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| - I may have just found my new burger love in Toronto. It took a while to find you but you were worth the wait my darling. I'm really worked up for The Works!
The menu here is like a mail-order bride catalogue for hamburgers. What isn't on the menu here? Yes they have a burger with peanut butter on it. Actually two of them; one with bananas also. Kraft Dinner you say? Yes. Avocado, onion rings, pineapple, or tzatziki? Check, check, check, and check. They even have a burger for the Stanley Cup. Oh wait a second, the menu states that "The WORKS would like to apologize as this burger has not been available in the GTA for 45 years...but there's always next year!"
There's over 70 choices of burgers, 13 sides, plus starters and salads. Flip to the back page and there's an endless list of drink options, the bulk of which is milkshakes. Normally menus are are nicely spaced with a hefty sized font. Not this one. The pages are crammed from top to bottom in sans-serif with a point size of about 10. Frankly, the menu can be a little overwhelming. If you get lost or are a little indecisive, just flag down your server, tell him or her what you would like on your burger and they can make a couple of suggestions. If all else fails there is a top 10 list of their most popular choices.
The motif here is industrial. There's metal siding, diamond plated signage, painted brick walls, copper tubing, and some parts and pieces hooked together that don't even make sense. Seriously. On the side wall near the front there is a fluorescent lighting ballast connected to a pressure guage. Why? Beats the heck out of me. But it looks cool. Earlier reviewers complained about loud music. This wasn't the case on my visit.
The Works has been around Southern Ontario for a while but they're just breaking into the Toronto market. They're doing it with a bang too. This location is the first to open but there are three more on the way soon.
Their patio isn't up and running yet (waiting for their licensing) but the front of the restaurant has a couple of big roll-up doors to let in the sun and fresh air. Because of that the front area can be quite busy with everyone requesting to sit there. The staff was ready for it though by first warning us that the service might not be top notch because we requested to sit in the busy section. They did however do their best to compensate for this. When the hostess wasn't busy she was refilling water glasses, or should I say measuring cups that they serve water to you in. We had two or three ladies helping us to answer our menu questions, getting our orders placed, and delivering our food to the table.
Let's get down to business and tell you the story of how I found my true burger love. After perusing the vast choices I settled on the Dirty Snake. That might sound bad but keep in mind that there are menu options like Sum Yung Guy. The Dirty Snake consists of caramelized onions, avocado, and Havarti. All of their burgers come with lettuce and tomato and because I was feeling extra meaty I added some bacon. You're given the choice of ground beef, turkey, or a vegetarian patty along with white, whole wheat, or gluten free bun. I chose red meat and a whole wheat bun. From the selection of sides I went with the Bold Slaw, a coleslaw with kick.
The burgers take 20 minutes to cook so the table ordered a Tower O Rings to hold us over and I had a pint of Barking Squirrel to wash it all down. The tower is a spike of onion rings that are stacked according to size from largest to smallest. It comes with two choices of dips. We went with their house dip and a chipotle mayo. The house dip was good, but not really a fit for me with the rings. It comes as an option on some of their burgers which would be a much better place for this concoction. The chiptole dip had a nice smokiness to it. The rings themselves were good; fairly standard, nothing above and beyond.
Minutes later my new love was delivered to me in a stainless steel tray and served open faced. After adding some mayo and ketchup I bit into her. That's when it hit me. I fell in love with that first single kiss...err...bite. The caramelized onions were done to perfection. They were nice and sticky from the natural sugars brought out in the cooking process. The avocado and melted Havarti slow-danced on my tongue like two horny teenagers at a high school dance. The burger patty itself was very straightforward, not stealing the show from the toppings, but it was cooked exactly right. Just a slight hint of pink in the middle.
You know a burger is good when it's dripping down your fingers and trying to escape the bun at every bite. A burger that won't be contained by a mere bun is a burger you want to eat. While I enjoyed the bacon I had added, it was unnecessary. The burger was perfect just the way it was stated in the menu.
Sadly, I must end the story short because I'm hitting Yelp's character limit. Go here and start your own love story. To Be Continued........
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