San Diego Burger Club went to Green Acre at Campus Point today.  Four of us went and opinions were very divided, with two members rating the burger an A- and two rating it a B.  We compromised and agreed we would rate it a “B+ with a high standard deviation”.    I was one of the B raters and in my particular case I think a B is generous.  In fairness I like my burgers relatively plain though (pickles, ketchup, and mustard only in most cases) and here they had pickles, some kind of custom ketchup formulation that was not to my liking, and no mustard in sight (maybe they had mustard in the back — I didn’t ask).  Also, in my opinion my burger was overcooked, kind of dry, and not that flavorful.  On the other hand, the two A- ratings came from people who ordered the “Fancy” burger, which comes with brie, slow-roasted tomato, leek, and, in one case, bacon.  So, with respect to the burgers, maybe Green Acre is a good place to go if you like a “Fancy” burger.  Those of us who ordered the “Classic” burger were less impressed.

Fries:  Okay let’s talk about the fries for a minute.  It may not be obvious from the picture, but their only form of fries are something they call “root fries” which consist of three kinds of potatoes — purple, sweet, and kennebec.  In my opinion there are four acceptable forms of potato to go with a burger, but sadly for Green Acre purple and sweet are not among them.  My list consists of kennebec, curly, waffle, and tot.    Putting that aside, several of us felt that the fries were undercooked / not crispy enough.

Other Sides:  Why oh why do they put a salad on your plate when you are ordering a burger and fries?  I mean, you didn’t exactly go for the low-calorie choice — are you really likely to want a salad?  (actually one of us did eat the salad — the rest picked at it or left it alone)  Also, I have always wondered why the thing pictured below is put in salads.  Don’t know what it is — don’t want to know — don’t want it on my plate.    One of our members looked at this and aptly quoted Ron Swanson from the TV show Parks and Recreation:  “There’s been a mistake.  You’ve accidentally given me the food that my food eats.”

Drinks:  No Coke Zero.  No Diet Coke.  They do have some kind of organic cola or something, but they don’t have a diet version of it.

Atmosphere:  For at least two of us this was our first time going to Green Acre, and it was hard to find.  There are several buildings with 10300 on them and we weren’t sure which one housed Green Acre or where Green Acre was within them.  After asking several people we managed to find it — it’s in the back of the northern-most 10300 building.  We arrived around 11:50am and it was not crowded at that time, but it did get pretty full during the lunch hour.  We sat outside and, while it was only supposed to be a high of 68 today, something caused it to get surprisingly hot over the course of the lunch hour.  Despite the forecast I think the temperature got to 70 or so, but also the direct sun exposure and possibly the fact that we were sheltered from wind caused the outdoor dining area to get uncomfortably hot during lunch.

Cost:  Some of our members work in the complex where Green Acre is located so we got a discount on our bill.  With tip our lunch ended up being about $10.50 each, which is pretty good for a burger in/near La Jolla.  Keep in mind though that we shared three orders of fries rather than each getting our own, and everyone had water to drink.  A “Fancy” burger is $10, “root fries” are $3, and if you want one of their fancy sodas or iced tea or something, I’m sure you have to add a few bucks more.  So, I’m guessing a typical order with tip and without discount will be more like $18.

As you might guess, Green Acre was not my favorite burger joint.  Our members who ordered “Fancy” burgers did really like their burgers though, so I hope they will chime in with additional comments.

San Diego Burger Club went to Burger Lounge today.  Our initial destination was The Corner — which we wanted to visit one last time before they closed permanently.  Sadly, The Corner was not open for lunch today.  Next, we headed to Hodad’s since we were in the neighborhood.  Strike two!  Of all things, a suicidal gunman with a rifle was in his apartment in the same building as Hodad’s, and the police had that block cordoned off (these details come to you courtesy of Jim).  So, we ended up at Burger Lounge (on 5th Ave. right near Nicky Rottens), which wins points for (a) being open, and (b) not having a gunman with a rifle in the building!  Also, they make a decent burger at Burger Lounge!  Everyone enjoyed their burger, with the consensus being that the burgers rated about a B+.  The fries were a big hit as well — cooked well and seasoned just right.  A couple people got milkshakes and they were a big hit too.  The cashiers were a little slow taking orders, but the food came reasonably fast and there was adequate seating in the restaurant despite the moderate line when we got there and the fact that it was in the middle of the lunch hour (12:25pm) by the time we went from The Corner to (near) Hodad’s and finally got to Burger Lounge and ordered.  A classic burger, fries, and a soda cost $14.25, which I would say is a little on the high side for a burger where you go up to the counter and order, but it was good.  If you are in the Gaslamp Quarter and are looking for a fast, good burger, give Burger Lounge a try.  But, if you have a little more time and don’t mind spending a little more money, walk 30 more steps down 5th Ave. and get an even better burger at Nicky Rottens.  

