sherribabee

Bacon. Cheddar Cheese. Pickles. (And yes, I will even eat them all together.) Pizza. Swiss Cake Rolls. Coke. Fried Eggs. Toasted bagels with ungodly amounts of butter. Kosher salt (as in I'll lick my finger, shove it into the box and eat a fingerful of salt) Hey whuddya know, I've just prepared tonight's shopping list. Cool.

Heh. Let's all order and wear eGullet t-shirts. Or will that get us kicked out?

Sherri "VP of Monkeywrenching" is in.

Apparently, we need to keep from lumping all Jackson Holes together. The one on 3rd Ave at 35th (?) makes a pretty good burger. I haven't eaten at other Jackson Holes, but I imagine the quality tends to vary from one location to another. And if anyone decides to go to McD's to try the Big Mac, count me out. I get ill just thinking about that place.

Well, I'll bring a camera to document the burgers themselves. Oh, and maybe some nametags!

So that's the second rule of Burger Club?

No you haven't confused me at all. I just think that if the house is going to practice rounding for thier own convenince, they should ALWAYS round down. If my bill is $29.99, I'd prefer to see it rounded down to $29.95 or $29.90 instead of up to $30. I think it's a better business practice to throw a few cents at the customer rather than steal a few cents from them. Especially if the restaurant is rounding as a matter of their own bookkeeping convenience.

Hee-hee. Spread the word, will ya?

So are we judging burgers solely on their bugeriness? That would mean absolutely no condiments of any sort, no? I think we should judge the bergers based on whether they're good when served the way we each like them.

I'm confused as to why they would round up as opposed to down. If it's a matter of making it easier/more convenient for the house, then they should certainly round in favor of the customer. Boo Balthazar!

Bananas Foster prepared tableside. If it involves fire, I'll like it.

We just order a side of bacon so we can eat all by itself. Quite frankly, I think the burger would take away from the flavor of the bacon, and we can't have that, now can we?

Well I'm getting mustard on my burger (the plain mustard), I don't care what the rules are. And PICKLES. Who eats burgers without pickles for chrissake? And cheese. And a little onion. And maybe some S&P. Can I have a Burger Club title too? Like VP in charge of Monkeywrenching or something???

I'm absolutely shocked at the number of bartenders who seem to have never heard of a Gimlet. It's certainly not a new drink. I had a bartender once refill my old glass, which had a bunch of melted ice and lime pulp in the bottom of it. That was lovely. Just last night I ordered a drink and asked the bartender to add a splash of cranberry. She handed me my perfectly clear drink and and when I handed it back to her asking again for the cranberry, she huffed at me and said she did add it. I watched her make the drink. She didn't add it. And um....hello...the drink is perfectly clear. So I asked her to please add some "more" and she dumped out half my drink and filled it with cranberry. I then thanked her and made some comment about how they should really consider advertising their complimentary mystery drinks and walked away from the bar.

I'm also in for a road trip to Philly. I have a few friends there I need to visit anyway.

...that we know of at least.

I'll be there. And I'll bring the camera.

What I keep in my desk: tin of vanilla almond tea, wasabi peas, trail mix, jar of honey, and various packets of condiments. What I keep in the communal fridge: flavored coffee creamer,and canister of oatmeal. I usually buy my lunch (too many yummy places nearby), but my wallet and my waistline are beginning to object to this practice, so now that the cooler weather is settling in, I'll be more inclined to cook at home and bring my lunch with me. I usually have lunch in the kitchen or a conference room with a group of coworkers. This office always smells interesting around lunchtime. Since 9/11, our company has provided each employee with "evacuation bags" (flashlight, whistle, rubber gloves, dust mask, radio, bottled water, etc.) I've added to mine a couple vacuum-packed bags of tuna, protein bars, peanut m&m's and crackers. This bag REALLY came in handy during the blackout. Our company also has a closet of emergency rations of granola bars, crackers, cookies, and other stuff no one seems to know about which is allegedly enough to feed everyone for 3 days in the event we might be trapped here. We also stock enough bottled water to fill a swimming pool (which also came in handy during the blackout).

I can do it.

Please excuse my ignorance, but does this mean you can't eat in a place that isn't kosher?

Here are the suggestions so far: Molly's Smith & Wollensky's Cafe Luxemburg Tavern on Jane Chumley's Blue Smoke Mchale's Luger's White Manna Landmark Tavern Burger Joint PJ Clarke's Fairway's Old Town Bar Corner Bistro Any others? The fries could certainly be a sub-category. They could serve as a tie-breaker in the event that we can't decide upon a "best" burger. How often do we wanna do this? Every 2 weeks (at which rate we've already got 7 months of eating)?

So, are we all OK with initiating our quest at Molly's? I can do lunchtime or dinnertime. Week or weekend. I'm flexible like that. Is the weasel (or ferret or whatever the heck that thing is) coming too? To eat the leftovers if we don't like the burgers?

and where will you get a decent steak for 11-15 bucks? Heh. I'm not necessarily saying I will, it's just that once the price hits $10 for beef, I better not be eating the ground variety.

Woo-hoo! I doubt I could ever bring myself to buy any of the $50 burgers in this city, so yes, affordable is key. When it comes to burgers, I think $10 is my limit. Otherwise, I'd just get steak.

I just woke up from my food coma. The food was great and Elyse's pie was every bit as good as it's been made out to be. It was such fun meeting all of you guys and I'm looking forward to another get-together sometime!