Opening Day At The Rail

I first heard that Mike Mariola, owner of two highly praised restaurants in Wooster, Ohio, was thinking of opening a burger bar in the Fairlawn area all the way back in August/September of last year when I had the opportunity to review his flagship restaurant, South Market Bistro. At the time, he had left the bistro in the more-or-less capable hands of Chef Eric running the back of the house with wife Liz ran the front while he proceeded to open up and run The City Square Steakhouse across the street.

Noting that Mr. Mariola was absent at South Market Bistro that evening, I figured he must have been working across the street at the sister restaurant. My server surmised that he was more than likely out on the prowl looking for real estate for his new burger joint to join the burgeoning gourmet burger scene that has taken hold of Americans over the last several years. Putting himself in direct competition with other similar restauranteurs such as Michael Symon with his B Spot franchises and Sean Monday with his Hudson Flip Side restaurant, this new venture was sure to draw comparisons to more established eateries.

I learned that The Rail was opening for lunch yesterday and decided to give them an inaugural visit to see how high the bar had been set. The Rail was located at Summit Mall, nestled in between First Watch and PF Chang's with an entrance facing outward into the parking lot. For those with GPS requirements, the actual address was 3265 West Market Street, Akron, OH 44333 and they can be reached at 330-864-7245. While Facebook and Twitter accounts are no doubt in the works, the only Internet presence they have at the moment is their website.

After parking my car in the vast mall parking lot, I approached the front of the restaurant:


While seating was available outside, not-so-oddly since it was a hot day, no one partook of it. Here was a closer shot of the outdoor sign:


Once inside, I was pleasantly surprised to see that while the place was fairly busy on opening day, it was by no means packed. Visual comparisons to Flip Side and B Spot began immediately and while the three restaurants were not exact analogues of one another, they were eerily similar with their concrete flooring, rather Spartan wooden tables, and interesting hanging light fixtures. The Rail differentiated itself by providing a long communal table, which while empty when I arrived, had a fair share of guests sitting at it when I got up to leave.

Hanging on a wall across from the communal table were two chalkboard signs:



As with other high-end burger joints, The Rail goes out of its way to make sure you understand that the beef is local and from Ohio. In fact, to reinforce the Ohio concept, one look at the menu was all that was required:



To be honest, I had thoroughly studied the menu online before ever setting foot inside the door and I pretty much knew what I was going to order. Sadly, when I looked at the "Floats" section on the physical menu, the Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout Ice Cream Float had been replaced by a Guinness Ice Cream Float. However, as a lover of Guinness, I was willing to make the substitution. Unfortunately, I learned that the tap system was only partly in place and even more unfortunately, neither Guinness nor Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout would be available. More than pumped that I could potentially get Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout on draught sooner rather than later, I acquiesced and decided to wait until my next visit to procure this heavenly sounding concoction.

I went ahead and ordered my burger and side and within just a few short minutes, David Drumm, General Manager of The Rail hand delivered my lunch to the table:


This was the 7th Heaven burger and a side of their homemade onion rings. When David asked if I needed anything else, I asked for a steak knife so that I could cleanly bisect the burger. He looked at me with a stunned look and replied, "You know, you would think that running a steakhouse would have given us the forethought to purchase steak knives. I'm sorry, we don't have any." Not a deal breaker, mind you, and I certainly used my regular butter knife to satisfactory effect, but as you will see in a photograph or two, a steak knife would have been perfect.

First, let's talk about the 7th Heaven burger:


The well-seasoned burger patty had been joined by several strips of Nueske bacon, truffled butter, and red onion jam. The burger was perched upon a bun that had been nicely toasted and assembled with a cellophane tipped toothpick to hold it all together. After removing the toothpick, I cut the burger in half.

