Meat Market by Day, "Meat Market" by Night

One of the many benefits that writing on a food blog is that I not only get to try a lot of different restaurants, but also that every now and again, I come across a diamond in the rough. When fellow food blogger Kathy and her husband joined up with me to attend the 2009 National Hamburger Festival back in July, we quickly discovered that there were only two vendors who had horrendously long lines. The first was Crave. The lengthy line was understandable as Crave had won several festival awards this year. The second was the Windsor Pub. Unlike Crave, the Windsor Pub had won no awards. Only wanting to stand in one of those two lines, we chose Crave. However, we all agreed that at some point in the future, we would descend upon the Windsor Pub in order to figure out just what the heck was going on.

When I mentioned to my local Akron friends that I would be trying out the burger at the Windsor, most of them reacted with almost abject horror. No one knew if the reputation still held true, but apparently the Windsor was much more known for their late night singles crowd than for their burgers. I indicated that while it may still be true, since the three of us would be checking it out around 5:30 PM, I seriously doubted it would be that bad. Apparently, I was right.

The Windsor Pub is located on the southwest corner at the intersection of East Tallmadge Avenue and Brittain Road. More specifically, they are at 1322 East Tallmadge Avenue, Akron, OH 44310 and can be reached at 330-633-5211. I searched on the Internet for a website, but was unable to locate one. From East Tallmadge Avenue, it was pretty easy to spot where the pub was located. Here was the sign out front:


Hmmm, "Best Burgers on this EARTH." We'll see about that. After pulling in and meeting up with Kathy and her husband, we started walked toward the front door:


The bar is actually fairly large, with a room off to the right containing additional tables and the bar area with a number of booths and tables. I would have to imagine that if it were filled to capacity, you could fit several hundred people. However, at 5:30 in the evening, there were just the locals, maybe twenty-five or so. We found the best lit table we could and sat down to start examining the menu. I will warn you, gentle reader, that the florescent lighting in the Windsor was pretty bad, so every photo I took had an unhealthy amount of yellowish tint to it. I've done my best to clean it up, but in the process, it washed out some of the other colors, too.

Here are a couple of shots of the menu:





The menu was a lot larger than I had first anticipated. Even though I knew I was there for the burger, there was plenty on the menu that would draw me back if I decided to return for another meal. The burgers come in two sizes, 12 ounce and 5 ounce. Each burger also comes with fresh cut fries or for an additional $1.90, you can get your pick of onion rings, Windsor chips, curly fries, chili cheese fries, or spicy potato wedges. Knowing how bad my luck with "fresh cut fries" has been in the past, I knew that I would be opting to upgrade to one of the premium choices.

Before ordering our dinner, we decided to start everything out with a drink. I asked for what was on tap and our server ran through about six or seven choices, most of which had the word "lite" attached to it. Not wanting to concede defeat, I asked if they Guinness in the bottle. Sadly, the closest thing to a dark beer they had was Heineken Dark. It wasn't my favorite, but I decided to roll with the punches:


As you can see from the menu shots above, you can get one of the pre-configured burgers or just build your own. Kathy and her husband decided to order the Windsor burger and the Big Mama burger. I decided to go with something dirt simple and ordered the Plain Truth, a burger with cheese, lettuce and tomato. Kathy went with the 1/3 pound burger and her husband and I decided to go for broke and get the 3/4 pound burger. I also ordered the onion rings instead of the fresh cut fries.

One thing you should know about the Windsor's burgers is that you cannot specify what temperature to which you want them cooked. When I asked for my burger medium, the server kind of gave me that, "Ummm ...". She indicated that all of the burgers are cooked between medium well and well done. Fearing that I would receive a 3/4 pound hunk of carbon, I asked if mine could be closer to medium well than well done. I wasn't entirely confident she cared enough to pass the message along to the cook.

After placing our order, we settled in to enjoy the conversation and our beverages. Amazingly, within five minutes of placing our orders, the server arrived back at our table with the food. Cooking a 1/3 pound burger to medium well is conceivable to me in five minutes, but a 3/4 pound burger? I guess I'd find out soon enough whether I'd be sending it back to the kitchen or not.

Here is a shot of my burger and onion rings:


There was a very good reason for the steak knife plunged into the center of my burger. You definitely need to cut this very large burger in half in order to eat it. Here is a side shot of the burger:


As I said before, the burger was enormous. However, the burger was also delicious. Any qualms about beef jerky were quickly dismissed as I noticed that the interior of the burger was actually cooked just slightly under medium well. This meant the burger was also pretty juicy, too. Both Kathy and her husband also liked their burgers as well. The Big Mama burger comes with BBQ sauce as a topping and I got to sample a bit of the sauce on a curly fry. I actually liked the sauce; it was a nice balance between sweet, sour, and smoke. While I didn't try a full bite of the Big Mama, the BBQ sauce has inspired me to put that on the list of things to try the next time I come back.

