Cheeseburgers in Pasadena

Since we moved back to Illinois, people don’t ask me much how I feel about the whole thing. Burbank wasn’t the right place for us, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t deeply miss the ocean and walking the beach, or being able to drive to a place like Disneyland or Universal Studios.

It’s hard to go through winter in Chicago but think what this time of the year would be like if we were still in Burbank (hopefully not 100 degrees). I still wistfully think we’ll make it back out there at least once under our own terms. We’ll find the right city to live. We’ll find the right place to call home. But for now, that’s not the case.

One of the biggest things I miss is our friends out there and the new places they took us. Whether it was Rocket Fizz, a shop dedicated to soda, or Yamashiro, being able to explore with friends was one of the biggest highlights.

So this morning when our friend Nikki messaged me with a plea to come back to California because next week was “Pasadena Burger Week,” I got a bit sad. I WANT to be back there, not just to see our friends, but to also take part in Pasadena’s Restaurant Week’s Cheeseburger Week.

It’s a week dedicated to the cheeseburger in the town where the cheeseburger was invented. I don’t even eat beef and I want to go to some of those restaurants. Of course, that would mean convincing Katie to try some of the stuff, but I think I could convince her to try Crepe Studio’s Estonian Burger, a crepe filled with beef and cheese.

It would probably be harder to convince her to try Slater’s 50/50′s FRITOS CRUNCH BURGER: A chili cheeseburger with a crunch! A Sterling Silver ground beef patty topped with melted cheddar cheese, signature chili, Fritos^® and 1000 island dressing on white brioche. I want to make a vegetarian version of that now. Stat. Now stat.

So, while I can’t visit Pasadena for what sounds like a great week of food, maybe those in California can eat a side of fries for me. Or maybe our friend Steve can try the Fritos Crunch Burger and get back to me on how awesome it is.

 

The Ram Restaurant & Brewery

I was asked to pick out a restaurant near Allstate Arena in Rosemont this past weekend. The in-laws were taking the family to a Chicago Wolves game, and while I opted out of joining them (because sitting in the Allstate Arena is near impossible for me), they wanted me to join them for dinner. The only problem was Rosemont is basically expensive hotel restaurants and subpar fast food. Well, that’s the only Rosemont I’ve seen. It’s O’Hare Airport’s city, so it almost comes across as a transient place to live. So many people travel THROUGH there you almost forget people live there, too. Needless to say I didn’t know where to take them.

On a good day, it’s a tough call to randomly pick a place. When you’re trying to not let down an entire clan, there’s even more pressure you put upon yourself. While they’re far more adventurous in dining than my family is, I wouldn’t want to take them to an unknown foreign food restaurant and hope for the best.  You don’t want to hope for the best in some circumstances.

What I found was The Ram Restaurant and Brewery. It’s not a local place, but a chain found in 5 states, getting its start in Washington. What surprised me was it’s a restaurant founded by the same group of people who founded Shakey’s, a fond restaurant memory of my youth. I used to love going to Shakey’s with my family. It’s where I learned such a thing as a pizza buffet existed. It’s where I learned the upper limits of how much pizza a human body could handle.

It turns out that for a chain restaurant, the food is far above average, although I can’t necessarily say the same for the beer. Nothing much struck my fancy, with their seasonal Big Horn S’No Angel Winter Weizenbock being my favorite of the ones sampled. It was a bit darker than I prefer, but the spice went well with the food.

The appetizer we went for was almost a dare. I mean, they were called Armadillo Eggs. Made with chicken, fresh chopped jalapeños, pepperjack cheese, “secret sauce” and seasonings, they tasted mostly like deep-fried cream cheese. You couldn’t much taste the chicken (oh yeah, I eat chicken now). But for a cheese lover, I wasn’t complaining. I love jalapeno poppers and these were a tasty distant cousin to those.

Like a lot of chain restaurants, their menu is massive. They have an ample selection of burgers, sandwiches, salads and more. My choice was the Chicken Amber Ale, a chicken breast marinated in an amber ale marinade, Porter BBQ sauce, slaw, tomato, onion crisps, roasted tomato-chipotle mayonnaise and a pretzel bun. They had me at onion crisps and sold me at pretzel bun. The chicken was tender and well marinated, and the sandwich itself was a sloppy mess with all those sauces. It ended up being a fork and knife situation by the end.

While the food was tasty and received accolades all around, there was one big problem. Most, if not all, of the burgers came out under prepared. Medium Well came out mostly pink in at least 3 situations. Luckily, the people who received the mis-cooked burgers didn’t mind the extra bit of pink, but it seems like something they should pay a little more attention to something like that.

Most of us agreed we’d still go back, and with the comic con coming up in August, I now have a place to direct my friends when we need something to eat. It’s a much better alternative to walking down to McDonald’s or ordering a $7 pizza from the convention center.  I’d most likely steer them away from the burgers, just to be safe, but otherwise it’s a nice place to have a meal.

Plus you get to tell people you ate Armadillo Eggs, and that’s always worth the price of admission.

Consumer Reports: “Why Your Favorite Fast Food Sucks/Rules”

The newly released Consumer Reports article isn’t going to shock anyone in terms of what they discovered when rating the fast food world of burgers, pizzas, tacos and chicken. It may shock you to learn that they think (insert your favorite restaurant here) in fact does not have good food, and why the hell are you eating there anyways?

In n’ Out ranks highest, which even I, a non-meat eater, would tell you. The burgers just look better than other chains. Not to mention their fries and shakes are outstanding. I would also tell you that Burger King ranks the lowest purely because of how awful the (late and not missed) BK Veggie tasted.

But go on! See for yourself! What’s your favorite fast food restaurant?

For the record, I can’t disagree with CR’s toppers. Although I do enjoy Baja Fresh if I can get it over Chipotle. So take THAT Consumer Reports.