Here was a shot of my bisected burger, cooked to the perfect medium rare for which I asked:


The first thing I noticed when Mr. Drumm set the burger down in front of me was the heady aroma from the black truffle. The second thing I noticed was that there was a lot of black speckled butter in the paper-lined basket. It seemed that the truffle butter had more of less completely melted. I raised the first half to my mouth and took a bite. It was juicy, it was seasoned nicely, and the crisp, thicker cut bacon added some nice textural contrast to the softness of the bun and the meat. The red onion jam definitely added some sweetness, but what I really needed was a bit of acid. Between the truffle butter, the fattiness of the burger and the bacon, something pickled needed to be on that burger to help balance it out. Don't get me wrong, it was good. Some might have even thought it was great. But it wasn't magical.

My largest gripe with the burger, and it's a complaint that I've also levied against B Spot and Flip Side, was that the bottom part of the bun, the heel, was completely sogged out from all of the juice of both the meat and the truffle butter. This made the burger quite difficult to eat without essentially wearing the juice on my fingers, hands, and down my wrists. [Ed. note: To be fair to B Spot, they did fix this issue, which I wrote about in later reviews.]

I next turned my attention to the onion rings:


Before ordering these, I had asked my waitress what kind of fat was used in the deep fryer. After checking with the kitchen, she returned to inform me that the chef, Gary McNeely, had told her it was a non-hydrogenated vegetable oil. As she looked fairly green, I didn't want to push her into information overload, so I let it go at that. So, while it certainly wasn't vegetable shortening, it also wasn't something more luxurious, like duck fat or tallow either.

As I bit into my first onion ring (always unsauced for the first one or two), I was rewarded with an onion that was thick enough to have some texture, but not too thick that it was crunchy or had a raw taste. The coating on the outside of the ring was a combination of crispy at first and then just ever-so-slightly moist on the inside. The salt level was fairly good, but could've tolerated just a touch more. The problem with these rings was when I took a bite, the onion on the inside completely detached from the coating and pulled right out. As you can imagine, with rings this size, having a long, hot onion strand hanging out of your mouth was neither pleasant feeling nor pleasant looking.

About two-thirds of the way through my meal, David Drumm again stopped by my table, this time to garner feedback. I still had not identified who I was or why I was there, but David took my feedback with great professionalism and he honestly made me feel as if what I had to say counted. He admitted that he was an aficionado of onion rings, too, and he wasn't 100% happy with them either. As for the sogged out bun, he mentioned that they toast the buns and only put the burger onto the bun at the very last second before sending it out from the kitchen, but clearly some further tweaking will be required to address this issue.

With tip and tax, my lunch today came to around $20, but then again, I ordered the most expensive burger off of the menu at $11.75. Your basic burger starts at just over $5, so you could certainly get away with a check closer to $10 if you selected more inexpensive items off the menu. While The Rail's 7th Heaven burger didn't quite satisfy that carnivorous burger lust that a Red Hot from B Spot seems to do, I do think it was a tasty burger. With a few tweaks, I think they could potentially have a real winner. As for the onion rings, again, they are pretty darn close, but don't quite live up to the gloriousness of either B Spot or of all places, Twig's Diner in Barberton, Ohio.

All said and done, I do recommend that you check them out. Opening days can be a tricky affair for any restaurant and after a month of playing around with the menu to hone the concept, I feel they might just achieve the burger glory for which they are clearly striving. Since they are VERY close to where I currently work, you can expect a follow-up review in the following months to see if things have improved. I certainly hope they do.

Flip-Flopping Over Flip Side In Hudson

It seems that when Chef Shawn Monday goes out, he goes out big. After leaving Downtown 140 in Hudson, Ohio and opening One Red Door around Labor Day in 2010, only a few short months later, he decided to utilize the space right next to his newest culinary creation and open up a second joint featuring upscale burgers and sides. Having only been open for several weeks, I decided to stop in for a Sunday lunch with longtime friend Ken and check out the highly anticipated menu at Flip Side.

Flip Side was located at 49 Village Way, Hudson, Ohio 44236 and can be reached at 330-655-3547. You can also reach them via email. Since the restaurant was in the First & Main shopping district area of Hudson, there were a myriad of free parking options. I ended up parking on the square and walking to the front of the restaurant.

