picaman

I'll be there with Kirk in tow. Jamie

I visited Staunton a few years ago and I'd say it's a must visit for anyone into historic buildings or really neat old towns. Way cool. Indeed it is. I spent a few days here last year. My partner was appearing in a play at a theater festival there; the town has a detailed reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Well worth checking out if a performance coincides with your visit. Staunton is a great little town for a day trip or a weekend--close to Shenandoah and with lots of cool shops, antiquing, historic interest, etc. We ate at the Depot Grille and, while I don't remember specifics, I remember liking it a lot, from both a food and a historic standpoint. Jamie

We needed to do this road trip on the cheap, so uniting purposes seemed like a good idea Next stop on the Burger Club road tour was lunch today at Cold Harbor Restaurant on Route 360 (Mechanicsville Turnpike) in Mechanicsville, VA. We chose this place because it was the only local option we could find near our hosts' house (Applebee's and Cracker Barrel not being options for me personally... ) Not much to recommend here, especially after eating at The Beverley yesterday. Generic standard-sized food-service seeded bun that, unforgivably, was bigger than the slice-of-processed-cheesed burger itself. Asked for the toppings on the side, but the bun came smeared with mayo anyway. A chiffonade of iceberg lettuce (I left it off) and a nice ripe tomato slice (I put it on) accompanied, along with fries of no particular note. Onward and, hopefully, upward! Jamie

This burger sounds pretty good--I'm going to put it on my personal "must-try" list elyse: frustration alert. The referenced NY Times article refers to the Parker Meridian place as the "Burger Joint." Jamie

This is a VERY popular place and there is a great volume of food and good value, but in some respects it's Cracker Barrel gone horribly wrong. I eat there sometimes, however, because it's the favorite destination food for the in-laws. Strap on the all-you-can-eat feedbag! Jamie

Can't vouch for anything other than breakfast, but Haag's in Shartlesville, PA has an incredibly good family-style Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast. Who can quibble with a place where tapioca comes out as a breakfast appetizer? Also in the area, I like Risser's Diner on Route 422 in Stouchsburg, PA--great Schnitz und Knepp, an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe made with dried apples, ham and dumplings. I think there's great comfort food to be had in this region. Jamie

Burger Club is on the road Jamie

I'm now a resident of New York City, but after living in North Florida for most of my life (after all, south of Orlando is the North, and north of Orlando is the South ) I'm still a Southern boy at heart. My partner Kirk is performing as the character Hedwig from the play "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and is hosting two days of benefits for a local Richmond, VA food bank, so when I (a NYC eGullet Burger Club member) got a chance to sample some burgers on the road, it only naturally followed that I should tell everyone all about them. First up...the Beverley Restaurant on Beverley Street in the historic downtown of Staunton, VA. I'd been here once before and made a special trip back just to have lunch, and especially pie. More on that later--first the burger. The Beverley is run by several Southern women who dish up some of the best "meat and two sides" you will ever have. As good as I know that is, I made the ultimate Burger Club sacrifice and had a burger--and am very glad I did. My choice was the Beverley Burger; $6.10 for an enormous burger accompanied by your choice of fries or onion rings (both excellent.) Maybe the best part of the burger was the bun--a potato-based roll made on premises that was eerily reminiscent of those wonderful rolls I hope you were fortunate enough to get from your cafeteria in elementary school. It was soft and pillowy, yet sturdy enough to hold up to a very substantial burger with a multitude of toppings. The burger itself was a hand-formed patty approx. 3/4" thick, perfectly molded but not overmolded--the texture of the ground meat remained intact. The meat was high-quality, and I would estimate an 80/20 meat/fat ratio. The patty was grilled in a slight amount of butter, and had a perfect amount of juice without being overly greasy. A perfect amount of salt had been added to the meat before grilling. Toppings came on the burger, and included romaine lettuce, a very fresh ripe tomato slice, raw onion, pickle slices, cheddar cheese, and 1000 island dressing. My one cautionary note would be that, while I liked the combination of toppings, they are not on the side. When ordering the burger, one should specify what you want on the burger or on the side. Overall, this was a nicely done burger at least on a par with most I have had recently. (For the NYC burger crowd, I'd rate it above Molly's and different from McHales, yet of equivalent quality in its own way.) Pluses would be the flavor and juiciness of the meat and the quality of the bun. Potential minuses would be a slight amount of sloppiness (not a problem to me) and the default inclusion of all toppings on the burger itself. Now, the pie. When Wallace Stevens wrote in his poem "The Emperor of Ice Cream" about "concupiscent curds," he must have been looking at a slice of pie from the Beverley. The pies are baked on premises from all-fresh ingredients. On the day we were there, nearly everyone had pie with their meal, and in fact, they did a brisk business of people stopping by to pick up pie slices to go. The one caveat is that when the pie is gone, the pie is gone. Choices on the day of my visit included lemon meringue, coconut cream, and chocolate pudding pie, along with a very nice looking apple pie. Upon my arrival, I saw one remaining slice of coconut cream pie which was immediately brought to my table for safekeeping, where it stood watch over my burger and sweet tea (91 cents). At $2.10 per generous slice, this has to be the comfort food dessert bargain of the universe. The crust is tasty and flaky, the coconut is freshly shredded and generously mixed through a perfectly-flavored custard base, and it's all topped with a high mound of wonderfully browned waves of meringue. In all, simple food done simply and perfectly. I'm in Richmond, VA now, and will hopefully be able to report on a great burger here. Locals--any suggestions? Jamie

