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)