First things first: this is not one of those Best-Burgers-in-the-Twin Cities lists.
Fans of the Parlour burger (pictured above) or the Revival burger, or the Lowry Hill Meats burger, or the Nook burger. I'm with you. They're all the greatest. But because they weren't featured in this year's Burger Friday blog – which shines the spotlight on gotta-try Twin Cities burgers – they're not included here.
Instead, I've revisited 2017's 30-plus Burger Friday installments, and selected the five that really stand out.
Notice that four out of five burgers share a single trait. That commonality is no coincidence, and it underscores one major reason why the Twin Cities continues to cultivate such a remarkable dining scene; it's because metro-area chefs have easy access to top-flight ingredients from a remarkable (and continually expanding) community of farmers. Here are the five:
The burger: When the Walker Art Center debuted its gorgeous new restaurant last December, chefs Doug Flicker and T.J. Rawitzer included a (sorry for this) museum-quality burger on the menu. It starts with a doozy of a bun, baked on the premises and enriched with milk. The patty? An all-chuck formula (sourced from Peterson Craftsman Meats, the pride of Osceola, Wis.) that gets an overnight cure before it's fortified with butter, formed into thick-ish patties and nurtured in its own juices on the flat top grill to an ideal medium, bordering on medium-well. Cheese is appropriately salty American (two extravagant slices), and the pickles are superb. Finishing touches? A pair of sauces. It's an instant classic.
Price: $12, a more-than-suitable amount, one that, given the level of quality, verges into deal territory.
Fries: None. Instead, it's paper-thin, house-made potato chips.
Address book: 723 Vineland Place, Mpls., 612-375-7542. Lunch 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Note: Esker Grove's burger is a lunch-only item.
The burger: Chef Matt Sprague keeps burger fans happy with turkey burgers and lamb burgers, both on his daytime menu. On Thursday evenings, he channels his considerable burger-making talents in a more traditional direction – beef – and the results are spectacular. Sprague adheres to the popular double-patty formula, but not blindly; the sirloin-heavy patties are noticeably weightier than their counterparts on the diner-style skinny-patty spectrum ("Sometimes, when patties are smashed super-thin, they tend to dry out," said Sprague). Condiments squarely land in the "restrained" camp, which keeps this quality beef (from Peterson Craft Meats) at the forefront: shredded iceberg lettuce, house-made bread-and-butter pickles that own the "right-on-the-money" label, a few slices of American cheese (with backbone-strengthening boosts from a smoky Gouda and a funky blue cheese), and a Russian dressing-like sauce that brazenly cranks up the umami quotient. The toasty, buttered-up brioche bun, baked on the premises, is nothing short of perfect.
Price: $12. A bargain, especially considering the favorable potato situation (see Fries, below).
Fries: None. Instead, the Alma Double is served with the kitchen's epic "Crispy Smashed Russet Potatoes," and they're so good that you ought to do yourself a favor and add a side order ($8); you'll thank me.
Address book: 528 University Av. SE., Mpls., 612-379-4909. The Alma Double is served in the cafe on Thursday evenings only, after 5 p.m. The cafe is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
