Burger Revival

It’s been 3 years since our last Burger Blog entry. WE KNOW YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEATS. The truth is that traveling, babies, and new jobs are life game changers.

Thank you to those that have asked about the Burger Blog—we appreciate your diligence. One thing has always remained: our appetites for scrumptious burgers. And so we’re back!

Our first stop back on Burger Boulevard is Lamar Lounge. If you've never been to Lamar Lounge, these are reasons enough to go: 1) the bar is a restored 14-seat 1800’s Brunswick bar which was once owned by legendary actor Eddie Fisher, and 2) all profits from Lamar Lounge are donated to Mississippi not-for-profit organizations.

That being said—Lamar Lounge does a decent burger.

The burger is appetizing to look at, (shout out to the French fries for being delicious). What’s nice is the waiter/waitress will ask how you want your burger cooked—to which most of us responded with medium, while one lived on the wild side and went medium rare. We all got medium or medium well done burgers. It’s not a steak, so we will let this one go, but I've never had a burger here that was perfectly cooked the way I wanted it. Such is life.

Cheese does not come with the burger; you have to ask for it. They have your standard choices of cheddar, Swiss, and American. Then it gets crazy – they offer PIMENTO CHEESE for a cheese on a burger. Ummm, how cool is that? Respect, Lamar Lounge.

It was mentioned that it would be nice to have had a fully constructed burger. Our toppings (mayo, mustard, ketchup.. etc.) were not already built together. The condiments were placed on the side and we had to put it together ourselves.

The absolute biggest disappointment of all was the price of the burger. $12. Pick your jaw up off the ground. Okay, it’s a really tasty burger, and the fries are worth the trip alone, but that’s the SAME PRICE as a burger you would get at Snackbar, a way more upscale restaurant. And the Snackbar burger includes the frites covered in parmesan magic with some kind of heavenly mayo concoction. To be fair, they may have just recently raised their price $2; which could be related to the increase in beef pricing, yadda yadda. You get it.

Sidenote: The Lamar Lounge burger also has an Econo Burger available on their menu. This is a smaller portion size and can hold the same ingredients. A perk for those trying to eat less, or eat on a budget.

Bottom-line, good burger, we all agreed we would eat it again. We gave it a cumulative score of 14.5 out of 25.

Curious on how we score a burger? Brief breakdown on judging: burgers are judged on a scale of 1-5; 1 being the lowest, five the highest. Five categories: Style, Taste, Content, Satisfaction, and Price – max points a burger could receive are 25.

A special thank you to our guest judges Susan and Will for joining us in our Burger Revival. 

Tell us your thoughts! What do you think of the Lamar Lounge burger?

Ajax

Happy 2012, everyone! Sorry the Burger Bloggers are slackers to the -nth degree. We all got really busy, but now we’re back, and we’re hungry. It’s basically our New Year’s resolution to eat more burgers. Who doesn’t love a juicy slab of cow? I digress; sorry, vegetarians. I’d like to throw out an honorable mention to the veggies that help make burgers so dang delicious.

And just as an FYI, I’d like to let you know that the burger bloggers DID get a chance to try Ferdinand’s burger, (when it was still around), and it was delicious. Actually, the burger was fantastic, thanks to Oxford local Kyle Sanders who made it, but the service was, let’s just say, less than pleasant. That experience left us with a bad taste in our mouths, and we did not go back.

And on to our AJAX review. It has to be said that most of us agreed the burger is delicious (except Jill, who just thought it tasted like meat on a bun.) It is a burger that is worth eating a second time. Ajax uses cabbage as a side compared to most restaurants that normally use lettuce. I like that about Ajax, it’s different. However, the sides don’t expand much past cabbage, onion, pickles, tomato, and mayo. And all of our burger buns were cold. Not icebox cold, but you could tell it had been chilling in a fridge. Those of us who asked for onions noticed that they were not only lacking, but were thrown under the burger. It was a little of a disappointing arrangement of burger content.

Overall, we did enjoy this burger. We gave it a cumulative score of 18.2 out of 25. The burger costs $6.50 and that’s not including the cost of cheese at $0.50. The only real disappointment we faced was the bun.

Ajax, as a whole, does few things wrong as an establishment, which is why it’s such a local favorite. You can order cheese fries and get a side of gravy with it. Whaaa? If Ajax ever became a late night munchie place, I know Rebel Ride would have to change its drop off location. 

Ajax Burger Judges: Greg, Jill, Beth, and mystery guest

Breakdown of Average Scores:

Style: 3.75 / 5
Taste: 3.75 / 5
Content: 3.1 / 5
Satisfaction: 3.7 / 5
Price: 3.9 / 5

How was your Ajax burger experience? Try it for yourself! Let us know how it went!

-Beth Ziegenhorn

Round Table on the Square

On a hot afternoon in Oxford, MS, we decided to give one of Oxford’s newer restaurants a try. The Round Table on the Square is located, as its name suggests, on the city square. Those who have frequented the many establishments in that area might remember that spot as The Blind Pig’s old address. They have many items on the menu classified as “southern fare,” but we were interested in the burger. Since we were there at 5:00 pm for dinner, we didn’t fight a crowd to get a table. We sat on the back patio, where we sat under an umbrella and listened to classic rock, playing the “I’m Out” game with the random songs.

