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| - Dinner at the newly opened (second day) but long-awaited and highly anticipated B Spot at Crocker Park. Like my visit to its sister location at the Eton Center, the wait was long (1 hour for a table), but I managed to snag a single stool at the bar.
I ordered a Vanilla Bean Apple Pie Bacon Shake with Bourbon, a Lola Burger, and a side of Lola Fries. While the wait for a table was long, there certainly was no hold-up at the kitchen: My food came out in under 5 minutes from ordering. The promptness was appreciated but did seem a little suspicious to me. The Lola Burger was fantastic--particularly as the bacon, red onions, cheddar, and mayo get encapsulated in the yolk from the fried egg sitting atop the thick patty. It is a messy experience, so be sure to have a couple paper towel napkins at the ready. The Lola Fries were very good as usual, and there are available accompaniments of Ketchup, Lola Ketchup (ketchup with a little more vinegar and spice to it--I wasn't particularly a fan), Stadium Mustard, Coffee BBQ Sauce, Balsamic Steak Sauce, and Shasha Sauce. (I have no idea what the last three sauces are about.)
Having already been to the East Side location, the quality of the burger and fries were not really all that surprising. I was surprised, however, by the milkshake, which I have not had before. First, the milkshake is BIG--easily two full servings of the glass they give you to pour it into. (I'd consider splitting it on future trips.) Second, it is tasty--the vanilla base combines well with the cinnamon-apple taste and the hint of bacon, then accented by the little bits of bacon inside the shake that you can slurp up through the extra-wide straw. The bourbon also gives a nice background flavor, though I would have preferred just a tad more in my shake. What I really liked about the milkshake is that none of these flavors--even the sweetness of the cinnamon-apple--dominated the drink.
Service was friendly and attentive, and, as I mentioned before, my food came out lightning fast. The space (formerly Agave) suits B Spot well. The al fresco dining is nice, particularly from the effect of being near similar outdoor tables at Champps next door and across the street at Blake's and Hyde Park. The tables inside were fairly well-spaced, though I wonder in the colder months whether they will make it much more crowded to accommodate enough people. For now, the extra floor space gets occupied by people waiting for tables and partaking in a beer from the bar.
Before we all just run up to the top of the hill and hug, there are some negatives: First, they give a warning when you choose how you want your burger cooked that B Spot usually cooks burgers one notch under what you order them at (e.g., medium rare when you order medium). The obvious response is, well, why don't you just cook it one notch longer than you usually do? I'm sure they would say something like it has to do with the thickness of the hamburger patties, but I don't think the patties, while a little thicker than your normal restaurant burger, are so incredibly thick as to be that unwieldy while cooking (as opposed to something like a super-thick patty at Kuma's Corner in Chicago). Second, as some people have noted regarding other locations, B Spot seems to revel in a certain jerk attitude. To be sure, the actual servers were friendly, and I can understand the aversion to substitutions. But, I can do without the signs and the little laminated pamphlet calling me a whiny bastard for considering a substitution. It is really a turn off and very very nearly merited dropping B Spot down to the three-star level in my book.
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