On The Scene: Grindhouse Killer Burgers on Piedmont Grand Opening

Oh Lawd I love me some burgers.

A member of the Atlanta burger elite, Grindhouse Killer Burgers, opened another location on Piedmont and had their grand opening party this past Sunday. If you're familiar with the other location (I could have sworn I posted about it before, but I guess I didn't), this one is way different from a logistics and layout perspective. More like an actual restaurant, not a burger counter.

Our participation in the grand opening party consisted of eating a bunch of awesome food (below), drinking several $3 beers and watching Tongo Hiti, my new favorite polynesian-surfy-loungey band from Atlanta. There was other stuff going on and after we left there was a burger eating contest. I didn't know there was going to be one, otherwise I would have prepared appropriately. Ever since the advent of Man Vs Food I've been looking for a good food challenge.

The entire feeling and concept of Grindhouse makes me fall in love. Maybe it's my affinity for off-beat styles or the marketing professional in me that's in love with the 'brand' they've created. I love everything about this place. Even the band, it fit perfectly with the vibe. Like a juxtaposition of the 'Grindhouse' movie concept. A chill loungey band grooving along like it's a 1970's horror flick and the main characters are riding a coastal road in California on their way to a gruesome ending. But at the last second, they stop in for a delicious burger and the killer misses them completely and chooses to attack some vegetarians instead. Everything turned out better than expected for our main characters this sunny day...so, yeah, as far as the idea of Grindhouse goes, I'm sold sold sold.

Appetizer. Cheesey Poofs. Deep fried pimento cheese. Holymotherofgodilovepimentocheese. And this was deep fried. Came with a sauce, I dipped one in, and it was good. I understand how it helps cut the sheer insanity of a giant ball of fried pimento, but I liked being over the top with mine.

I got the Grindhouse Style burger  (American Cheese, Grilled Onion, Lettuce, Pickles, Grindhouse Sauce) and instead of American cheese I got...Pimento. Seriously, I love pimento cheese. My wife had the Dixie Style (fried green tomato, pimento cheese, carolina cole slaw (diablo sauce on request)) and DAMN, it was good. I pride myself on making damn fine menu choices and this time she won the non-existent, but still sort of real in my head, competition.

It's obvious care goes into the burgers from start to finish. Here's a snippet from Atlanta Magazine on how the ingredients aren't accidents, the components of the burger are all very selected:

Brounstein obsessively researched the details for his burgers. The meat, freshly ground by a small North Carolina producer and delivered every day, consists of a secret blend of chuck and brisket. The bun (“very important”) is a soft potato roll made by a Pennsylvania Dutch bakery named Martin’s. The sauces are homemade. A fancy nickel-plated grill, shiny as a mirror, ensures that the patties cook evenly without sticking.

And then they wrap it all up, halfway, like a burgeritto. The presentation makes it obvious that these burgers are churned out with more love than surburban  burger darling, 5 guys.

I am a Vortex homer, I love that place and I have eaten there way more times than I can count. I am, however, about to become a father and you can't take kiddos into Vortex. So until my kid is 18 or I choose to go to Vortex on a kidless night, Grindhouse is my new ITP burger joint. I do have plenty love for both and an appetite for them to match.

cheesey poofs OMFG CHECK THIS

Poofed Cheese guts

GRINDHOUSE STYLE

DIXIE STYLE AND SOME BANGIN O' RINGS

Greek Burger from Crystal Beer Parlor in Savannah

Yes another tasty burger and quite unlike any burger I have ever had. Crystal Beer Parlor is one of our favorite places to go for a good, yet quick, bite to eat in downtown Savannah. They have a wide range of burgers and today I decided to jump out on a limb with the Greek Lamb Burger.

The burger is ground lamb that is then grilled to perfection. It is then topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, Tzatziki Sauce, and I added on feta cheese for the extra dollar. It was like having a Gyro as a burger, but only better. As always I got the onion rings as my side. It is a must that you always get the onion rings when eating at Crystal Beer Parlor.

Farm Burger In Decatur

My awesome department did some volunteer work a little south of Decatur last Wednesday. Since we're usually confined to the Duluth area, I was jazzed at the prospect of going somewhere different. My vote was for Farmburger and everyone else went along with it. I've heard a lot about Farmburger and love the concept (grass fed beef, local products, sustainability), but just haven't gone yet. Most recently, Farmburger came up a few times in off-blog discussions of my trip to Flip Burger, so FB was fresh on my mind.