Jamie

Maybe I'm being expeditious at the expense of scientific accuracy, but I think getting a disparate group of people to agree on standards or on weighting of criteria via posting on a message board is a Sisyphean task. Witness the debate earlier in the thread on toppings. In the end, I vote for an evaluative instrument that is nebulous enough to let participants interpret the criteria as they wish to, and that allows them to have fun eating a burger with a group of old and new friends as they record their thoughts. That said, as self-appointed recording secretary , I'm happy to help in any way I can to adapt the evaluation to reflect the consensus of the Club. Jamie P.S. My co-workers are intrigued and seemingly jealous as all hell at my weekend Burger Club adventure! Edited for pronoun reference.

Updated individual burger evaluation form As always, comments and suggestions welcome! This sounds good to me--I'd vote for same day and time (Saturday @ 1:00PM) every other week. Jamie

Good point. Perhaps the design of the eval form should clearly reflect that. I'll keep that in mind when making the individual form. Meat and Seafood Internal Temperature Cooking Chart: does this look about right? Jamie

I've been "picaman" on message boards since the dark ages of 300 baud modems dialing into BBSes--the name to me referred to "pica" the unit of measurement in printing, as I used to work in that biz. Also always found pretty amusing the double-entendre caused by mispronounciation (pick-a-man ) Had no idea until yesterday, though, that pica was an eating disorder characterized by eating inappropriate things. elyse, your formerly cryptic comment now makes sense! On a serious note, my sincere apologies if I inadvertently offended anyone with my choice of screen name. On a lighter note, I assure everyone that, other than a spoonful or chug of the occasional condiment, I limit my palate to a societally accepted palette. Off the topic of burgers, but thought it worth mentioning. Jamie

Every last one. Of course, I have them written down on the burger evaluations. Jamie

Twas not I. On either expressing that bit of wisdom, or on having Guinness. Whoever pointed that out is absolutely right, though. Twas me. Guinness, seediness, onion rings, heat lamps...clearly all too much for me to keep track of Jamie

I only had the one from MHesse's plate. I only took a second bite to make sure I wasn't paranoid. I may have lost track of the ring progression -- you are right. The one you had was off of MHesse's plate. At any rate, there were varying degrees of fishiness in my estimation, but the fishiness was ever-present. Good and warm to the right degree. I'd have preferred to get a lager and let the Guinness settle a bit, but I wanted to stay as sharp as possible. Two beers? I'm a cheap date One man's char... Jamie

Molly's burger positives for me included the quality of the meat, which I thought was very good. It seemed very fresh to me, and had just the right level of grind. It was hand-molded to a consistent thickness, but was not over-molded so as to lose texture. I also liked the moisture level--I agree that it was juicy but not greasy. Far and away the biggest negative was the saltiness, or rather, the lack thereof--I agree that more (or even some) salt would have definitely improved the overall flavor. I'd also say that the bun was a bit of a disappointment--a very average seeded bun. It's a good thing that the burger wasn't at all greasy, because this bun would not have stood up to that at all. I also left off all condiments so as to concentrate on the burger flavor, and think that ketchup would have made for a soggy mess of a bun. As for toppings and sides, I had cheddar--again, average melted cheese, nothing outstanding but certainly adequate. I left the rather unripe tomato off, along with the iceberg lettuce. Have to say, though...awesome pickle spear. Crisp and just the right bit sour. I had the onion rings and agree with elyse; there was, in my batch, a detectable fishy taste. I'm not sure I tasted that as strongly, though, in the one I had off of MHesse's plate. Maybe someone had an ill-timed fish sandwich? I did think, though, that at around $8, the burger was a decent value. Suzanne made a good point at some point -- with so many people ordering burgers at one time, we need to remember to tell the wait staff to bring them out as they come off the grill, so that they don't sit around in the kitchen under heat lamps. OK...I'm burgered out Again, from a social standpoint I had a fabulous time and much enjoyed meeting so many new friends And I'd definitely go back to Molly's in a heartbeat; the place was great even if the burger itself was just average. Time to concentrate on the Cubbies. The Marlins might come back from a seven-run deficit Jamie

