Can I get that with extra pastrami?

Of all the condiments, pastrami has to be one of the best ones right? I know it's not technically a condiment but it's used as one on burgers sometimes, and I'm ok with that.

I graduated from Olympus High School in Salt Lake City and during my time there Crown Burger was THE place to get a burger. Admittedly, I didn't really go there much. I think, counting this last week, I've been three times. There was always a running argument about whether Crown Burger was better than Apollo Burger, OHS students tended to favor Crown Burger, but I'm here to tell all of you that they are the same. Not similar, they are the exact same restaurant.
One has a name that aptly solidifies its identity as a burger restaurant with a tendency to lean toward the Greek persuasion and the other has a name that I'm sure was an attempt to fool dimwits into thinking they were Burger King. Are the two twin restaurants rivals? I have no idea, probably. But they are literally the exact same. Same menu, same signature pastrami burger, same 'vibe', same price, same individually wrapped baklava next to the register, same everything. This post will focus on my experience at Crown Burger but just know that I ate at both places for a fair and scientific comparison and the names of the restaurants are interchangeable for this blog's purposes. (Also, Astro Burger and Burger Supreme, I am told, are the same restaurant as well and possibly owned by the same family. But that's just word on the street)

We chose to go to the 33rd and State Street location and were surprised to find that we had accidentally entered an Olive Garden, wait. . . no. It actually was Crown Burger, but the inside was recently redesigned in a very Olive Gardeny way which gave off a very . . . not-a-burger-place vibe.
Crown Burger, as stated before, is a burger place (der!) yet they have a huge menu and also serve very Greekish stuff. I hear their gyros are good but I can't vouch for that. When given the choice between a lightly seasoned Greek taco or a fatty American burger, yeah, burger every time.
Their acclaimed Crown Burger is a burger with delicious pastrami on it. The burger was good, a bit dry but good. Without the amazing pastrami it wouldn't have impressed me much if at all. Also, their fry sauce had some weird sweet aftertaste. It put me off and I couldn't enjoy it. My wife loved it though and called me crazy. I'm just of the opinion that savory and sweet should only rarely cross paths. Savory should be savory and sweet should be sweet, but that's just me.
My verdict is that this restaurant is confused about its own identity. Their menu goes from burgers to rice (rice? It really weirded me out to see rice on the menu of a burger place. . .) to souvlaki to gyros and they even serve a rib eye steak for $10. . . I mean, their sign says Crown Burger, but their menu is so diverse that it's kind of scary. I could be completely wrong about my fear, especially since I know that this place has a large and loyal following. I'm afraid to try their rib eye steak though but now I just might have to try it, just to see. Anyone out there ever tried it?
To me, the smaller a menu the better. If you're going to be a burger place BE a burger place. At any rate the burger was good, not great, and they must be doing something right because after all these years it's still here and still loved by the community.
I'm willing to hear any arguements as to which burger place is better, Apollo or Crown. But again, as for me, my taste buds, and my experience they are exactly the same.

The Butter Burger

Try an activity with me. Say the words 'butter' and  'burger' as if they are one word together. Now call attention to your saliva glands. If you are like me at all they instantly opened their flood gates. Something about a Butterburger just sounds amazing. I recently visited Culver's whose claim to fame is the aforementioned Butterburger.
Before I begin my short story I must apologize to my amazing wife who receives the brunt of my teasing, I probably tease her too much on this little blog of mine. It's not that she is easy to make fun of, it's that she is the only person I hang out with. So it's either her or me . . . chock it up as one of the many disadvantages of being married to me. So, Whitney, I'm sorry, buuuuut . . .

My wife announced to me on our way home from St. George (for those of you who are unaware, a trip from St. George to Salt Lake is roughly 4-5 hours on the freeway, a long haul) that she was starving and wanted to stop for dinner. I replied saying that if we're going to stop to eat somewhere we should find a good burger place nearby and try it out so that I can write an amazing, informative, and clever blog post about it. However, we were on the freeway, half way home, literally in the middle of nowhere. If you are familiar with this particular route, then you know that there is absolutely nothing exciting about this stretch of nothing unless you count the Dairy Queen/Texaco in Scipio, and I don't.

We could have stopped at Dairy Queen, I have nothing against that particular restaurant, there is nothing bad about Dairy Queen but I've never been wowed by much of anything there except their pumpkin pie blizzards, which are amazing. So Itell my wife that if she can just wait until Lehi we can eat at the famous Culver's I've heard so much about. You must understand that my wife's happy moods are directly correlated with the amount of calories in her system. If her 'tank' is full she is among the happiest of campers. If her tank is 1/4 of the way full or below we are in what I call the danger zone.

I did my best not to speak too loudly or at all and was careful not to make too many quick movements the rest of the way to Lehi as her tank began running on fumes. All the strategies I have learned over the years.
An hour or so later we arrive in Lehi with only a  few casualties, luckily, and we settled in for a good buttery burger. We both ordered their bacon Butterburger (there go my saliva glands again) and crinkle fries.
All I know about Culver's is that they butter their buns. . . That doesn't seem like much to me but I have heard nothing but good reviews about them. As we ate, our bellies filled and my wife's naturally pleasant demeanor returned moments before she would have either withered away or erupted.
Was my burger buttery? Yes, actually it was. The butter just added to savory burger and its juiciness. A very very good burger. And this is one of the few restaurants that only served their burgers with real cheddar cheese, no American. The purist in me tips my hat to them for that.
However, I do have one complaint. Their bacon. Yes, it is possible to complain about bacon. Their bacon is flavorless, worse than the precooked stuff at McDonald's. I paid a good dollar or more for it and it added nothing to the burger at all. My advice, when you go to Culver's save your money, buy a regular cheddar butterburger and spend your extra dollar on their frozen custard, which is delicious.

P.S. Custard beats yogurt in a fight any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Also, I just found out that Culver's is now serving a pumpkin pie shake made from their frozen custard. . . Must try. If any of you have tried it let me know if it's any good. I've been burned in the past. I won't name any names but there is a fast food restaurant whose name rhymes with 'farctic pircle' whose pumpkin pie shake (if you can call it that) tastes more like a spoonfull of nutmeg and artificially flavored syrup.