Mikado (Bountiful, Utah)

Burgers and sushi! More details to come.....

(Santa Fe, NM)

More to come.....

Heartland Brewing (NYC)

Bunless burger. More details to come......

BLT (Downtown NYC)

More details to come.....

Guy's American Kitchen and Bar (New York City)

The bunless burger at Guy's. More details to come.....

Bar Symon Kitchen and Taphouse (Pittsburgh Airport)

Bar Symon Kitchen and Taphouse is proof that airport food can be good.  Do you hear that airport restaurants of the world?  It IS possible to serve up tasty, yummy food in an airport environment!  I promise.

Bar Symon is one of many restaurants owned by celebrity chef Michael Symon (you may know him from The Chew or Iron Chef).  He is also a James Beard Foundation award-winning chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America so he knows his stuff.  As evidence, I present to you the photos below.

Exhibit A

Exhibit A.  The Yo! Burger for $10.  This delicious little morsel is topped with capicola salami, provolone cheese, shasha sauce, and banana pepper rings and is served on a challah roll.  I have no idea what shasha sauce is, but it was mighty tasty.  Personally, and because I might be a wimp about these things, the banana peppers were too spicy for me so I picked them off.  The burger was very tasty, especially with the BBQ coffee sauce (see exhibit C below).  So good, in fact, it has me hoping for another connection through the Pittsburgh airport in the near future.  Yo!, indeed.

Exhibit B

Chips fried on-site with a dip made with avocados, bacon, and bleu cheese.  I have never once thought of putting bacon in guacamole but the minute I read the description on the menu I knew it was genius.  And it did not disappoint.  It was so tasty and I stealing this idea and adding bacon every time I make guacamole at home from now until forever.

Exhibit C

Bay Symon has its own sauce on the table called Coffee BBQ.  As a devout lover of cover, I knew this would hit the mark for me.  The coffee flavor was very subtle, but it was there.  I really enjoyed dipping each bite of my burger in the Coffee BBQ sauce.

So, the next time you find yourself in the Pittsburgh airport, I highly recommend you bring your appetite on over to Bar Symon.

To see their menu:

http://www.unitedconcessionsgroup.com/pdfs/barSymonMenu.pdf

The Copper Club (Ogden, Utah)

SR ordered the chicken tacos (spicy!) instead of a burger but was very grateful that someone at her table did order a burger.  From Guest Blogger CA:

I ordered the Build Your Own Burger.

You have your choice of meat. Beef, Turkey or Veggie. I chose beef. It comes on a freshly baked brioche bun with lettuce, tomato, red onion and dill pickle. 

You have your choice of fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings or house salad. For a dollar more, you can upgrade to seasoned fries. I upgraded to the garlic parmesan. Definitely upgrade. Yummmmm.

Now comes the real choices. Cheese: They have American, Swiss, Provolone, Bleu Cheese and Havarti. Sauce? BBBQ, Garlic Aioli, Teriyaki, Chipotle. Toppings: (you can choose 2). Sautéed Onions, Pineapple, Mushrooms, Jalapenos, Cilantro, Bacon, Avocado, Chili, Fried Egg, Onion Rings.

My burger was Beef, Havarti, Garlic Aioli, Sautéed Onions and Bacon. The beef was a little dry, I ordered medium rare, but would say I got medium. However, it appeared to be a freshly ground beef patty, not the frozen disk. I hate the frozen disk. So, the beef was tasty and a good size, just a bit dry for me. The cheese was melted all over, I couldn’t taste any garlic aioli, but the sautéed onions were done right. The bacon was nice and thick and done perfectly for my tastes. Crispy….

So overall a great burger, but the garlic parmesan fries hit it out of the park!!!

The Build Your Own Burger is $9.50 for a single and $11.50 for a double. The upgrade to the seasoned fries was $1. Like I said, UPGRADE! They also have Cajun or Rosemary seasoned fries.

I am already thinking about my next burger, the options are endless. Oh, and I definitely want to try their wings.The beer, wine and cocktail selections were good and reasonably priced.

