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| - Having reconciled with the economy's twinge on the purse strings, my honey and I have become quite the connoisseurs of happy hours and mid-line eats. We are always on the look out for a good burger and were excited to read about The Grind in the paper. Knowing the chef has proven culinary skills of the highest caliber and their use of a very unique 1000 degree oven intrigued us. We rounded up a few friends and gave it a whirl last night.
At first glance, the place is comfy. The booths are excellent people-watching pedestals and the bar is long enough to house most of us for that pre-dinner cocktail. We enjoyed the throw back drink menu - Honey had a Vesper and was pleased to rekindle his affection for the marriage of gin and vodka. A cute old man next to me was thrilled they had PBR on tap.
We began our meal with the "roasted cheese" appetizer, aka Camembert infused with rosemary. I loved the crostinis it was served with. The cheese was good and tastefully appointed with a strawberry relish. I relish new takes on old standbys, so thumbs up.
Our burger dining procedure is that we each order one and then split them to allow for candid discussions and a larger experience of bun-and-meats. I ordered the Sweet and Spicy as many have recommended on Yelp, and Honey ordered the BLT. Friends ordered the chicken sandwich and another BLT. For the table we requested the Herbed Fries and Sweet Potato Fritters.
Service was consistent, well timed and pleasant. The burgers are presented in a rather intimidating fashion of being much too tall for anyone to get their mouth around. However, we quickly learned that our 5-year old's tactic of squishing sandwiches proved successful and instantly my too tiny cake hole was inspired.
My burger was flipping great. I loved LOVED the sweet and spicy. So many flavor experiences with every bite. Just enough heat to make it a child-unfriendly burger, but not enough to disrupt the experience. BLT burger was not as well received, but I do celebrate a good grilled onion and they did not disappoint.
What was disappointing was the fries and fritters. I have come to expect gourmet fries with my gourmet burger. I don't think I'm wrong in this expectation, but The Grind let me down. Their herbed fries were something I could buy a bag of at Albertson's. Nothing notable. And the fact that there were fries left at the end of the meal with four diners sort of speaks volumes. The fritters too...just not great. Deep fried, rather flavorless, more savory that I would expect in anything sweet potato. Sigh.
Moving on to dessert since we did not fill up on fried potatoes, we ordered the warm doughnuts with salted butterscotch. I love doughnuts and I love a good salty sweet concoction. It was really, really good. The doughnuts weren't overly sweet on their own, which seemed to lend itself well to the sweetness of the butterscotch. Being a Dessert Diva, I would say it was a nice way to end the meal.
Overall, I think we will return. However, it may be more of a "let's sit at the bar and have a beer and a burger" type experience than a sit down dinner effort. Definitely worth a visit, not a letter home.
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