Here is the link to the .pdf of the compiled Molly's evaluation form First off, I (and my partner Kirk) had a great time. It was my first eGullet event and it was great to put faces with the names of all in attendance. I can hardly wait for the next Burger Club! Oops...am I breaking the first rule of Burger Club? A few notes on the eval form: --Not all Clubbers evaluated the burger in all categories listed on the form, which is fine as the score for each category is the average of those who actually evaluated that category. --The final burger score is the total of the averages of each category. 20 categories times 5 possible points per category (burgers rated 0 - 5) = 100 points for a perfect burger score. --At Suzanne's suggestion, I've added space for timing of order and for grilling method. This is now on the summary sheet. --I'm going to work on an individual evaluation sheet which I'll post for upload, to aid in legibility. I'll use big type--didn't think of how dim the lighting was in some of these places! --I used MHesse's estimate on height, weight and thickness--seemed pretty close as no one brought a ruler. --I used representative comments at the top of the sheet for "Bun Details" and "Presentation" - just some things that people said for these things. For those who want a topline summary, here are the averages: Burger: Juiciness 3.3 Freshness 4.1 Texture 3.6 Saltiness 1.8 Meat Quality 3.8 Doneness 3.6 Browning 4.2 Molding 4.0 Greasiness 3.8 Temperature 3.8 Bun: Toastiness 2.4 Freshness 3.6 Quality 2.8 Seediness 3.1 Toppings: Quality 3.1 Quantity 3.3 Overall: Burger Aroma 3.2 Sloppiness 3.6 Appearance 4.1 Value 4.3 Total: 69.5 Any further comments on the setup of the eval sheet are welcome. I'll put my personal subjective comments in a separate post. Jamie

For years, my brother and I would drink (or whatever) and hit the Waffle House nearest our parents' suburban Atlanta home about midnight Christmas Eve/Day. Hash Browns, scattered and smothered. Never attempt this menu while sober. My favorite thing about Waffle House is they way they yell out the orders, which is sadly falling by the wayside as they computerize. Thus, my standard order: "Egg and cheese plate, double the plate, scattered, smothered, covered and diced" which translates into an egg and cheese sandwich (with 1 mayo packet and 2 pickle chips on the side) with a double order of hash browns with onions, diced tomato, and cheese. Some days I really miss the South. Jamie

Eddie Izzard at City Center I'll be at Burger Club along with my partner so that's 2. Jamie

Anything from any Waffle House. This is no contest Jamie

Ah. Eddie Izzard tonight and Burger Club tomorrow. Life is good. Jamie

Had dinner with a co-worker at McHale's tonight, and we gave an updated scoresheet a technical try-out. I've incorporated suggestions from elyse, Suzanne, and others, and ended up with 20 categories so that on a scale of zero to five, a perfect burger gets 100. I took out the categories that people didn't like, got rid of the tiebreaker, and added blank lines under each category that can be used for defining the point ranges or for comments. Oh, and Caramelization has been changed to Browning Let me know if you have any further comments! Jamie

I was a vegetarian for 10 years and a vegan for five of those. Craved bacon the whole damn time. Jamie

While I admit I don't do it consistently, you can make your own fresh pasta and whatever quick topping in the amount of time it takes for the water to boil. The dough kneads in the KitchenAid while I make an easy topping. And the pasta gets cranked through the Atlas while the topping simmers or whatever. The total cooking time is actually a bit less as the fresh pasta takes less time to cook. It ain't perfect technique but it's better than dried pasta. The main reason I don't do it as much as I should is that I'm mostly lazy after working all day, and I don't always want to be so frenetic. Jamie