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To Rouge from Baton Rouge-

GQ does it again. While in Philadelphia I was continuing the search for the best burger in the WORLD and came across Rouge. It was highly touted by many online reviews but the one that made up my mind for me was GQ’s “20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die” in which Rouge was ranked 4th…. 4th! It must be amazing then, right? If you recall, I followed this list’s suggestions when in Seattle, WA and ate at Red Mill Burgers. It was good but only ranked 17th. So, with the recommendations from other burger reviewers and GQ telling me that it was essentially a “life experience” burger I decided that Rouge would be my next Philly Burger Tyme! Fortunately for my wife and I we have some friends that live in Philadelphia who were kind enough to let us stay with them. So as a vote of thanks we treated them to this “one of a kind”, “inspirational” burger experience. On a cool Saturday morning before our adventure to Valley Forge, we made our way to downtown Philly, to enjoy a nice lunch. Philly is a cool city with a lot of really impressive old architecture and deep history. Rouge sits across the street from a nice inner city park and across from that a centuries old cathedral. With this view in site its no wonder that the outside is prime seating at Rouge. Fortunately for us the weather was pretty chilly so there was plenty of outside seating. We took our seats and thus began the fanciest burger experience of Burger Tyme history.

Seeing Rouge Again-

The Rouge Burger. $16. Reading the menu, the Rouge Burger seems like a culinary masterpiece. “Challah Roll, Caramelized Onions, Gruyere Cheese & Pommes Frites”. How could one resist such fine ingredients. While I was not sure what a Challah roll was, we placed our order for four Rouge burgers. While we waited we were treated with a warm roll and salted butter. I’m sure this was traditional for all of the entrees that Rouge serves, but it was a little odd to start off a burger with more bread. In fairness the roll was very good. Rouge was pretty busy at the time we were there which might explain the long-ish wait. After about 20 minutes we were brought our burgers. The first impression based upon how the burger looked was “Wow”. I could hardly wait to try it. It was served open face with the veggies on the side. So after a little assembly I was finally able to dig in. The patty was huge. It had to be 3/4 of a pound of beef and 3 inches thick. It completely overpowered the rest of the burger. Every bite all I could taste was beef. Some liked this as it was high quality beef. I however was looking forward to the mingling of the other flavors such as the caramelized onions and the gruyere cheese. This was not a very well balanced burger. The veggies were also of high quality and the pomme frites, or in English, french fries, we very good as well.

The Wrap it up-

The Rouge Burger. $16. This was the most expensive burger in Burger Tyme history. At $16 and being 4th on the list of “Burgers to eat before you die” I expected this to be the pinnacle of our burger journey so far. I was sadly disappointed. The Rouge burger, while consisting of high quality components, which in and of themselves are great, was a poor assemblage of a gourmet burger concept. I blame the overly thick patty. It was absurdly thick. I would recommend dropping the price a few dollars and shedding a 1/4 pound to allow the other flavors to come out. The balance was just not here. When in downtown Philly would I go to Rouge for a burger? No. I would walk a few more blocks and enjoy the $12 Good Dog Burger.

A second lesson learned here is that GQ and I have very different tastes in what makes a good burger. So far I’ve had number 17 and number 4 only to be disappointed at both when there were much  better burger options nearby. Oh well… fortunately there are plenty of resources for the burger tymer to find the best buger in the world. Many of which can be found linked to this site!

Update – Hubcap Grill – The Sticky Burger

Original review here

The Sticky Burger. What the heck is a sticky burger? After a long hiatus from Hubcap, I finally returned to downtown Houston and had a chance to return to one of my (and most of Houston’s) favorite burger joints, Hubcap Grill. I was pleasantly surprised to see the improvements they made since I last visited. There was a cover over the patio/alley/seating area, they installed fans to keep outside diners cool, and most importantly they had an actual menu instead of the dry erase board they were using. This menu included a few items that were new to me. Muffaletta burger, philly cheese burger, frito pie burger, and the sticky burger. I read the ingredients of the sticky burger; cheese, peanut butter, meat, and bacon… For some reason, that sounded amazing to me. When it was my turn to order I asked the lady behind the counter “Is the sticky burger good?”. “Ehh. Some people like it.” she replied. That response scared me on this first visit back so I chickened out and ordered my usual cheeseburger. It was good but for days I couldn’t stop thinking about the sticky burger. The sticky burger was sticking to my dreams like peanut butter on the roof of my mouth!

A week later I couldn’t take it any more so I went back. This time I confidently ordered a sticky burger and an IBC root beer (that’s kind of like milk, right?). I decided to save my heart and passed on the fries. Eager with anticipation I waited for the lady to bring out my burger. My patience paid off and out came what would soon become one of my favorite burgers. As you can see, this burger looks like a regular bacon cheese burger with no veggies. But what you can’t see is the two layers of crunchy peanut butter coating the top and bottom bun. I bit into it and the flavor was miraculous! The savory bacon, creamy cheese, and seasoned patty combined with sweet and salty peanut butter to make my taste buds sing. This seemed a lot more like eating a peanut butter sandwich than a hamburger but there was no denying that it was a bacon cheeseburger. As typical with peanut butter, the eating was slow going. The crunchy peanut butter added a wonderful texture to the burger experience. Thankfully this was not a dry burger. It was plenty juicy to keep the chewing going without becoming a chore.

I loved the sticky burger! So much, in fact, that I went back a week later and had it again. Consistently good! Consistently strange! I’m tempted to try the other odd burger choices that Hubcap offers, but I’m probably more tempted to just get another sticky burger and then take an afternoon nap.