Here was a shot of the entrance to Flip Side:


Once inside, I discovered a fairly small space, seating for perhaps thirty-five patrons with an additional eight to ten seats at the bar. The decor was fairly simple and the colors relatively monotone. That being said, the restaurant had a casual feel to it that should make diners of all ages feel welcome. And speaking of all ages, that was exactly the cross-section of people eating lunch when I arrived. Ken had arrived prior to me and put in our name for a table. Considering that they weren't taking reservations, a ten minute wait for a table seemed entirely appropriate.

After finally being sat, our server left us with the menu to peruse:







It was clear from reading the menu that Chef Monday was trying to occupy a very similar burger-space that Michael Symon's B Spot Restaurant up in Beachwood (and soon Strongsville) currently addressed. While Symon was using Pat LaFrieda beef from New York state, Monday had committed to offering burgers using local Ohio raised, grass-fed beef. Price points on the menu were quite similar between the two restaurants, with your basic burger starting somewhere around $6 and topping out at roughly $10. Sides were in the neighborhood of $3.50 to $5.50. Similar to B Spot's menu, Flip Side also offered milkshakes with adult "mix-ins," if desired.

Knowing how large the sides were at B Spot, I almost suggested to Ken that we split a side. However, something held me back, perhaps the desire to try more than one side for this review. Looking over the menu, many of the burgers sounded good, but when I saw that the Shawn's Burger had both bacon AND a fried egg on it, I knew I was sold.

After a short wait, our food finally arrived at the table. Here was a shot of my Shawn's Burger:


The crown of the brioche bun had been nicely grilled. I assumed that the heel had also been toasted, but since it contained all of the ingredients for my sandwich, it would've been a bit messy to verify this hunch. In addition to the bacon and fried egg, there were thick cut slices of spicy pickles, flat top onions, and a very mild farmhouse cheese. A small cup of mayonnaise was provided for pre-consumption application. I added a light layer of the creamy condiment, topped off my burger and proceeded to cut it in half, thus releasing the golden goodness from the fried egg:


I had ordered the burger to be cooked medium rare and sure enough, it was exactly to my specification. As I attempted to pick up the first half, I noticed the first problem. The heel of the bun had become completely sogged out and lost all integrity. This led to the not wholly unwelcome consequence that this was a MESSY burger to eat. Between the very juicy patty and the runny egg, I basically ate the entire first half before stopping to clean myself up with the extra requested napkins.

So, how was it? It was very good. Chef Monday clearly understood the concept of layering flavors and textures. I quite liked how the pickles lent some spice and acidity to balance out the fattiness from the other ingredients. They also added a much needed crunch to each bite of the sandwich. While I prefer the slightly more aggressive seasoning of B Spot's burgers, Flip Side did a good job of keeping all the flavor elements in balance. The only other downside I found was that while I did enjoy the running egg yolk, since the egg had been cooked sunnyside up, there was a substantial bit of undercooked egg white as well:


While I didn't find this too objectionable, I am fairly certain that others might have a problem with uncooked whites. I had actually assumed that the egg would have come to the table cooked over easy to address this problem, but I do admit that the sunnyside up egg had a more dramatic visual appearance.

For my side, I decided to go with the Chili Rubbed Onion Rings with Remoulade:


When this plate was set down in front of me, I had two initial reactions. "Boy, those look great!" was the first thing that popped into my head. "Wait, is that a full portion size?" was the second. For $5, there should have been at least twice the amount of onion rings on the plate as there were. That would be the portion size of the onion rings at Symon's restaurant. One of the complaints I had heard prior to my visit today from doing my research on the Internet was that people were concerned with the value of the food. Today's serving of onion rings went to reinforce that point for me.

Alright, fine, it was a small portion, but when I finally went to try one of these rings, I was pleasantly surprised to find an expertly fried ring that was thick enough to have some texture, but not so thick that it was still raw. The batter to onion ratio was also very good, having enough batter to convey some of the seasoning and spices, but not so much that it was doughy or undercooked. The chili spice sprinkled on top also gave it a nice little kick. The sauce remoulade, while perhaps not a traditional remoulade, complimented the rings nicely. I ate about half of them with the provided sauce and the other half with the tableside ketchup.