The onion rings were clearly homemade and had been batter-dipped before being fried. The onion inside the ring was nice and meaty, although I think it could've been fried just a little bit longer as they had just a bit too much crispness to them. The exterior batter was only slightly greasy, and while tasty, was just a bit too thick for my taste. The best onion rings I've ever had were when the onions had an almost tempura-like coating on them. Don't get me wrong, I would definitely take the Windsor Pub's version of onion rings over almost anything from the back of a Sysco food truck.

In a nice turn of events, Kathy ordered the fresh cut fries and let me try one. While they were definitely the size of most fresh cut fries, they weren't at all limp or greasy. In fact, they were quite good. So good, in fact, that the next time I go for a burger, I might just decide to skip the $1.90 upgrade and go with the fries that come with the burger.

While I don't know how "family friendly" the Windsor Pub was, there really were a ton of choices to pick from on the menu, so there should be something for everyone. The establishment does have more of a "Bar and Grill" feeling to it rather than a "Grill and Bar." However, the food we were served really did live up to the long line we encountered over a month ago when we attended the Hamburger Festival. The food was tasty and very reasonably priced. While I think that Louie's does do a marginally better hamburger, the fresh cut fries at the Windsor Pub definitely blows Louie's right out of the water. I recommend that you check them out when you have a chance.

[Ed. Note: Kathy's blog entry about the Windsor Pub appears here.]

Getting A Good Burger At The National Hamburger Festival

This is going to be a long post. Enjoy!

I'm always in the mood for a good festival, especially one that focuses on food. The problem I find at most festivals, however, is that there are usually only one or two vendors selling food that is related to the main theme and a ton of other vendors selling food that has nothing to do with the theme. Cuyahoga Falls hosts a number of these festivals every summer and whether it is the Irish Festival, the Italian Festival, or the German Festival, plenty of elephant ears, burritos, and gyros can be found strewn throughout the festival space.

It was at the suggestion of my friend and fellow food blogger Kathy that we meet up for the 4th Annual National Hamburger Festival held right here in Akron, Ohio. She and her husband had attended the first two years of the festival but had missed last year's festivities. While the weather forecast did call for rain, fortunately we were spared Mother Nature's wrath, at least while we were there. And in fact, the weather was quite nice, mid-70's with a gentle breeze that kept the sweating to a minimum.

The festival has been held every year in Akron's Lock 3 park right on Main Street. The event organizers also cordoned off Main Street between University and Church Streets for the food vendors. Here is a shot of the banner as I approached the entrance at University Street:


While I know what this sign is supposed to say, doesn't the word "STOP" with the circle and line through it actually take on the opposite meaning ... "Don't STOP"? But I digress.

Once inside you approach the Food Ticket stand and purchase $1 tickets in whatever amount you wish:


I've seen this approach used at many festivals in the past and I suppose this works on two levels. First, vendors don't have to worry about maintaining a cash box or running out of $10 or $5 bills. Second, by parting with your money up front and receiving paper tickets, you are more prone to experience the "credit card" effect; that is, you don't really feel like you are spending money, just tickets, so you tend to spend more. However, the concern I have with the ticketing system is that generally you don't get refunds for unused tickets. Thus, if you buy $15 in tickets and only use $12, you end up with three fairly expensive pieces of paper to take home with you.

Because I had gotten there prior to Kathy and her husband, I decided to walk down Main Street and check out the various vendors. First up, White Castle:


They were selling their sliders for 1 ticket each, making them the cheapest place to get a burger. Oddly enough, other than the guy in the gray t-shirt, there was no else in line for these. Hmmm, I wonder why.

Further down the road, I noticed an enormous line that had formed for the Windsor Pub stand:


The sheer length of the line amazed all three of us. While none of us had ever eaten at this Tallmadge-based pub, clearly the line indicated that they must be doing something right. Or perhaps people just assumed that if there was a line, whatever is at the end of that line MUST be good. While none of us actually had the burger from the Windsor, we actually agreed that at some point in the near future, we needed to venture to the actual establishment and try one out.

The first burger I decided to try was from the Midway Oh Boy cart based out of Elyria, Ohio:


For some reason, the cart and the description of the burger evoked my memory of Swenson's. Not that I was expecting Swenson's, but it had that sort of local mom-and-pop type feel to it. Their signature sandwich is the Oh Boy, but for the same amount of tickets, I could get three sliders (called Baby Boys) that were identical to the Oh Boy, just smaller. Since there were three of us, I figured it would be the best way for all of us to give it a try.

Here is a picture of the Baby Boys:


These were so-so. The "sauce" that was advertised on the menu was really more of a doctored up mayonnaise and there was quite a bit of it on the burgers. So much that it become kind of a hindrance when trying to eat the burger as big gobs of it kept oozing out of the sides when you took a bite. The bun was fresh and lightly grilled, but the meat had a very odd texture to it. It was sort of compressed, for lack of a better term. It reminded me very much of the texture of a breakfast sausage patty. When ordering my Baby Boys, the woman taking my tickets did give me a 10% off coupon for their actual store in Elyria. I think I may hold onto it and stop in to give them a formal review some time in the future.

