Lucky 13, at last I have found you.

Let's just get it out of the way, Christmas passed and today is New Year's Eve, so . . . happy 'those days' to all of you. Many blogs do the whole themed posts with candy cane decorations and the like. I have a Y chromosome and, like the majority of us Y'ers, this whole decorating and theme-ing thing is lost on me. However, I do like the holidays and hope you all had/have jolly ones, hopefully with a tasty burger to help celebrate. Now to the real reason we're all here.

I was surprised that from moment I declared my intentions of starting this burgers adventure, and consecutively this blog, that all of my blog followers genuinely wanted to guide me to 'their place'. Everyone seems to have one, their go-to burger place for a consistent and satisfying experience. Most of the recommendations I've received have been better than good, while other's have fallen flat. I love the recommendations, keep them coming. I even like the ones that fall flat, oddly I like knowing they're there and I take notes of what to look for, and usually I can find at least one redeeming quality. 

I was equally surprised to find out how many restaurants exist that specialize in burgers. I had no idea there were so many. I worried that I may run out of places to go and thus this blog would eventually go the way of the dodo, I see now that I could do this consistently into the foreseeable future with no chance of running out of places to try. That said, I may drift, very rarely, to some different but obviously related and relevant food groups. For example: hot dogs, bratwurst, fries, maybe even root beer etc. . . So stay tuned, I have some exciting places to visit that I am antsy to try. (also, stay tuned for the fast food burger showdown. It's gonna be epic!) 

Sorry, so blurry. Bad lighting

Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, recommendations. Ahem. . . Since the moment I started this culinary journey I have been told by many a burger connoisseur to try Lucky 13, a local bar and grill in downtown SLC. As a birthday treat Whitney and I decided to give it a try, hoping it was as good as people have said. Our expectations were high, our birthdays are 3 days apart so we usually do something big as one big party for both of us. This year, it was Lucky 13. 

Lucky 13 somehow exceeded expectations, which, again, were quite high. Portions are very generous and their burgers are creative without trying to hard, you can usually tell when they start throwing pineapple on things. Not at Lucky 13 though. They serve a variety of burgers that all sounded so good I nearly had a panic attack trying to decide. It was decided we would have to return several times to try them all. 

again, sorry for the poor quality

In then end Whit got the Bacon stinky cheeseburger (blue cheeseburger) and I got the Pig Pen (bacon + ham. putting HAM back in hamburger). Just so you know, they do bacon right! Thick and real. so so real. She got the onion ring which had a strong beer kick to them and I got the rosemary garlic fries that were so good I nearly wept. 

I did very little research of this place beforehand, going exclusively off of my fans' recommendations. Later I realized why we were so impressed. Their buns looked fancy but still looked like they came out of a big plastic bag, but as it turns out they are freshly baked every day, which is great. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Seriously, I was SOOOO impressed by this next piece of information. Are you ready for it? You're not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. Lucky 13's bacon is smoked in-house daily with hickory apple wood. Is that not amazing? They do their own bacon, I think this is a first for me. So be aware that their bacon is very very good and as real as you're likely to get.

So do I approve? Why yes I do, best birthday ever. Go to Lucky 13 and tell them Samburger sent you. Don't really, they probably don't know me and it will just confuse them.

Carl's Jr., you heard me.

Ok, I know I have never blogged about a fast food joint before, and for good reason. Mainly that reason is that they are not very good and, thus I try to avoid them. However, no one can escape fast food. At some point you're gonna be desperate and it will be the only option. Or, if you're like me, sometimes you just crave a jr. bacon cheeseburger and a frosty at Wendy's. We all know fast food is poor quality and usually equally poor service, yet we go anyway and some of us go often. Don't get me wrong I like a fast food burger every once in a while. They are usually edible and are masked with just enough taste as to convince us that they are 'good'. 

But let's try something, reach back into the recesses of your memory and try to remember what a fast food burger taste like. This should be easy, it's not hard to remember. If you can truly bring this to your memory than you will realize that the fast food 'burgers' you like so well don't actually taste much like a real genuine burger, not really. Right? Not surprisingly, these are merely synthetic recreations of a product with inferior ingredients, some of which are made and cooked in China before being shipped here. 