Now, I have tried the Palomino Burger before, and it was delicious. That is a burger cooked to order with pimento cheese and bacon in addition to the regular burger condiments. To keep with the spirit of fairness, we may only rate what is considered the normal burger at any restaurant, so that’s what we ate. It was great.

The burger is cooked to order as I mentioned before, and the cooks were pretty accurate. Mine was medium rare, and was just as juicy as I hoped for. The ingredients are fresh, as their website suggests, and it sat between two slices of toasted ciabatta bread. The patty was seared and not too large for the bun. They only had two choices for cheese, cheddar and pepper jack, but that was fine with me as I love jack cheese. Overall, these elements combined to create a pretty tasty burger.

Greg's Round Table burger on ciabatta with fries

The price of the burger is $8.00 and that came with fries, which were great as well. Washing this meal down for me was a cold Miller High Life in the can. This was actually a plus for me, because I like when you can get a beer in a can at a restaurant. Two Stick does this with PBRs, as do other places in Oxford, and it makes me think of barbecues and get-togethers with friends.

If you would like the objective view, the three judges for this date, Beth, Jill and I, scored the burger in 5 categories: style, taste, content, satisfaction, and price, on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best. Here are our results:

Style:                        4

Taste:                        4

Content:                    4.5

Satisfaction:              4.8

Price:                         3.8

Overall, a score of 21.1 out of 25. This so far is a pretty high score, but this is only the second burger in Oxford that we have rated. They make a darn fine hamburger, I must say. Their vegetarian options were almost none, but they boast a nice southern “comfort food” menu. Some good burgers, good brews, and good friends made this experience a very pleasant one.

-Greg Earnest

Proud Larry's

The first restaurant to be scrutinized on our grand burger tour was Proud Larry's, located just off the Square on South Lamar. We opted to go on May 31st, a Tuesday, because Tuesday is 2-for-1 burgers and beer day. So a burger which might normally cost $7.95 (plus extra for cheese) will only cost you half the price! And it comes with fries!

I've eaten the Larry burger many times, all on Tuesdays. For the price, I've not been disappointed. But if I paid full price for the burger, I'd be a little underwhelmed, and my fellow judging panel and guest judge Melanie Addington agreed. Firstly, when asked how we would like our burgers cooked, we responded medium, medium rare, medium rare, and medium. But only the medium burgers were cooked properly; the medium rare burgers were also cooked to medium.  The size of the burgers was lovely, though. They weren't kidding around when they say it's 8 ounces of beef. I dare say it might be more. They do offer all the staple condiments (lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle on the side, mayonnaise, and ketchup) as well as creole mustard and a toasted wheat bun, though we all felt the wheat bun detracted from the burger for some reason. Additionally, they offer a selection of six cheeses: cheddar, swiss, mozzarella, provolone, bleu, and pepperjack. The ingredients, sans the lettuce, were all fresh and tasty.

Beth's Larry Burger with onion, swiss, lettuce, and fries

Overall, Greg, Beth, Melanie, and I gave the Larry burger a 17.25 out of 25. It's not a bad burger, but not the best. At the end of our meal, we were full. It was a lot of food, and for the price, it's a deal you really can't turn down. For around $10, you get two burgers and two High Lifes. 

Words from Katherine, our fry judge: The fries weren't bad. But don't dip them in mustard.

-Jillian Pecoraro

The Adventure Begins.

Beth and I like to eat meat. So much so that we have been known to have meals we call "Carnivorefests." In the quest for meat, we eat a lot of burgers. They are delicious, affordable, delicious, and readily available. But whose is best? This is a question we are determined to answer. After much thought and discussion, we have decided that this is a project. A project with an answer determined by science. This is an experiment, and at the end of the experiment, we will know which restaurant has the best burger in Oxford.

To begin, we needed to come up with standard judging criteria. In an effort to be consistent, we have created score sheets to take to each restaurant to judge their fare. Burgers will be judged in five categories: style, taste, content, satisfaction, and price. Each category is worth five points, adding up to 25 points for overall score.

We've also established some rules in our efforts to be consistent, fair, and sometimes bossy.

1. No ridiculous extras. Just get staple condiments. Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, cheese, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, or any combination of those you see fit.
2. Get fries with your burger. If that's not an option, chips or some other potato-based food will suffice.
3. Eating burgers is not laborious. You must enjoy your work!
4. Drink beer when available.
5. This goes without saying, but burgers have to be made with beef.

And who will be doing all this judging? The answer is a team of very qualified burger eaters: Beth Ziegenhorn, Greg Earnest, and me, Jillian Pecoraro. We will go to every restaurant in Oxford that isn't a fast-food restaurant (we qualify that as places with drive-throughs), eat their burger, and score it, all while putting the results here. And we will have some help. We will bring along guest judges to get different opinions. Meaghin Burke is our Chief Correspondent in Charge of Vegetarian Affairs (Her scores won't be included in the official burger score, but it will give some insight into Oxford's vegetarian options.) And Katherine Fields is our Fry Judge.

Our first burger experience: Proud Larry's! Check in for updates!