Category: burgers

while trying to make us jealous for making it to Red Robin before us, a friend got out to snap a photo on foursquare of the coming soon Winter Garden Village location.  While he was doing that, the manager came out and said friend played up his excitement about the soon to be open restaurant garnering an invitation to the soft opening which he graciously invited us to join them-true story.  Well, tonight was the night.  Se we dashed across town  to do a little shopping en route (World Market) and arrived about 6:40.  We were ushered right in with a bit of lecturing about what we could have free, bottomless beverages, burgers and one entree per table and one milkshake per table.  Servers and other staff were really attentive and friendly and didn’t seem flustered or stressed out, which is a good sign.  We ordered bottomless freckled lemonades (lemonade with strawberries and syrup) and I ordered my usual, blue ribbon burger, no pink, no lettuce, no tomato, swap the onion bun for sesame and sat back to wait!  Things came out quickly and accurately.  My burger was still a bit pink (ideal) in the center and not to goopy.  Three burgers, one order of fish and chips, three freckled lemonades, one diet coke, and a cookie magic milkshake for free.  Nice work if you can get it. 

went to a new pizza joint in Winter Park on Friday night called burgerfi.  Not sure exactly what the name means but it is a fun place.  They have silly meat hook and edison bulb decor along with some beer, the thickest onion rings I ever saw, Chicago dogs and of course burgers. I tried out the b.a.d. burger which stands for breakfast all day.  A griddled but fairly thick burger topped with a fried egg, bacon and hashbrowns.  I could maybe have done without the hashbrowns as I didn’t see where they either added or took away from the burger and I liked the fries on the side better.  Z had a cheeseburger with added applewood smoked bacon and jalapenos.  We both liked the branded (w/ burgerfi) potato bun and the crunch the fries and rings had.  I appreciated some technology and campyness sprinkled throughout the restaurant (freestyle coke machines next to old school strawberry lemonade-so good juice dispenser, this buzzer chip technology business on the table so the server can find your pager thing and of course the aforementioned meathook edison bulb chandeliers.  I could somewhat have done without the Friday night Winter Park kids and family crowd but it adds to the charm and gives something to watch.    The website for burgerfi advertises a lot of eco-friendly things like that the chairs are made of recycled Coke bottles and the tables of compressed recycled wood alongside farm based socially conscious food-but it didn’t seem to play that way in real life.  All in all we enjoyed it and will likely go back.  I kind of hope one pops up in my neighborhood though.

originally this post was named pine twenty2 for a restaurant that came recommended by a friend at work and we visited over the weekend.  It is in the heart of downtown Orlando and we got there around 6:20 on Friday night.   We were a little surprised at how empty it was and figured we were just too early.  It says build your own burgers, Bordeaux and barbeque in giant letters on the wall.  When we walked in we were confronted with a counter service where you have to fill out a big checklist for your burger that has sections starting with burger type, bun, cheese, sauces, toppings and finally premium toppings.  There were also check boxes for sweet potato or pine fries (shoestring) on the front and various others on the back of the form where all the pre-decided burgers resided.  We missed quite a bit of menu options based on feeling hurried through the process.  I messed up my first form with their golf pencils and had to stash it in my bag and grab another.  I do see now where I missed fried pies on the back which surely would have been added to our order and how did I miss the Bordeaux?  Anyhow,  I settled on beef, regular bun, mild cheddar, Chipotle aioli, charred onions and Applewood smoked bacon.  Not too inventive but I would know based on those items if I would be back to potentially try something a bit more challenging.  The burgers came out pretty quickly.  I am happy to report the burgers were super juicy and my choice of toppings were goopy enough to satisfy me.  I inexplicably love a goopy burger.    The fries were kinda funny and I felt like I was shoving them in my face and realized after the fact I should have used a fork on them.  We really enjoyed the food though and will be returning soon.

The reason for changing the name of this post from pine twenty2 to burgers is this.  I really don’t think the burger landscape in Orlando is that great but due to the fact that it is national burger month it is popping up everywhere I look.  I popped in to let my friend know we had checked out the restaurant and enjoyed it and we were talking about the burger scene.  Not an hour later he was in my office saying an Orlando Sentinel reporter wanted to chat about burgers based on a tweet he made.  Something about Five Guys, Pine twenty2 or American Graffiti.   He and I had a brief conversation that there weren’t many places around for a great burger.  At lunch, I followed up with my table in the cafe  and asked, ‘What is the best burger in town?’  I got three four of six responses of Five Guys.  I don’t know how I feel about that exactly.  I think their burger is ok – pretty good even, but hate the fries and wish that some of the comments had been something other than one chain.  Five Guys can’t be all that there is.  No one else could think of anything.  That took us to a conversation about gourmet burgers, which I can’t decide should even be a real thing.  Gourmet?  Top quality ingredients.  Check.  Careful prep and cooking.  Check.  Not pressing every ounce of juice out of the patty.  Check.  I have a rather lengthy bucket list of burger joints across the US to try as we travel but chains they aren’t.

Picked up my mail as I came in the door tonight and there was a Publix Grape (quarterly wine circular from our local market) advertising turning your house into a gourmet burger bistro on the front cover.    I guess gourmet burgers are a generic term in America now like love or Kleenex or Coke.  Good thing I love them.