Ken decided to get the Mikey Fries:


These fresh cut fries had been triple cooked and served with grated Grana Padano, salt, and truffle oil. Curious as to what "triple cooked" meant, our server explained that properly cooked fries are first blanched in oil at a lower temperature to cook the potato without coloring it and then finished in oil at a higher temperature to crisp up the outside and give it that appealing golden brown color. "Fine," I responded, "that takes care of two cookings. Where is the third?" Oddly, his answer was, "Oh, they're blanched twice."

I wasn't sure what kind of odd chemistry Chef Monday had employed here, but I couldn't imagine why you would need to blanch a fry twice before finishing it in hot oil to crisp it up. What I could not argue with, however, was the perfect fry job on these potato sticks. Incredibly crunchy on the outside without being the least bit oily, they were equally light and fluffy on the inside. While both Ken and I picked up on the salt, cheese, and fresh herbs adorning the fries, neither of us got any truffle oil smell or flavor. For those who know the heavenly smell of truffle oil, it is an aroma that is hard to miss.

Our meal now complete, Ken and I decided to split the check evenly, even though he had a coke and I simply had a glass of water. With tax and tip, it basically came out to an even $20 per person. Granted, had I gotten my burger of choice at B Spot (Red Hot) and a side of the onion rings, with tax and tip it probably would've come out to a similar amount. The difference would be that I'd be taking home a sizable portion of leftover onion rings for consumption later in the evening. At Flip Side, not so much.

Additionally, while Symon has more or less perfected the burgers at B Spot, my Flip Side burger today suffered from a sogged out heel and a sunnyside up egg that could've been cooked a tad more. Be aware that while refills were free, Ken's glass of Coca-cola was $2.75, which seems a bit pricey for a product that costs pennies per glass. I'm going to recommend Flip Side, because at the end of the day (or the meal), it was still a pretty darn good burger. Should they correct some of the minor flaws I experienced in my meal today, I think I would even move it to very, very good burger status. If getting a price-no-object, grass-fed beef burger in a hip new restaurant is your cup of tea, gentle reader, Flip Side will deliver with reliability. For those looking for a cheaper option of an equally crave-inducing burger, might I suggest Swenson's or Skyway?

Trying A Hangover Burger At Steel Trolley Diner

When life recently handed me lemons, I decided to turn the tables and make lemonade. And in a strange serendipitous twist, it was delicious lemonade. I had decided to take a Friday off of work and when I checked my list of places "To Eat," I discovered an addition I had made some time ago: Mary's Pizza Shop in Lisbon, Ohio. Today being a lovely sunny and mid-sixties kind of day, I thought it would be the perfect time for a road trip out to eastern Ohio. By the time I had packed up my car and brought up GPS directions to Lisbon, it was nearly noon. Given that my estimated time of arrival was approximately 1:30 PM, I thought that this would be a perfect way to avoid the lunch crowds at what I can only imagine was a very popular restaurant.

Sadly, when I arrived at the quaint little pizza shop, I discovered a closed and locked door and nary a light on inside the place. Resigned to the fact that perhaps Mary's didn't have lunch hours, the fact that I was still hungry hadn't changed. Since I had driven this far, I decided to pull up my Google Maps application on my smartphone. In just a few moments, I gleefully discovered that less than two tenths of a mile away was a restaurant called the Steel Trolley Diner. While at first the name didn't jog any memories in my brain, I would later realize that I had been exposed to Steel Trolley Diner's food once prior at the 2009 National Hamburger Festival.

