Proving that there's a hamburger (and a pizza, and a Chinese dumpling) and related experience to suit everyone's taste, the recent writeup of Lunchbox Laboratory reminded this Seattlest of a less-satisfactory visit to Scott Simpson's place earlier this same year.
These burgers exist on a plane no other burgers could ever wish to achieve--because they're so far away they don't even know this magical, tasty level exists. If Redmill, Burgermaster, and Fatburger joined forces to create a burger love child...it would be unseemly far from even coming close. Seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY.
But with consumption of E. coli-tainted meat on the rise, we’re wary of eating anything other than a well-done burger. Seattle attorney Bill Marler recently stated in his blog that the meat industry and the USDA have a habit of blaming the consumer for eating tainted meat. So if one falls victim to a contaminated burger, it’s because he or she didn’t take the proper precautions. There are warnings printed at the bottom of many menus indicating the dangers of consuming undercooked meat. However, as is pointed out in Marler’s blog, cooking meat to a proper temperature doesn’t necessarily ensure one’s safety.
From an office in West Seattle, Dave and Rebecca Makuen are igniting a hamburger revolution. In the midst of an economic upheaval, while so many local companies a cutting back, scaling back plans, or just plain vanishing, the Makuens have started a new business called BuiltBurger.
Recall that we've been up and down Queen Anne in search of a good burger. A snowstorm apparently extinguished Flame the night we originally wanted to go, so we wandered into Hilltop Ale House that night, and Dick's the following day. Another time, we gave Peso's a try. Still not satisfied, Seattlest finally made it back to Flame.
Three weeks in Asia gave us a burning desire for a burger, but a snowstorm put out the flame at Flame, so stuck on foot, we settled upon Hilltop Ale House to satisfy our craving. We've liked Hilltop since back when its non-smoking days mattered most, and we appreciate the neighborhood feel. The menu hawks the hormone-free nature of the burger, which comes on a baguette with sautéed onions and peppers along with mustard and mayo. Pretty good, especially with a side of tabouleh (our preference over chips), though a little skimpy for $9.95.
Not exactly news in the sense that we didn't know it was coming...but, the day of reckoning is finally here. Dick's is serving fries that have been cooked in trans fat-free oil.
We do love us some bar food. French fries, burgers (veggie ones anyway), fish 'n' chips. Man, we could live on that stuff and often think of the Albert Brooks comedy Defending Your Life when we allow ourselves to indulge, because he’s told that, while waiting to defend his life, he can do whatever he wants and not worry about the health consequences. We're pretty sure that’s the reason we're hoping the afterlife mirrors that movie.
3) Shortly after Dick's opened, local cab drivers dubbed it Ricardo's Club 19 because of the 19¢ hamburgers. Local wisenheimers persuaded people to dress up and hit the new nightclub in town, inspiring dates to tell them "You're such a Ricardo." When hamburger prices rose to 22¢, the name followed suit. Today you can visit Ricardo's Club 120.
Clinton, of course, would be a Boca-Burger.
Instead of focusing on what Belltown has lost, we’d like to inject some positivity in the form of BBQ sauce on an overlooked aspect of this scrutinized neighborhood.
Are food safety and food tasty mutually exclusive goals? You have to ask after both Zesto's and Wild Ginger show up on the P-I's list of Seattle's dirtiest restaurants.
With a Freedom Fries eating contest. Here is the relevant flickr set for last night's contest, evidently won by bicycle hobo associate identified only by the alias "Michael." Here are the rules for the 9/11 Eat Off Commemoration that apparently took place at Red Robin:
There's an article bemoaning our pending loss of Daly's Drive-In in Eastlake in the Post Intelligencer today (with accompanying blog item--probably both inspired by a slightly previous blog item from the Stranger) headlined "Popular drive-in on way out." The thing is, Daly's isn't popular. It should be, and it was, but it isn't.
The Windy City has awakened to the news that Americans love miniburgers. We're glad the food writers at the Chicago Tribune finally noticed.
Except for a four year stint in Chicago our friend Mike has lived in Seattle his entire life. During that time he has come to some well reasoned conclusions about fast food in this city. He shared them with us, and now we will share them with you:
When we found that Gorditos was getting out of the lukewarm kitchen that is Queen Anne hill’s restaurant business, we started keeping tabs, via a biweekly stroll, on the eateries closing (and, less frequently, opening) in the neighborhood. That wasn’t often enough.
That's how Mayor Ole Hanson described the beginning of the general strike that was held in Seattle February 1919, one of the few general strikes ever attempted in the U.S. The Bolsheviks had just won their revolution in Russia two years earlier and the Red Scare was coming into play in our country. Add 35,000 striking shipyard workers. Subtract the city's more moderate labor officials - They were in Chicago for a vote. Those left behind broached the subject of a general strike with other unions and the city was shut down on February, 6, while rumors of poisoned water, blasted dams and union heavies en route from Chicago kept everyone else either locked in their homes or fleeing for the country. In an effort to keep the peace, or kick a lot of union ass anyway if the peace got queered, the mayor brought in soldiers from Fort Lewis and deputized 2,400 frat guys and student organization members whom he armed with clubs and guns. The city teetered towards open war in the streets.
OPEN MIKE: What can you have in common with John Moe, Charles Frazier, and Jen Marlowe? You, too, can read from your work at Elliott Bay Books. Last Wednesday of the month is always open mike night at Elliott Bay.
The sad news is that come next spring, the lot they’re on, and the one next to it, are slated for demolition. Truth be known, the building they’re in is irreparable, but we have very sadly come to terms with the fact that is highly unlikely that they will stay on Eastlake. For now we are eating fish and chips at Daly’s once a week in anticipation of our having to do without.
O157:H7 bacteria.
"Ten seconds, I'm going to lose my patience," sez the dude. Nine, eight, seven.
Turns out that a low-fat diet doesn't reduce your risk of getting cancer or heart disease. Thank you, thank you, thank you, medical science. Cheer over your spilled skim milk and then make haste to the following former danger zones:
DO NOT PARK IN THE PARKING LOT AT THE WATERWHEEL LOUNGE!! There, we warned you. If only someone had passed that same information along to us, our evening at the Waterwheel would have been more nearly perfect. The slope which leads from 15th Avenue to the parking lot nearly took out our transmission.
Seattle is slathered with great local burger chains, what with Dick’s, Kidd Valley, and Red Mill, but our favorite is the mighty Burgermaster -- particularly the one just east of (but worlds away from) upscale University Village. This underrated institution has mastered the burger since it opened as a drive-in in 1953, and later, expanding into an eat-in restaurant. But why no link? The ‘Master is apparently too busy serving up consistently decent, no-frills fare to bother posting its own web site. That’s fine with us.
On Sunday night we returned to one of our old haunts: the Madrona Eatery and Ale House. When we lived four blocks away from it, we found ourselves here more often than not – the beer, the burgers, the pizza and the beer kept us coming back. Not to mention the easy downhill walk home.
Seattlest's newest feature enters its second week with this installment, which makes it the most successful new feature launch in recent memory. Make sure to tune in next Tuesday as the drama unfolds: Will Seattle Market actually play three weeks in a row and become the longest running series in the history of Seattlest, or will it peter out after this lackluster performance?
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