Burger Crew meeting called to order on Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 11am (Trevor’s pick).
Members in attendance: Angela d., Trevor Y., Wayne T., and Innie C.
Members that picked work over burgers: Dennis K.
I. Ordering
Angela and Trevor ordered the Tavern burger ($14.50; medium well due to the parasite growing inside of Angela) with a side salad, plus an additional order of garlic fries ($7). The Tavern burger comes with St Andre triple cream brie, Dr. Pepper caramelized onions, arugula, ketchup, and garlic aioli.
Innie ordered the Brutal Burger 2.0 ($15; medium rare) with a side of chips. The Brutal Burger 2.0 comes with pepper jack, romaine, red onion, grilled jalapeno, avocado, brutal sauce, and mojo verde.
Wayne ordered the Black & Bleu burger ($14.50; medium rare) with a side of chips. The Black & Bleu burger comes with Shaft’s bleu cheese, black pepper bacon, arugula, and horseradish mayo.
II. The burgers
Angela and Trevor said that their burger was very sweet due to the Dr. Pepper. They felt that the pickle included with the burgers was crucial to balancing out the sweetness of their burger, which also lacked saltiness. Innie felt that the burger was monochromatic in flavor; it was a good level of spicy for a Korean person, but it might be too spicy for non-Koreans, and she felt that the spiciness was mostly just added heat rather than added flavor. The arugula and red onions also pushed the spiciness of the burger over the edge. Wayne enjoyed his burger but said that the bleu cheese was the standout flavor of the burger rather than the burger itself. He did enjoy the bacon in his burger, which was chewy (his preferred bacon texture), thick, and peppery. Everyone generally enjoyed the patties, although Angela said that their patty was only seared around the edge. The buns were gooey with a good chew and they held up to the juices of the burger.
III. The fries
The garlic fries were AMAZING. Huge garlic flavor, even on the fries without garlic chunks. The Dodgers need to copy these fries and sell them in the stadium. The fries were quite crispy and seemed to be double fried. They came with two sauces: one jalapeno sauce and one horseradish sauce that were both good.
IV. Miscellaneous
Service was great and attentive; our waitress even warned Innie that the Brutal Burger 2.0 might be on the spicy side depending on your tolerance. The chips that came with our burgers were made in-house, which is a nice fresh touch. The restaurant is on 2nd Street in Long Beach, so parking can be hard to find. There’s both indoor and outdoor seating, and seating was easy at 11am on a Saturday. They have a good beer selection, and the restaurant was featured on Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives if you want to take a trip to Flavortown.
V. Value
Everyone was pretty much in agreement as far as what we would pay for our burgers, which was between $9-$10.
VI. The verdict
We thought that the burgers were pretty good for the most part, with the following ratings: 2.5, 3.0, 3.2, 3.7.
Next Burger Crew meeting: May 12, 2018 at noon (Wayne’s choice). Location: fundamental DTLA, Los Angeles.
