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| - Walk in, seat yourself. Beer prices incredibly high, it is indeed $8 for a Guinness. They offer PBR. PBR, at an upscale restaurant, for $4. This is a fairly significant fail, simply given the fact that i've never seen such swill (at those prices!) offered at a place like this. There was Stella and Hoegaarden offered as well, but at $7, who wants that? We should have immediately abandoned all hope of ordering beer and turned to the fairly impressive-looking wine selection, but no one in my party was inclined to do so. So that was the first disappointment. Miller High Life and other domestics do not merit $5. I honestly wondered whether this was an intentional choice, aimed at adding a touch of irony to the menu, but finally must simply conclude that they're attempting to drive people to the wine list.
The burger options: there are three pre-designed burgers, none of which quite seemed to call out to me, and one yellowfin tuna sandwich counted among the burgers. I elected to build my own. 13 different cheeses are named and a brief description is provided, along with the source. Refer to the menu if you're confused. I thought this was an excellent touch. There are extras (ie, bacon, toasted tomatoes, etc) and sauces (ranch, garlic aoli, bbq, so on) that can also be added. I opted for a simple combination of midnight moon cheese and jalapeno bacon. I didn't say it was a good combination, I said it was relatively simple. They offer a side of 1000 Island dressing with any burger, along with basic lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onion according to your preferences. I ordered mine rare. Our table of 4 also ordered 2 orders of sweet potato fries, ($4) which were good. The burgers emerged not long thereafter. Mine was medium or medium well, only a little pink towards the side. This was the other disappointment of the evening. Unevenly cooked, and cooked far beyond my order, I was more than a little let down given that their name (supposedly) refers to the specific temperature difference between a medium rare and a well done burger. Thankfully, the burger was still juicy enough that I wasn't forced to apply loads of ketchup or resort to the dressing. The cheese was excellent, mild, and the jalapeno bacon was quite tasty as well. The bun used is a very fluffy white bread, which combines with the thick patty to make the whole package rather intimidating when it's first brought out. I did thoroughly enjoy the burger, despite the goof-up with the cooking. I didn't check to see how my companions' burgers were cooked, but they claimed to enjoy theirs as well.
Another note: we asked our waitress about the beef used and she did not answer with confidence, informing us that the beef was 100% ground sirloin, 100% grain-fed beef. I kind of assumed a burger place like this would consider the beef a selling point, but she hemmed and hawed a bit, seeming only too glad to move on with the conversation as soon as her questioner's curiosity abated. She didn't have to prove anything about the beef to any of us (I don't think we were expecting really low-quality meat), but she could have been a slightly more enthusiastic salesperson, in my opinion. It looked like lack of training.
The decor is eclectic but very upscale on the inside, the patio, where we sat, was pretty plain. The service was really good - other than the brief description of the beef; I have no other complaints for our servers.
There's nothing wrong with this place, in fact despite my little disappointments, we all enjoyed our meals very much. A few fairly small adjustments, and I'd easily award this place 5 stars. But this beer selection, in this day and age where beer drinking is no longer vilified even among higher-end restaurants, is an absolute joke. Many diners will be even more incensed at the failure to prepare the burger correctly - I felt that the juiciness of the burger at least partially redeemed this error. Perhaps those that prefer their burgers medium to medium well will be less dissatisfied. I'll almost certainly be back, and I'd be glad to see these issues resolved on future visits. This place is too nice to not have substance to match the flash.
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