I thought I would take a quick diversion and review a surprisingly decent hamburger that I had on a recent Delta Air Lines flight.  When you think of a hamburger being served on an airplane, you don’t exactly think about someone standing around near the cockpit cooking burgers on a grill.  Expectations are low because it has to be reheated – presumably in a microwave – and that should mean a flavorless burger and a soggy bun.  Well, it never ceases to amaze me how Delta manages to make the bun taste toasted, make the burger look like it was recently grilled, and preserves most of the burger taste.  This burger was decent!  It’s not anywhere near an “A” burger.  It’s more like a B- or a C+.  But honestly you would expect a burger on an airplane to be very disappointing and instead, this burger was very acceptable.  Let’s move on to the side.  Look at those pathetic looking scalloped potatoes.  I mean, who eats a burger with potatoes that are not fried?  But Delta has worked some kind of strange magic on the potatoes as well.  The potatoes are spiced nicely and are served just a tad al dente, giving them a nice flavor and texture.  It’s still just plain wrong to serve a burger without at least the option of getting a potato in the manner in which it was meant to be served (fried!), but if there is no option for french fries or tater tots, at least this second rate alternative tastes decent.  So there you have it – I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to get this burger and if someone served it in a restaurant it wouldn’t stand out at all.  But, at 38,983 feet above the earth with no grill or fryer available, Delta has worked some magic to turn what could have been a sorry meal into a surprisingly acceptable burger experience.

San Diego Burger Club went to Five Guys in UTC today.  The consensus, with one contrary view, was that the burgers and fries were good and that Five Guys gets a B rating.  A regular burger, regular fries, and regular drink cost $12.93 with tax.  On the plus side, a regular burger comes with two patties and a regular order of fries is pretty big.  I would characterize the burger as “juicy and delicious” (which always reminds me of Cypher eating steak in The Matrix …), though there was one dissenting view.  Also, how can you go wrong with free peanuts (unless of course one is allergic to peanuts) and with those “Freestyle” Coke machines that have 100+ flavors of Coca-Cola products?  On the downside, the fries are more greasy than at many burger joints, and one of our members attempted to order off the “secret menu” and apparently this location does not participate in the “secret menu”.  There also were a few comments about the sometimes-surly-service, including the fact that the cashier neglected to provide one member with their cup for water.  We arrived at 11:45am and Five Guys was busy but the wait was short.  It was another beautiful day in San Diego and there was sufficient seating outside, so we were able to enjoy our burgers, fries, peanuts, and flavored soda in the sunny outdoors.  As The Governator says, “I’ll be back.”

San Diego Burger Club went to Bare Back Grill for our first meeting of 2014.  It was a beautiful day in Pacific Beach so the open air nature of the restaurant was fitting.  We got there about 11:45am and it was not very crowded, nor did it get crowded during the lunch hour.  People ordered a variety of burgers and the consensus was basically “good burgers, interesting/different spices (in a good way), probably about a B+/A-“.  The cost ended up being about $15 each (plus tip).  There were several comments about the spices standing out and making it hard to taste the burger flavor.  I got the Bare Burger pictured above, which is about as plain as they make a burger, and even I was trying to figure out what spices were in the burger that made it taste a bit different.  The fries were a little different too and ultimately we figured out (and the waitress verified) that the fries had sugar on them.  Everyone enjoyed their lunch and thought the burgers and fries were good — they just didn’t have the “pure burger taste” that we were expecting.  We enjoyed it though and I definitely would go back.