After finding a spot to park at a metered space on the street, I began rummaging around in my change cup to find several quarters for the meter. Much to my surprise, a single quarter actually bought me two hours' worth of time. I pocketed the rest and walked to the corner of Lincoln and Jefferson to discover the sign for the diner:


Technically, the diner was located at 140 East Lincoln Way, Lisbon, OH 44432 and can be reached at 330-424-3663. Upon turning the corner, I was presented with the front door:


Once inside the main door, I was completely taken aback to discover that the place was not only hopping at 1:45 PM on a Friday afternoon, but that it was completely packed. I stood by the door for a few minutes until I realized that there was a couple of empty stools at the opposite end of the counter, near the rear of the diner car. I took a seat and the incredibly friendly staff immediately welcomed me, rightly pegged me as an out-of-towner, and offered me a menu:









The breadth of the menu actually surprised me. This was a diner car, right?

In addition to the regular menu, a white board to my left also contained today's daily specials:


Since I hadn't had the opportunity to try one of Steel Trolley's burgers at the National Hamburger Festival, I decided to focus my search for sustenance on that part of the menu. When I saw the Hangover Burger, with its fried egg, I stopped right then and there. Burger? Check. Melted cheese? Double check. Fried egg? Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! All the burgers were a meaty half pound of ground beef that started out as a frozen patty and were griddle-steamed on the flattop. What exactly does "griddle-steamed" mean?

The wonderful advantage of sitting at the counter was that I got to watch my lunch being made from beginning to end. When someone ordered a burger, the line cook went to the freezer, grabbed a frozen patty and threw it on top of the flattop. This was followed by a generous dousing of water and then a partial covering with a lid. Every so often, another patty was added and the process repeated. After flipping a patty, water was again applied to generate even more steam. While this ensured a properly cooked (meaning done) and steaming hot burger, the downside was that there was almost no caramelization on the outside of the finished burger.

I was also looking forward to the runny goodness from the egg yolk and when I saw that the egg that had been put onto a secondary flattop being used for breakfast items and hashed browns had its yolk broken, I was a little disheartened. Not wanting to make waves, I just decided to let my dreams of goldenrod gooey-ness dripping down my chin go the way of the Dodo.

With the final flourish of her spatula, the cook assembled my finished burger, rammed a serrated steak knife straight through its very heart, and slid the basket in front of me. Even before cutting the burger in twain, I noticed the oddly branded crown of my sandwich:


S ... T ... D ... oh, I get it! Steel Trolley Diner. That being said, one unfamiliar with this Lisbon legend might come to the same prurient conclusion as would most fourteen-year-old boys. I bisected the burger and took a shot of all the layers of my sandwich:


What I hadn't taken the time to bother reading while perusing the menu was that not only did the burger come with melted cheese and an egg, but also a sausage patty as well. This sucker must have been about two-thirds of a pound of meat in total. Overall the burger was quite tasty, although like I mentioned earlier, I didn't get the caramelization that would've made the burger even better. Other than that, it was nicely seasoned and you could taste each distinct flavor from the others.

Along with my burger, I decided to splurge and order a basket of the fried-from-frozen onion rings:


While the onion inside each ring easily detached from the crispy outer coating, I will have to concede that these rings were expertly fried: crispy on the outside without being greasy, seasoned nicely, and the onion had a bit of meat to it. They reminded me quite a bit of Jerry's Cafe in Orrville, Ohio. Did Steel Trolley Diner's version best Jerry's? They were pretty darn close, but I still think Jerry's has the edge on fried-from-frozen onion rings.

To accompany my rings, the same cook who had prepared my burger suggested I give some of their homemade horseradish mayonnaise a trip as a dip for the rings:


Just as with the spicy mayonnaise dip that Jerry's served, this was a welcome accompaniment to the onion rings, helpfully cutting through some of the fattiness. Honestly, I didn't think of it until after the fact, but the spicy mayonnaise would've made a great spread for my Hangover Burger as well. If horseradish is your thing and your server doesn't mention it, make sure you ask for it by name.