Had a great time at the Copper Club.

Roosters (Ogden, UT)

Somewhere in Oregon

LD's (Richmond, Utah)

Guest blogger NH, joined VL and a few other co-workers for a Saturday spin on the motorcycles.  Sadly, SR does not own a bike and therefore couldn't go.  And clearly, the lesson learned is that the burgers from LD's are so good, SR might just have to purchase a motorcycle so she can join in the next ride.

NH custom-created his burger with pastrami, swiss, bacon, and mushrooms.  Here it is, in NH's own words:

"The burger tasted like velvet beef.  The patties were done on a cooktop and steamed with some sort of au jus that was amazing.  Perfectly cooked bacon and seared mushrooms made this burger divine."

NH declares it "definitely one of my top five burgers of all time."  Now that's a ringing endorsement.




For future reference:
LD's 
39 W Main Street
Richmond Utah

Bobby's Burger Palace (Washington D.C.)

Dear Bobby Flay,

I know who you are; but I must confess, I've never gone out of my way to find you before.  I don't DVR you on TV, I've never eaten at one of your restaurants, nor have I ever purchased one of your products.  That is until now.  Color me a very smitten fan.  I must apologize because I seriously had no idea what I was missing.  I now know, and intend to tell the world (at least those people who read this little blog, that is) that I am in love with Bobby Flay and his food!

Sincerely,
SR

The outside of Bobby's Burger Palace.  

The funky decor.  I love how it was all communal, cafeteria-style tables.  How fun to mix and mingle with strangers 

At Bobby's Burger Palace (or the BBP, as I'm sure all the cool kids are calling it), you can get your burger "crunchified" - which basically means it includes a generous pile of chips on top.  Which, by the way, make an incredibly satisfying sound when you squish the burger down so you can fit it in your mouth.  Oh yes, you must crunchify your burger

The L.A. Burger ($7.75) comes with avocado relish,  watercress, cheddar cheese, and tomato.  It's shown here without the cheddar cheese.  Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it?  This burger was so good, we each wanted to order another one, right on the spot.  Unfortunately, none of us had room for a second burger.  Sigh. 

 The Miami Burger ($7.75) comes with ham, swiss cheese, pickles, mustard, and mayonnaise.   It was like a Cuban sandwich and a burger beautifully and perfectly mixed together.

See those bottles behind the burger?  They are important because they are delicious.    One of them is called the BBP Burger Sauce and it is amazing drizzled on top of the burgers.  We loved it so much, we purchased four bottles to take home with us.  One of us (who will remain nameless, and not just because this blog is anonymous) forgot to put our four bottles of BBP Burger Sauce in her checked bag and TSA nearly confiscated it.  We would have none of that though and paid an extra $25 to check another bag just so we could get our precious sauce home........it was that good.

In addition to being able to get your burgers "crunchified," for $8.50 you can also get them "topless," which essentially means without the bun.  And if you really want to be wild and crazy, you order it "crunchified" and "topless" like we did.   Perfect for those of you who might be allergic to gluten or trying to cut carbs.  You can get any burger "topless" and this one happens to be the Bobby Blue Burger.

The Bobby Blue Burger ($7.75) comes with blue cheese, bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes.  Would you just look at that crumbly blue cheese and perfectly cooked bacon?  Delicious.

One person in our group (an always-hungry teenage boy, go figure) could not wait for me to take a photo of his burger before he dove right in.  He was loving it so much I literally had to beg him to set it down long enough for me to snap a  picture.

As a side dish, you can get french fries with fry sauce for  $3.00.  The fry sauce was very popular at our table.

Or you can get sweet potato fries with honey mustard horseradish sauce (also $3).  The dipping sauce had a bit of a kick, but in a good way.

The frozen cactus pear margarita ($5.00).  Love the contrast in colors of the pink drink and the green lime.

Cheers to you, Bobby Flay, and your Burger Palace.  You have just won a spot on my list of favorite burgers.

For future reference:
http://bobbysburgerpalace.com/index.php

The Cheesecake Factory (Arlington, VA)

The Cheesecake Factory