The Artery Killer

Chelsea Tavern
821 North Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Score 7.2
$$$$$

Kenneth: After my first trip to Wilmington, I heard of a deep fried burger, of which my friend’s father wouldn’t stop raving about.  After a little research, I found out it was the "Dirtier" at Chelsea Tavern.  Walking into Chelsea Tavern, you are greeted by a large bar in the front, with a selection of thirty beers on tap, and causal dinning that features a lot of local favorites with a flare in the back.  After being seated in the back and reading what was on the "Dirtier," I became fearful for my own well-being, or at least the well-being of my arteries. 

          The "Dirtier" features a hot sauce-dipped, beer battered, deep fried, pat LaFrieda house blend patty topped with crispy scrapple, fried egg, and blue cheese on a brioche bun.  I ordered the burger medium and added the lettuce and tomato that came with it.  First off, the brioche bun didn't stand a chance against all the grease this burger supplied.  It started to fall apart midway through the burger and became complete limp by the end.  If you have ever had deep fried food, you know the first few bites are mostly batter, and this was the case here as well.  Here, you only tasted the scrapple, hot sauce, fried egg, and some of the beer batter; but when you reached the patty it was surprisingly juicy.  The batter kept in all of the juice and flavor of the meat in my medium patty.  The mix between the crunchy batter, scrapple, and juiciness of the egg gave the "Dirtier" a good mixture of flavors and textures.  However, I wish they chose a bun that could hold up to this burger because outside of the bun, the burger was pretty good. 

          Deep frying a burger is different and not for the faint of heart, or anyone with a heart problem for that matter.  Overall, I truly enjoyed this burger; but I could feel my arteries and veins slowly becoming clogged. Every sandwich Chelsea Tavern offers comes with either their hand cut trio fries, which were great, or a chili horseradish aioli salad.  Even you don’t try the "Dirtier" you should try everything else Chelsea Tavern has to offer.

Overall rating 7.2

The Bane-a Palena

Palena
3529 Connecticut Avenue
NW Washington, D.C. 20008
Score: 7.0
$$$$$


Tom: One finely crafted burger… but that’s all.  That’s what Palena restaurant/café/market in NW Washington DC offers.  This no muss, no fuss burger is cooked on a wood fire grill and is the only sandwich-type fare presented on the menu, offered simply as the Palena Cheese Burger.  Left with no options, I ordered my meal of the mid-rare variety and waited hungrily.  My experience with restaurants that only offer one burger has been very good in the past.  It usually means they feel the chefs have achieved some sort of perfection and there is no need to water down the creation with different choices.  On the contrary, if they are wrong, they are usually gloriously wrong.  The burger was delicious.  The meat was an expertly crafted balance of flavor that sent my taste buds spinning.  Blanketing the meat was a truffle-infused sharp cheddar and a modest spread of house aioli.  Often referred to as culinary sorcery by my wife, the truffle oil added a bit of exotic wonder to the already flavor packed burger.  The aioli did its job perfectly by adding a touch of creaminess without overpowering the beef.  The burger came on a platter the size of Kentucky and was accompanied by 4 house made pickles.  This is a great way to visually demonstrate how badly you are ripping-off your patrons.  For $13 you get a tasty, but modest burger and 4 bizarre pickled items (who’s going to put pickled cauliflower on a burger??).  When this appeared before me I instantly knew I would leave hungry.  It may sound piggish, consumeristic, or plain American but a 6oz meat patty with a bun, no matter how delicious, is just not enough food for a burger night.  When referring back to the menu for the ever-important side of fries I was slapped to see: shoestring fries - $8.  WTF! Somehow the “shoestring” bit of the name made the whole experience seem even stingier.  Good burger, but the restaurant cheapery lessened the overall ranking.

Home Town Bar

Harvest Moon

208 West Green St.
Snow Hill, MD 21863
$$$$$
Rating 7.2

Back home in the little town of Snow Hill, Maryland, I couldn’t resist venturing to the local town pub “Harvest Moon”.  The décor is old country with lots of moons and sun around a little island bar in the middle of the pub that is connected directly to the kitchen. Harvest Moon specializes in different types of bar food and many local comfort foods such as soft shell crabs and crab cakes.  In the far corner there is a mini stage where local bands and djs perform, while the bar is stocked with standard domestic taps but also features some local beers such as EVO from Salisbury, MD and Burley Oak brewing company. 

On to the true topic at hand, Harvest Moons serves a cheese burger with cheese options of swiss, cheddar, American, and provolone topped with applewood bacon.   I ordered the burger medium with swiss and it served with healthy portion of lightly salted fresh cut French fries, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and slice of red onions.  When the burger arrived it was cooked perfectly medium and was served on a thick potato roll.  The bun was thick, soft and lightly toasted and made the 8-9 oz burger look huge.  After the first bite, I realized the meat was well seasoned and juicy with all the juices kept in by the potato bun.  The second bite contained a healthy portion of the applewood bacon which was sweet and salty paired well with the texture or the burger and the flavor of the bun.  Overall, the burger came together well, but I wish the bun was not so thick and was tough to get through.

Rating 7.2