Normally, I wouldn't bother including a photograph of the check, but in today's case, my check came adorned with something I haven't seen in nearly thirty years and didn't even realize was still available:


Yes, that's right, gentle reader, that was a piece of Bazooka Joe bubble gum, complete with comic inside the wrapper. I hadn't seen this gum since I was a young boy living in Stow. I vividly remember riding my bike up to the local Lawson's on the corner of Fishcreek and Stow Road and plunking down my penny or nickel to pick up the grape or cherry treat. Ironically, it wasn't until I put the gum in my mouth and began to chew it that another memory popped into my head: we always used to buy so many pieces at a time because ten minutes in and the flavor had completely been leached from the gum. Ah well, the memory was nice while it lasted.

While I personally would've enjoyed my burger had it spent more time grilling and less time steaming, I immensely enjoyed my impromptu stop today at Steel Trolley Diner. The charming decor, the friendly people, and the diner style food make this little restaurant a must stop if you are traveling through or near Lisbon. Would I drive the hour it took me to get here for another meal? Given that I came across the very scenic Rt. 172 to get here, yes, I would. And as you'll see from my next blog entry on Mary's Pizza Shop, you might just want to stick around for that, too.

Burger Night At Teschner's Tavern

I think we all have those friends in our lives that we can lose touch with for months at a time and then all of the sudden, something sparks a connection and we remember that it has indeed been six months since I've sent or received anything from this friend. Such is my relationship with friend, mentor, and teacher Kathy Lehr. She was the instructor of my very first class at the Western Reserve School of Cookery on French breads and for some reason, we have always had a very strong connection. I've mentioned Kathy before on the blog, when I published her recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Black Peppercorn bread that I took with me to Friendsgiving last year.

Kathy is a retired school teacher, but given her very active lifestyle, she is anything but retired. Besides teaching her bread classes and workshops at the school in Hudson, she is taking classes on her own as well as assisting others in building outdoor bread and pizza ovens. I hadn't talked to her in quite some time and after my successes at breadmaking at both the Heartland Gathering this year in Ann Arbor as well as my demonstration at the Howe Meadow Farmers Market, I had sent her an update on myself and asked how she was. To my surprise, she invited me to join her and her husband Mike for dinner at a local favorite hangout of theirs, Teschner's Tavern in Richfield, Ohio.

Now, I had actually heard of Teschner's Tavern before. When I was in the throes of my Lenten Project back in March of this year, I had come across pierogi being served at the United Methodist Church in Peninsula, Ohio that had been provided by a small local Akron company named Posh Pierogi. At the time I didn't know this, but soon after my write-up posted on the blog, I was contacted by one of the owners, Autumn Johnston. After some discussion with her about the company and their products, she informed me that as of right now (at least back in March 2010), only Teschner's Tavern had their pierogi on the menu. Excited to finally get to try them again, I emailed Autumn to confirm this fact. Not only was my information correct, but it turned out that Teschner's was also selling their sauerkraut balls as well.

As I pulled into the parking lot of Teschner's located at 4252 Broadview Road, Richfield, OH 44286, I realized that I had never even seen Teschner's before now. Many times I get recommendations for restaurants that I've come across before, but just never visited. I pulled into an open space in the lot and prepared to walk inside. If you wish to contact Teschner's via telephone, their number is 330-659-9094. I couldn't find a website that was obviously owned by Teschner's.

The first thing I recognized the minute I walked through the door was how dimly lit the inside was. I arrived while the sun was still up; however, when it finally settled below the horizon, getting a good picture was near impossible (as you'll see soon enough). I sat myself at one of the tables in the bar and looked around. Kathy had told me that Wednesday's were $2 off burger nights. I figured that the place would be packed for dinner; it wasn't.

While waiting for Kathy and Mike, I decided to go ahead and take snapshots of the menu:





In addition to the regular menu, there was a small plastic holder on the table announcing the daily happy hour specials:


What surprised me was how expensive the food was. I mean, $9+ for a burger was in B Spot territory and while Kathy professed how good the burgers at Teschner's were, I was skeptical that they rivaled a Michael Symon burger. Soon, my other dining companions arrived and after an initial hug and greeting, we sat down to start looking at the menu. Clearly this was a favorite haunt of theirs since the minute they walked in, the woman running the bar welcomed them by name and shortly after filling their drink order, came over to take our order.