The second burger I decided to have was at the stand Crave Restaurant was working:


This was the other burger vendor that had as long a line as the Windsor Pub did. The difference, however, was that Crave had won several of the professional burger tasting categories the day before; the Windsor hadn't won any. Crave was also different in that they were offering pre-set burgers. In other words, you couldn't get a burger done "your way". There were three different burgers from which you could choose:


I decided to go with the Prairie Dog burger and my friend Kathy went for the Muffaletta burger. Each was a 4 ounce burger and cost 3 tickets. Once you made your order and paid your tickets, you moved to the right where the food was being assembled:


I have to say that these guys were operating like a well oiled machine. The guy in charge of grilling the burgers in the back would pass the finished ones to the guys in the assembly area. Here the various cheeses and toppings were added, wrapped up and handed to the customers. Even though the line was long for Crave, once I placed my order and moved to the pick-up area, I probably only waited about two minutes before my burger was ready.

The three of us took our burgers and walked to a tented area with tables closer to the Lock 3 stage. Here is a shot of my Prairie Dog burger wrapped:


And unwrapped:


The Prairie Dog burger had a mixture of American and Pepper Jack cheeses, grilled salami, spicy 1000 Island dressing, and fried onions. While this was much better than the Baby Boys I had eaten from Midway, this still didn't come across as a remarkable burger. Presentation issues aside (they were producing these at a very rapid pace), the flavor combination just seemed a little odd to me, especially the grilled salami. The spice level of the 1000 Island dressing was nice and added a dimension of flavor that was missing in my first burger. This wasn't a bad burger per se, it just occurred to me as I was standing there eating this that if this was the winner, do I even want to try the losers?

As we walked the entire length of the food carts, I was struck by an observation: no gyros, no burritos, no elephant ears! The organizers had wisely decided to make this festival about one thing, hamburgers and their various forms. In fact, none of the hamburger vendors were even allowed to sell drinks. That being said, there were some other carts available for non-hamburger purchases.

First up, WaffleMan and his hot waffle and ice cream sandwiches:


While this sounds like a good idea in theory, all three of us wondered how you would hold onto the hot waffle without burning yourself.

As with almost any festival or carnival you go to, the variety of fried foods was abundant:


The next cart was more specialized, French fries and freshly-squeezed lemonade:


By the time I got around to the next cart, I had pretty much already eaten my fill and was looking to leave the festival, but I thought I would stop and chat:


When I saw an Akron, Ohio location printed on the side of the cart, I figured they actually had a real building where they sold their ice cream and gelato. Unfortunately, this cart was all there was. The address on the side of the cart was actually for a refrigeration company, which the cart proudly displayed at the various festivals and carnivals it attended. So, sadly, I didn't and probably won't have a chance to sample their goodies until next year, assuming that they return.

The final non-hamburger stand I saw that looked interesting was this one in which a cooking demonstration was going on:


I didn't linger too long listening to the presentation going on under the tent, but I did manage to hear Rachel Ray's name bantered about, so who knows what they were talking about.

The final topic I wanted to cover in this post was the amateur burger tasting competition sponsored by the Akron Beacon Journal. There were two categories with five contestants in each category. You can read about the different finalists and get recipes in the Beacon article here. The competition was located right down at the Lock 3 stage. Here is another shot of a banner for the hamburger festival:


To the left of the banner is the stage where the judges sat and to the right is the grilling area where the contestants had to make their award-worthy entries. Here are a couple of photos of the grilling area:




It turned out that the woman in the orange tank top in the above photo was a relative of a friend of mine who was also in attendance. She had submitted the Farmers Market Bison Burger in the non-traditional category. Unfortunately, she only received third place.

The judges sat at the opposite end of the stage and awaited the presentation of the burgers to begin:


Judging today were (from left to right) chef Catherine St. John, owner of the Western Reserve School of Cooking in Hudson; chef David Russo, owner of Russo's restaurant in Peninsula; chef Louis Prpich, owner of Akron's Creative Catering; and Tom Loraditch, executive chef for the West Point Market in Akron. They didn't talk during the judging, but did share some words with the contestants and the audience before the winners were announced.

Finally, all ten finalists on stage eagerly awaiting the news of who won in each category:


So who won? In the traditional burger category, the Peppy Burger won. In the non-traditional category, the Asian Salmon and Shrimp Burger won. Unfortunately, the only people to try any of these burgers were the judges, so I can't really comment on their flavor. However, since the recipes were published in the Beacon, perhaps you can try them out for yourself.

With two different burgers in my stomach and a burger tasting contest under my belt, I decided it was time to pack up and move on. While some things impressed me about my experience at the 4th Annual National Burger Festival, my actual burger eating experience left me a bit underwhelmed. That being said, I do have a date with my friends to try out the Windsor Pub's burger sometime soon, so maybe there is hope for redemption.

I encourage all of my readers out there to support your local establishments, burger or otherwise. I know that attending today's festivities has at least given me several other places to try, and that's always a great outcome. Who wants to help me spend my 10% discount coupon at Midway Oh Boy?