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.