However, there are two things that most fast food places do that I think are executed well, as far as taste goes anyway. The two things that are most delicious on the fast food menu are their fries and most of their breakfast sandwiches. McDonald fries are a cheap imitation of the real thing, buuuuuuuuuuut damn they taste good! They are just good and I can't resist them. Damn them all, I am powerless to their evil, evil fries.
Anyway, I'm not here to blog about fries, not today. Today I want to give credit where credit is due to Carl's Jr. (The west coast version of Hardee's). They are stepping out of the box as of the last couple of years and I for one have noticed. As far as I know they are the only fast food chain to make their biscuits fresh every day. There is a difference between, say, McDonald's pre-cooked-then-frozen biscuit and one that is fresh baked from dough from Carl's Jr, a big big difference. Seriously, it would be like comparing the repulsive feeling you get by touching the sticky used gum stuck to the underside of a table to the blissful blissfulness of being cuddled by puppies and ducklings in a nest of cotton candy. It would be like comparing pulling porcupine quills out of the roof of your mouth to being in a hot air balloon with a dozen baby otters who sang sweet lullaby's in your ear until you fell asleep curled up in the bottom of the wicker basket. (Man, can I paint a picture with my words or what!) Seriously though, their biscuits are amazing which makes their breakfast sandwiches even amazinger. I'm sure the eggs, the bacon, and the sausage are all pre-frozen and probably microwaved and the cheese is made of plastic but the buttery flaky biscuit comes in and gives you a big hug and makes everything ok.

I don't know how but Carl's Jr. got our address and sends us coupons every month. I'm not even mad. We use them fairly often. Every time we make a trip to southern Utah we stop there for a couple Monster Biscuits for the trip. And their coupons are actually good, meaning they are buy one get one free or $1 off your order, you know, they actually have some value. We also get coupons for a chinese restaurant in the mail that offers a free small drink when you purchase two entrees and a desert at regular price, not even tempted. Are there people living who fall for this stuff? Also, Carl's Jr. usually has some breakfast deal that requires no coupon at all, like two bacon egg biscuits for $2.22. It's well worth it, although the sausage is better.
I'm thinking Carl's Jr. is achieving some success with their decision to bake their own biscuits because I recently saw a poster saying they are now baking their own burger buns. I haven't tried them, but I like the sound of that.
So if you want a little quality in your fast food experience for a change try out Carl's Jr. for breakfast and, hell, get fries with it while you're at it.

St. George's FROSTOP

As you may have noticed, at times, I travel to St. George, Utah which is my wife's home town. I love everything about that lovely desert town except that as a result of my visits my skin often turns crispy and red. 2 minutes in that summer sun will most likely kill me. One of the several disadvantages of being a redhead.
On our most recent visit to this sandy paradise we decided to visit an old time favorite and local family-owned diner in town, Larsen's Frost Top. I've actually eaten here before, getting your fair-quality shake every once in a while. Their shakes are . . . fair in quality.
If you really want a blast from the past just park in one of their many drive-in slots and a lovely young waitress will walk up to your window and take your order. No one does that anymore! Although I do think the experience lacks a certain roller skate quality.
It's a fantasy of mine to park at a diner and have a woman in a whirly skirt roll up to my window on her American flag roller skates and say "What'll ya have hun?" Then later she'll roll up to my window again with a strange tray, and on that tray will be an big greasy burger. The strange tray will defy physics and balance on the outside of my partially open window. . . Alas, I fear it is only a silly dream.


I ordered, of course, the bacon cheeseburger (aka, the Queen Burger). I bought lunch for 4 people and spent $15. Not bad. As you can see, we ordered a bit of everything. The nearly-burnt-looking onion rings are what really stood out to me. After eating everthing, including the promising onion rings, it became apparent that all the food, much like their shakes, was fair in quality. Fair might even be an itsy bit generous too. Better than your typical fast food? Perhaps, but only just.

I found myself puzzled. Usually at a restaurant, burger places in particular, there is a menu item that I refer to as the "hero". Most burger places reserve that title for their burgers. Der! This is the item that they pride themselves in either perfecting or reinventing. I have no idea if Frost Top even has a hero. I'm not sure if they're a burger place that also serves ice cream or vice versa. I'm unsure because all the items I've tried have been, again, 'fair in quality'. My wife tends to think that their glaciers are the heroes, which is a snowcone on top of ice cream. She may be right, I've tried them and they are quite good. Good, but also easily executed.
But wait! I literally, just now as I was typing, remembered going to Frost Top a few years ago and absolutely LOVING what was served to me. What was it, you ask? It was their grilled ham & swiss sandwich. I don't know what it was about that particular sandwich but it was amazing. After finishing it I nearly ordered another.
So there you go, for fair in quality and affordable food as well as the occasional high quality glacier and grilled ham & swiss sandwhich give Frost Top a try.