THE RAGING SPORK

There are some days where I just get that insatiable craving for a whopping, greasy, succulent patty of meat covered with oozing cheese. Top it with some grilled onions, lettuce for texture, and a nice full bun with a mound of crispy fries, and I’m having a good friggin’ day. Truly, there are few other foods as universally pleasing and unabashedly heart-stopping as the American burger. And symbolically speaking, few other foods are so intimately tied to the identity of a nation, both as an item of nostalgia, and as a cultural ambassador. (ex. McDonald’s in China and…well…everywhere else) More recently, the evolution of the “gourmet burger,” has revamped the image of the hamburger from greasy fast-food staple to high quality, gastronomic fare. Chef Hubert Keller, of Fleur de Lys, continues that trend, with Burger Bar, serving kicked-up Americana with some of Keller’s French culinary roots thrown in.

As far as atmosphere, Burger Bar sorta reminds me of me in seventh grade: awkward and trying too hard to fit in. For one, it’s located in a mall. For most, mention mall and food, and names like Sbarro, Cinnabon, McDonalds and the like pop up. Yet here, amid the tiled walkway and next to the hair salon, we find a restaurant fathered by one of America’s best chefs?

Walking inside, I found myself thinking, “classic sports bar on steroids.” Deep wooden accents, high booths, beer signs, photos of locals and a long bar lining one side of the restaurant connote a simple, classic pub. But this is soon betrayed by the merchandising and plasma TVs stuffing the walls. Everywhere. No joke, the wall above the bar is lined with Burger Bar tees and underwear, along with plasma TVs simultaneously showing three or four different sports channels. And every booth has a TV built into the side. Every freakin’ booth. A bit excessive in my opinion. I’ve never been a big fan of TVs in restaurants, I’ve always found them to be distracting from the food, the people you’re eating with, and the conversations you’re supposed to be having with them. All in all, it felt like someone tried too hard to make the place feel like a sports bar or a neighborhood pub, ending up instead with one big contrived gimmick that felt like neither.

Allow me a moment to say that the idea of a gourmet burger has always confused me a bit. Take a cheap, quintessential American comfort food, the “food for the masses” if you will, and throw in the best of haute cuisine, the antithesis of the common man’s food. Like putting roasted duck in peasent’s gruel. In my eyes, the gourmet burger concept parallels much of fusion cuisine. If done carefully, thoughtfully, and with respect, intriguing and phenomenal flavor combinations can be achieved, grounding people in familiar flavors, while introducing new ones to the mix. On the other hand, if things are just haphazardly thrown together, the result can be directionless, disastrous, and disrespectful,(think Southwestern egg rolls) leading to what some foodies call, “con-fusion cuisine.” Then again, if all that is “gourmet” about gourmet burgers is the higher quality ingredients, then the concept makes a little more sense.

Verbal diarrhea aside, it’s on to the food. Ordering a burger here is kinda like building your own teddy bear, everything is customizable. Rather then specific pre-made burgers, the menu lists off a plethora of ingredients ranging from jalapeño bacon, prosciutto, and fried egg to lobster, black truffle, and even seared foie gras. (Yes, foie gras.) All of them are grouped into categories like: the Farm, the Pantry, the Earth, the Ocean…etc…all from which you can pick and choose to compose your burger. Included are six different selections of meat: Ridgefield Farm Beef, Black Angus Beef, Buffalo, American Kobe, Colorado Lamb, and Turkey, as well as several different bun types. You can even choose the types of fries you would like.

This build-your-own burger concept is like asking a girl out on a date, things can either go very well for you, (if you know what you want) or horrifically bad. (if you…well…don’t) Indeed, the world is your oyster, perhaps, overwhelmingly so. Luckily, for the indecisive ones among us, some pre-selected chef’s burgers are also available on the menu, including the over-the-top Rossini burger, made with a Kobe beef patty, sauteed foie gras, shaved truffles, and Madiera sauce served on an onion bun, all for a hefty 60 bucks.

I ended up going with a Black Angus patty, topped with jalapeño bacon, avocado, caramelized onions and pepper jack cheese on a sesame bun, with a side of zucchini fries. I definitely like it when a burger place serves big, thick beef patties…like a half-inch or so, making it possible to have a nice, pink, medium-rare center. I feel like most patties sold these days are simply too thin for this, and thus, can only come well done. Anyway, the portions at this place are pretty generous…this was a big burger. I can’t really describe the flavor as anything other than…beefy, but the texture and execution were great. Nice and moist, with a bright pinkish center.

The jalapeño bacon, which they apparently soak in jalapeño brine, was a little disappointing. It didn’t really have the fatty bacon flavor I was hoping for…dulled bacon flavor at first, followed by a spicy kick. As if combining the two flavors had resulted in a milder version of both. I wasn’t too happy with the avocado portioning either. They gave me a quarter of an avocado…not cut into slices, just an awkwardly shaped quarter that didn’t really sit too well on the burger, and kept on sliding off. The zucchini fries were good for about the first two minutes, after which they started getting a bit soggy, as is their tendency. All-in-all, it was a well executed burger, with only mediocre flavor. The problem with these build your own burger places though, is that a bland burger can be the fault of your decision-making. Maybe I just didn’t pick the right components.

The meal continued with a chocolate burger, one of Burger Bar’s dessert burgers. A halved donut holds chocolate ganache, sliced strawberries, mint leaves, and passion fruit, with each part meant to imitate bun, patty, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese, respectively, in a savory burger. This may have been my favorite part of the meal. The fruit really lifted the flavor, while the mint leaves really added a light, fresh zing, so as to counter the heaviness of the donut and chocolate. Short and sweet and not too heavy.

All-in-all, I wasn’t totally impressed with Burger Bar. While the burger was cooked right, most of the components lacked the flavor to make it an exceptional burger. Add in an environment that can’t decide whether it’s a decked out sports bar or a friendly neighborhood pub, and one walks away a bit confused, and not exactly content. Especially for 17 bucks. Then again, it could be all in how you choose your parts. I get the feeling this place has more to offer than what we had on our one trip here. And in the end, it’s difficult to judge a place with such variety on just a small sample of its ingredients. I’d be willing to return to mix n’ match. Throw in a couple pints (or more) of the pretty extensive beer selection, and maybe my opinion will improve.

Burger Bar
Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino
3930 Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702-632-9364
Make sure to keep an eye out for Robert Horry. Robert frickin’ Horry.

Oh, and I write too much.