even opened a branch, down the strip center.  They did also make the app version of Hamburger America, but not the print edition.  We took the subway down to Arlington and walked about four blocks to the strip center, just beyond the Seven-Eleven (When did we lose all of the Seven-Elevens in Georgia?  Does anyone know?  One day, they were gone...)

Inside, it was a simple place with a map of the world and pins where you could pin-point "Where in the World Did You Come from for a Hell Burger".  We proudly put in a pin for the closest city we could find to our home, Douglasville.

Big, 10 ounce burger.  I went with the basic Diablo cheeseburger, with a spicy chipotle mayonnaise.  Cooked perfectly, medium-rare.   One of the best burgers of the year.

Ben's Chili Bowl, Washington, DC (March 2011)

March was a great burger month.   I headed up to DC on business for three nights and managed to squeeze in three burger joints.  The first was Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street.  We took a cab up from where we were staying, giving the cabbie the address.  We wandered around for quite a bit, with him looking for the address.  When we finally got there, he said, "Why didn't you just say you wanted to go to Ben's?"  Who knew??

  
We went inside and found a spot at the counter.  Opened in 1958, the menu hasn't changed much, although the hours have expanded considerably.  The crowd was mixed, business people, folks from the neighborhood, politicos and a few tourists.   

 

We ordered burgers and fries (and a chili dog for me).   Like we've seen at a couple of spots in the past few years, the fries and drinks arrived first.  Check out the stack of chili dogs on the waitress' left arm!  Really tasty burger and a really good chili dog.  In retrospect, I should have ordered the Chili Smoke...

Side Note:  Sitting at the counter, we could see a 8 x 10 computer printed sign down behind the counter with five words on it, "The Obama Family" and "Bill Cosby".  Couldn't figure that one out.   As we checked out, you could read the entire sign:

Nobody eats free here, 

except for

The OBAMA FAMILY

and

BILL COSBY

Hilarious!

Northgate Soda Shop, Greenville, SC (March 2011)

When Spring Break rolled around this year, the girls both had different weeks off from college.   One week we went with Colleen to Savannah to look for an apartment.  The next week, we went with Madison to Ashevile, NC for a couple of days.  When I looked at the path up there, the Hamburger America app had a red pin in Greenville, SC.  So I grabbed my Hamburger Bible and found the spot was Northgate Soda Shop.  This place has been open since the 50s and is on their third passed-on-to-a-customer owner.  The restaurant is full of signs, memorabilia and signed 8 x 10s from the last five decades. 

When the original owner sold it, he kept a table so he could come back in and "visit".  Most every table had a brass name plate in front of the seat where the regulars sit.  They are know for their house-made-pimiento-cheese burgers.  See the bigger photo below.  Really tasty burger.  I've become something of a pimiento cheese snob over the last couple of years and theirs passed the test.

 

p.s. Pretty good chili dog, too...

Le Tub, Hollywood, FL (March 2011)

2011 IS the year of the burger.  Okay, at least one of the years of the burger.   In March, heading to Miami for a conference, on the way south from the Fort Lauderdale airport, we stopped to eat at Le Tub Saloon.  This was another recommendation from Hamburger America.  Several years ago, it was chosen as the #1 burger in America by GQ Magazine.  Then Oprah did a special on it.  

We stopped for a late lunch on a Wednesday.  The parking lot was crowded, the inside was pretty full.  We took a table and looked at the menu - the most prominent item is the Sirloinburger.  The THIRTEEN OUNCE Sirloinburger.  We looked at the tables around us.  They looked huge.  So we decided to order one and split it.  We waited about 35 minutes.  I guess it takes a while to cook almost a pound of hamburger.  Good choice - it WAS huge.  But, amazingly, it was done exactly as we ordered it, all of the way through.

While we were waiting for our food, a pair of snowbirds landed and ordered at the table next to us.  A burger.  Each.  Twenty minutes later, our food shows up.  We hear Papa Snowbird say to Mama Snowbird, "oh my, we probably should have split one."

I'd go back.