The inside of the restaurant has a no-frills feel to it. Long picnic style tables are surrounded by tall barstools and high top tables. (I ended up sitting with a stranger on one side of me. It turned out just fine.) They had a special, but since it was my first time, everything looked special. My first choice was a No.1 - the Farmburger, but with bone marrow added. I've mentioned it before - I can't resist ordering weird stuff. There was rain on that part of my parade though...bone marrow was SOLD OUT. I was temporarily stumped, but my boss and the cashier started talking about the No.6. house cured bacon, sunny side up egg, pepperjack cheese and salsa verde. Both my boss and I were convinced - No.6 it was. We also had a fries and onion rings basket. Pics and deeper descriptions below.



These fries were cut from amazing and deep fried in delicious. The dipping sauce was paprika mayonnaise. I'm not sure what was in it, but I'm going to have my wife attempt a recreation. I suppose she'll start with paprika and mayo. (apologies for the blurry pic. I was hungry)

Here's the mess of burger. Yum yum fun. This did not have the house 'FB' sauce, so that was a bit of a bummer, but the burger was very tender and the bun was good enough for me to mention it. I normally wouldn't mention a bun unless it sucked but this bun we good enough, so I mentioned it. Twice now, actually.

This was funny. Not true, but funny.

Green Truck Neighborhood Pub

This is a new restaurant here in Savannah that offers fresh food with the best in local and organic ingredients. The majority of the menu is their grass fed 100% beef burger selection. I went with the Flathead (burger with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and provolone cheese) and I must say that this was a tasty burger.

Keeping with their theme of fresh, they make their own ketchup at Green Truck. I will admit that I am a Heinz snob. I actually frown on restaurants that use Hunt's products and think that if they are skimping by using Hunt's...what else are they skimping on? The homemade ketchup took a little getting used to, but it worked perfectly on the burger and was a nice compliment for the seasoned fries.

The unknown is now known and I will gladly venture down this road again to try some of the other burgers on the menu.

Flip Burger Boutique in Buckhead

I got a jolt to head ITP for dinner this weekend. My wife and I are by no means afraid to head down 85S into the big city and usually make the trip for some kind of event or dinner every couple weeks. Not counting our biweekly visit to the Dekalb Farmer's Market. There are so many options when it comes to dining in Atlanta that it can be difficult to make a decision (case in point, we went to 3 different places on my birthday: Brick Store, Leon's Full Service and Young Augustine's), but the decision to go to Flip Burger Boutique's Buckhead location came pretty easily for some reason.

Flip Burger Boutique is one of a few handfuls of burger joints around town. It is owned by Top Chef runner up, and currently on Top Chef All Stars, Richard Blais and has a distinctly different look than the others and after going there, I think the 'boutique' part of the name describes it well. There are 3 locations total, Midtown, Buckhead and Birmingham, AL. Our choice, the Buckhead location, worked out well for us since we're from Gwinnett and generally despise the parking situation (or lack thereof) in Midtown.

When we walked in I felt like I was in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Everything was futuristic, from the booths (they are like mirror images if you look at the pic below, the top could also be the bottom) to the simple white tables and shiny chairs. There were touches of an older style mixed in - like the antique looking frames around the flat screen TVs. It appeared there would be quite a wait, but we were given a table fairly quickly; the hostess said she "liked 2's".

As far as the menu goes...wow. I definitely set a record for the number of times I changed my mind about what to order. I am a sucker for weird stuff (organs, glands, raw meat, etc) and exciting flavor mixtures so there was plenty for me to choose from. I finally settled on roasted bone marrow for an appetizer and picked the Churasco for my burger. My wife got the Local and we split a side of onion rings. For dessert she picked the Nutella and Burnt Marshmallow milkshake. (They have a Burger of Today. Today's (Dec 7) burger: szechuan chicken - tempura fried chicken, chili garlic glaze, puffed rice, stir fry vegetables, black garlic mayo. OMFG)

My gut's reaction: "Damn, that was a tasty burger adventure. I can't wait to go back."
Check out the pics below for some deeper descriptions and opinions.