Unfortunately, Kathy decidedly killed any chance of an anonymous review today when she revealed who I was, what I did, and why I was there. I was a little peeved about that at first, but then I resigned myself to the fact that with this knowledge, hopefully the kitchen will make sure that the food coming out tonight would be first rate, and for the most part, it was.

After discussing Posh Pierogi and their products, we decided to start our meal out tonight by splitting a round of appetizers. First up were the Posh Pierogi fried sauerkraut balls with a side of horseradish sour cream:


And here was a shot of the interior of a sauerkraut ball:


The flavor of these was mild, the sauerkraut being present, but not overwhelming. Sadly, there were three problems with this dish. First, they had been fried a bit too long and the outside was considerably darker than it should have been. Second, one of the sauerkraut balls came adorned with a black hair; no one at our table seated near the basket of balls had black hair. Third, the horseradish infused sour cream was nearly horseradish-free. In fact, it tasted like ... sour cream. Which, was a nice flavor to pair with the balls, but the horseradish would've added a nice kick to it.

It also turned out that Wednesday nights were chicken wing nights and a basket that normally cost $8.50 was cut to a much more affordable $4.50. Mike decided to go with a basket of the Teschner's Tangy, fried crispy, with an additional coating of Parmesan cheese and chopped garlic:


Having had the roasted garlic and Parmesan cheese chicken wings at B Spot and found them to be a bit unbalanced, I have to say that Teschner's version absolutely rocked. The skin was nice and crispy, the sauce was slightly spicy with a bit of acid from the vinegar and the garlic and Parmesan added to the complexity of the overall flavor instead of dominating it. I'd order another basket of these in a heartbeat.

Our final appetizer was a small dish of the Posh Pierogi potato and cheddar pierogi with fried onions and a side of sour cream:


These were quite good and reminded me why I had liked them so much when I had them back at the United Methodist Church during Lent. This time, however, they were fried perfectly and the combination of the crispy exterior and the creamy interior made for a delightful bite of food. The onions were expertly caramelized and the sweetness played nicely with the tang of the sour cream. While the pierogi from Posh Pierogi weren't inexpensive, they were also high quality and you could taste the difference when eating them.

Our appetizers now finished, we decided to go ahead and put in our burger orders. While there seemed to be a burger for many tastes, I decided to go with a deluxe cheeseburger, minus the raw onions, along with a side of the onion rings:


By this point in the evening, it was so dim in the tavern that I had great difficulty getting any shots that were in focus, evening with the flash on my camera. I've included the following shot only to prove that I asked for my burger to be cooked to medium, and sure enough, it was:


The burger was seasoned properly, it was juicy, and quite honestly, it was pretty darn good. The cheese was nice and melty and the tomatoes were perfectly ripe. The bun held up well and didn't get sogged out from the moist beef patty. It was a good burger and one that I would eagerly have again. However, it didn't take me to the same place that one of B Spot's burgers did. Considering that with tonight's burger discount it also only cost me $6.25, so there was that to consider, too.

The onion rings were somewhere between good and tasty. They were seasoned nicely, but as Kathy pointed out when she tried one of my rings, the breading to onion ratio was a bit too high. Additionally, as you bit into a ring, the inner onion easily detached and pulled away from the cooked batter, a sign that these were more than likely fried-from-frozen. This was later confirmed when I asked our server if that was the case. While the rings weren't bad, they also weren't a stand out either.

After separating out the checks, I ended up dropping about $21, with tax and tip. While my compatriots had several beers / cocktails, I stuck with water for tonight. While I am not adverse to spending that much for an appetizer and a burger with a side, it seemed that the problems with the sauerkraut balls and the provenance of the onion rings makes me think that if I had to choose only one, I'd pick B Spot over Teschner's Tavern. That being said, the burger was good and if you don't feel like driving all the way to Woodmere, Teschner's Tavern might just be the place to stop to satisfy your burger craving.