Friday Food: Burger Jones

It's been too long, don't you think, since we had a burger quest? Yeah, we thought so too. We decided to check out one of the (many) new burger places that's opened this year. Some of them have had decidedly mixed reviews, but let's face it, the first few weeks of a restaurant's life are not usually their best. We waited until they'd had enough time to work out some of the problems, and took an expedition to Minneapolis:

Burger Jones, near Lake Calhoun. Burger Jones is part of the Parasole restaurant holdings and one of the burger joints that everyone fussed about when it opened. We went early, just to be safe. The interior is pleasant, not the overdone kitsch that I feared.

Service was friendly and fast, although oddly our appetizer order of cheese curds showed up with our meal. So there was a lot of food on the table at once.

The curds were good. Not State Fair good, but good.

I know it will shock you when I tell you that no one at the table ordered the White Trash Burger: a burger covered with chicken-fried bacon, cheese curds, and Velveeta. It just sounded overwhelming. Although I'd like to see one. No, we stayed with the basics.

Figuring (correctly) that the burgers would be sizable, DH and I split a plain burger, while the kids kicked it up a notch and split a bacon cheeseburger, "chronic" style--which means the fillings were doubled.

For grins and giggles, we ordered the tri-fry tasting tower, which has hand-cut russet, sweet potato, and Parmesan waffle fries, served with your choice of dipping sauces.

These were really good. The sweet potato fries dipped in chipotle aioli were especially tasty.

And the Teens split a s'mores malt.

 
They proclaimed it yummy.

But here's the thing. A family of four ordered 2 burgers, one order each of fries and cheese curds, one malt, three fountain drinks and two beers (cheap domestic tap)--and the tab, before tip, was almost $71. That's a bit on the high side--at least for what we got. Did we enjoy it? Yes, we did. It was tasty. But it was not $71 worth of fabulous. At least compared to some of the better burgers out there, like another Parasole spot, Salut. Or the not-yet-reviewed-here Vincent burger at Vincent.

In other words, if a place is going to charge upwards of $15 for a burger, it better be amazing. And these were good--but not amazing.

Amy Rea

Flyover Land , by Amy Rea, is about the best of Minnesota, and why you shouldn't just fly over.