Good news! Burger Week has been extended due to the current storm. Click here for a list of the restaurants that will still be participating on Thursday. Unfortunately, the burgers I’m about to show you are not on the list.
Yesterday marked my last planned Burger Crawl. I met up with MGyver and Tinfoil at Dee Dee’s where we had to stand around awkwardly waiting for our veggie burger to be made. Fortunately a seat opened up just in time, and we got to sit down and examine the thing properly.
- Veggie Burger at Dee Dee’s: $5
They really should have advertised this as a slider, because it is quite small. The patty consists of carrots, beans, seeds, spices and locally sourced beets, which give the patty its purple colour. It is topped with lettuce, tomato, hot sauce and mayo. The passport says fried onions, but I don’t remember seeing or tasting any. Perhaps the best part of this burger was the home-made sweet potato bun.
We had much better luck at The Ardmore Tea Room. I had been hearing buzz about their “Benny Burger”, so I figured I should follow the burger buzz to the source of the commotion. I knew I would find a burger with back bacon, fried egg and hollandaise sauce. What I didn’t realize was that the patty would be hand-made, caramelized a bit on the flat top and placed in a friendly sesame seed bun with a thick slab of back bacon and a yellow oozing egg. We split 2 of these among the three of us, and we were tempted to order a couple more because they were bang on! This should be a regular menu item…
- Ardmore Benny Burger: $5
After eating so much ground beef all week, part of me was really starting to crave fried chicken, even if it came on top of more ground beef. So we drove all the way to Bedford to make a special trip to Chickenburger. Now, say what you want about the Chickenburger. I say it is a place my family always stopped at on our way back into the city. It’s vintage décor is historic, not fabricated. Its wholesome approach to fast food is manifested in the fresh beef and onions frying on the flat top. I say they make good little burgers, and their chicken burgers are a modest beauty. Chicken -> Bun –> Mouth. That’s how it goes. Outsiders may not get it, but it is simple perfection to me.
It’s a bit of a novelty to get buttermilk fried chicken at the Chickenburger, not to mention buttermilk fried chicken that has been placed on top of a hamburger patty with cheese, “frizzy onions” and a spicy mayo honey mustard sauce.
- Chickenburger’s Burger Week Special: $5
The buttermilk chicken was crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. It may have drowned out any flavour from the beef, and I may not be the biggest honey mustard fan, but it was quite satisfying.
When I was a child I would always make my Dad put “Monster Mash” on the jukebox. This trip was not going to be the time I broke tradition… well, unless you count eating a buttermilk mutant burger instead of the usual classics, washed down with a super thin milkshake. But hey – it’s Burger Week, and when in Burger Week…