lukethedrifter wrote:I'm not saying I wouldn't eat that. And frankly, bleu cheese and sautéed mushrooms is a great burger topping. The lardons look damn good too.
But there needs to remain a place for a burger that is good beef, ground and cooked medium rare, with sautéed onions, salt, and sharp mustard. I think most people that don't like O'Connell's are looking for more stuff.
I can get behind that.
I'll admit, pretty much the only thing I look for in a burger in STL is the presence of the scoop o' cheese that you get at Blueberry Hill, used to be able to get at the Fatted Calf (pretty sure it shut down), used to be able to get at Dooley's (also shut down?), etc... The scoop o' cheese (or scoopeaux cheese, if you'd rather) is one of those dumb little nuances of STL cuisine that nobody ever talks about but seems pretty damn unique, and I loved it. Kind of like the St. Paul sandwich, except actually good.
I view restaurants like beer. Beer is good, food is good. Occasionally when someone offers you a popular one (Applebees / Bud Light), you'll probably turn it down unless it is free (and possibly even then). Otherwise, you know what you're getting when you order a Budweiser, Sam Adams, etc. or head to an Arby's, Five Guys, etc. It is probably going to be OK, and sometime you'll even want it. When you stray off the path, you may get something really good, or you may just get something that somebody put a lot of effort into but ends up sucking.
I'm a guy who likes to comfortably straddle both. I'm not going to thumb my nose at Chili's or a Yuengling. And I'll have a bit of nervousness when I order that chocolate habanero double imperial death stout or order anything with vegetables that I could not identify by sight in the produce aisle.
Based on the poster (silly, I know) I wasn't interested in The Founder thinking it would be a puff piece. But it's a good movie, and entirely damning. Keaton was great. The audio of Kroc in the end credits is wild.
Here in Portland, at least, there is a nice little postscript for the movie happening. Putting some thought and care (rather than not a pitiful, margin-reducing shred) into your food goes a long way. When the best thing McDonalds can say about their burger is that it no longer contains pink slime, buying something out of a truck that someone actually crafted with some sort of pride (or at the very least, is a single degree of separation from that person) goes a long way. Drops in the ocean perhaps, but meaningful drops nonetheless.
Also, that monster burger at Hardees is a keto person's dream. Order it low-carb style and they lettuce-wrap it. I add tomato and pickles. It's awesome.