Roasted Bone Marrow

The caveman inside of me has wanted to try properly done bone marrow for a long time. They served it inside of a big beef bone along with some BBQ -something- on top. I can't for the life of me remember what the hell it was on top because I was so enamored by the marrow. I do remember it was good. The marrow itself had a gelatinous/fatty texture to it and a flavor to match. This was great for me as I've been known to eat my wife's fat scraps from a good steak. Bites with some onion, marrow, BBQ whatever and the sauce were

The Churasco Burger

 Burger choice was the Churasco. Wood grilled, grass fed flank steak, chimichurri sauce, grilled sweetbread and some criolo salsa. The beef was awesome and cooked a perfect medium-rare. The sweetbreads (another first for me) were a fun addition. The flavors all around the burger were so bold it was tough for me to tell exactly what each one was, but they all worked together so perfectly that my first bite required a long quite chew. Which, for, me, is either a sign for "This is great" or "This is awful, I'm looking for a place to spit this shit out".

Close: Onion Rings - Far: The Local

 My wife ordered the Local. Maybe could have been seen as  a 'safe' choice, but also a 'this is definitely going to be good' choice. It was local grass fed beef, some local beef bacon, tomato, vidalia onion and house pickles. It came with Flip Sauce, but my wife ordered it on the side. Flip Sauce was described to us as the chef's take on Thousand Island. I thought that was selling it a bit short, but regardless of the description it tasted good and melded nicely with the other burger ingredients. I had more than my share of her burger so I can offer an official opinion that it was very good, but for the $14 price tag there are other burgers I would get instead.

Onion rings are a favorite of ours. Flip's Vodka Battered O-rings were great and O-face inducing. More along the lines of crunchy rings from the Varsity than sweet, doughy rings you find at some places. Served with honey mustard.

Nutella and Burnt Mashmallow Milkshake

 This was an easy choice for my wife, a Nutella fanatic. Nutella is ridiculously good and anyone that hasn't tried it needs to go have a jar of it for lunch. Unfortunately, this wasn't screaming Nutella as loud as we wanted. It had a chocoloatey malt taste to it and, as my wife said, could be more appropriately named a S'more shake. I'm not much for marshmallows, so my opinion is skewed, but my wife likes them and she finished every bit of it.

The bartenders take a blowtorch to the marshmallows on top, and then add liquid nitrogen. I'm not sure whether it affects the flavor of it at all or is just for show, but the show part of it is damn cool because it comes to your table with a cloud of frozen air or whatever around. Definitely a spectacle.

I don't know this woman, but she is probably from the future. 

The Mighty Eighth Burger from B & D Burgers

The food there is much better in the restaurant than it is to go. Tonight we needed to get our food to go and I wasn't happy about that one bit. That being said, this burger was still pretty tasty burger. The Mighty Eighth comes with sauteed onions and provolone cheese, along with the standard lettuce, tomato, onions, and pickles.

As for the fries, B & D always has a special "French Fry of the Week". This week it is Sour Cream & Chive Fries. Figured what the hell and gave them a try. They were ok, but the fries were cold and limp by the time I got the food home. Would have much rather had steak fries, but those weren't on the menu tonight. :(

B & D is still one of the best burgers in Savannah and is always a good place to drink lots of beer, watch sports, and catch all the UFC pay per views.

Ted's Montana Grill

Stopped off for lunch on the drive back from New Orleans at Ted's Montana Grill in Tallahassee (no bank robber with a bomb to stop us today). We started off with the Salt-n-Pepper Onion Rings. These were a perfect way to start the meal, but it would have been great to have a few more than what they dish out for this table serving. For my Bison Burger...I got the Vermejo. This burger is named after Ted's 591,000 acre (yes that number is correct) ranch. It is topped with the usual suspects and some great friends in the form of Monterey Jack Cheese, Grilled Onions, and Grilled Mushrooms. We might have been a few days late in getting to Ted's, but it was worth the wait.

Recent Mastications

Included here are the Italian Sandwich from Baldino's, Cheesesteak sandwich from Mellow Mushroom in Statesboro, a real sugar Dr. Pepper, the worst bagel & lox I have ever gotten from Einstein's (notice only one little piece of lox on each half), a Bison Burger & Rings from Crystal Beer Parlor in Savannah, a Orange & Pineapple shake from Tradewinds in Tybee Island, a onion and mushroom quesadilla, and some wings from Fresh Market.

Recent Mastications

Included here are a Mighty Eighth Burger from B & D Burgers, Chicken Parm from Carrabba's and Guiseppie's Pizza in Bluffton, bowl of Golden Grahams, Hot Pastrami from Subway, homemade pizza, birthday cake from Publix, Angus Burger from McD's, Triple Play of Chicken/Salmon/Steak from Longhorn's, the All-American "Burger" from Arby's, ABC Sandwich with Greek Salad from Atlanta Bread Company and a Real Fruit Lemon-Lime Slushie from Sonic.