Sunday, March 4, 2012

A Tale of Two Burger Joints

This past month we visited two good burger places in the area: Chuck's in Raleigh and Bull City Burger & Brewery in Durham.

Chuck's is another one of Ashely Christensen's places and is located right next door to another of her places Beasley's Chicken & Honey which we enjoyed back in January.  The waitress walked us through the menu since it was our first visit and there is a lot to cover.  Choice of burger size, meat or veggie, special combinations with explanation that they would not make some substitutions if the combination was not going to be flavorful (important point considering the intensity of the cheeses and other toppings), explanation about the fries and details about the various fry sauces.  Finally, a review of the limited draft selections that did include some good local beers. 

We both opted for the larger half pound version of the burgers with the idea that we would take home leftovers and we shared an order of the half pound Belgium fries.  The sauces we selected were Espelette Aioli and the Comeback Sauce. The fries were worth fighting for and next time I think I would opt for a sharing one burger and each getting our own half pound of fries.  They are the good, hand cut, steak-style true Belgium fries meaning large and "meaty".  And the choice of sauces was fun but we definitely preferred the Comeback Sauce (horseradish, mayo, ketchup blend) over the Espelette Aioli.

Notice I started with the fries and that is because while the burgers were good, the fries were the stars of the meal at least for me.  Brad ordered the High and the Valley which has avocado, bacon onion jam, and blistered red peppers.  I had the Spirit Animal which has cream cheese, roasted poblano chilis, grilled tomatoes, and tortilla dust.  The burger toppings on both were very tasty and the meat was cooked perfectly, tender and juicy.  We had heard several people complain that the burgers are too salty but we did not think that at all but maybe it depends on the toppings.  One other note about the burgers is that my sister-in-law got the smaller size and it came on the same size bun and about the same amount of toppings as what I had only it had a much smaller burger patty.  The ratio of the toppings to bun to burger is certainly better on the half pound so I recommend ordering that and sharing if you prefer smaller amounts of food.

Not long after visiting Chuck's we paid a visit to Bull City Burgers & Brewery.  There is definitely a difference in style and decor with Chuck's being a small basic eating place and Bull City being a working brewery with a large bar and picnic style seating.  Chuck's has table service for ordering while Bull City is an order at the counter and take a number to your table for food delivery.  We opted to sit at the bar and the bartender gave us a walk through the beer selections as well as the menu options. 

First off if we are just talking about a cool place to hang out then Bull City wins simply for being a brewery with a full bar with a great selection of beverages.  Brad started with The Bulls IPA and I had the Clay Street British Style Ale from the beer engine.  Both were very good.  The bartender had recommended the Clay Street as a highly drinkable beer and I agree.  Second round Brad stayed with the IPA and I went for the Boar's Russian Imperial Stout which I much preferred to the Ale not only because I prefer stouts but also because this was a very good stout.

Another area where Bull City wins is the selection of bar snacks and a selection of hot dogs on the menu.  To go with our beers we opted for the Bull Nuts which are NC peanuts heated with their house cured bacon, sugar and salt.  YUM!  Meaty pieces of really good bacon with really fresh peanuts.  For the main feast we decided to share the Southwestern Burger which was the special burger of the day: onion loaf, gruyere, house bacon, bbq sauce, lettuce on poppy seed bun.  Third area where Bull City wins is the house baked buns versus purchased potato rolls at Chuck's.  The burger was fantastic and once again I loved the topping combinations but what is more I enjoyed the flavor of the meat.  This burger was much more flavorful than what I recalled having at Chuck's.  I was disappointed to be sharing the burger because I wanted more.

On the downside, I was not a fan of the Duck Frits.  They were fine but they are the very thin fry crisps in duck fat with rosemary and salt.  The rosemary and salt flavors were great but I prefer meaty fries so next time will order their Dirty Fries instead.  To be fair the menu does describe them as skinny fries but I felt they were more like potato crisps than fries.

Both places are fun for trying interesting burger toppings but for us we would prefer to go back to Bull City for the flavor of the actual meat in the burger and the use of the house baked buns and of course for the nice beer selections.  However, don't be surprised to see me happily wolfing fries at Chuck's!