I was originally going to write this in an email to Tom Philpott, but I decided the Gristian masses deserve to know as well, in case y’all ever make it up to Seattle.
I bring you an important announcement: the quest for the Best Burger Ever is over. Call it off. We’re done. Finito.
On Friday I had lunch at a dingy little hole-in-the-wall in the Ballard district of Seattle called Lunchbox Laboratory (excuse their epically awful website).
Though occasionally daily specials stray (a pasta here, mashed potatoes there), basically the place is about burgers and fries. But that’s like saying Picasso was about paints.
First you choose a meat. "Super beef" is three kinds of steak, all grass-fed, ground on-site twice daily. You can also get buffalo, lamb, "dork" (duck and pork), falafel (for the veggies), and others, depending on the day.
Then you choose from about 10 kinds of cheese, from cheddar to goat to gorgonzola. Toppings range from bacon to peppercinis to chopped green olives. Three kinds of ketchup. Around 10 kinds of mayonnaise. At least 10 "other" sauces, including, e.g., "balsamic hoisin" and basil aioli.
Then the choice of fries—regular, shoestring, sweet potato, breaded ... or perhaps you’d prefer mac’n'cheese or chili. Oh, and if you get fries there are about 10 different kinds of salt to choose from. Seriously.
The sodas are all corn syrup-free, sugar cane-based, including Coke from Mexico and a bizarre variety of others (they make pineapple soda?!). Then there are 10 or so flavors of milkshake, from chocolate-peppermint to vanilla-honey chai.
All of this is written on a chalkboard, and changes constantly. (According to the website they had wild boar burgers for a while.)
I had one of the daily specials: the "Mafia Surprise," a beef burger with bacon relish, fresh basil, fresh garlic, and white asparagus cream cheese. Yes, white asparagus cream cheese. This was accompanied by sweet potato fries with the "kosher ‘n’ pepper" salt blend and orange-cinnamon iced tea.
To die for. The food coma, however, is only now fading, a day later.
Eating at Lunchbox Laboratory frequently would lead inexorably to high blood pressure and obesity, but my God, I can’t believe I’ve been in the same city with this place and haven’t been before. Imagine if there were more places like this: small, locally owned, focusing on a few key dishes, unpretentious but obsessed with quality, using only to organic, local, or high-quality ingredients. The world would be a better place, I tell you.
Learning how to count to 350
Ask Umbra on her hotness, corporate gift baskets, and more
U.N. chief will pressure senators on climate bill
Comments
View as Threaded
biodiversivist Posted 1:53 pm
14 Dec 2008
This story is heartening, ...bison's recovery on prairie:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/ ...
http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/12/14/mn-bison25_phb1_0498487932_part1.jpg
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
Delay And Deny Posted 3:14 pm
14 Dec 2008
Rarely a week goes by in the Pacific Northwest where I don't read some anti-Italian slur or suggestive comment.
Seattle has long history of anti-Italianism, as the recent scandal involving the murder of several Italians during World War II at Fort Lewis.
So, I'm always dismayed when someone in the Puget Sound throws the word "Mafia" around (which is a lot).
However, I wouldn't expect the smug liberals who I assume run this defamatory place to care or think themselves insensitive, as they are all part of the Barack (H)ypocrit Obama regieme.
"This is the essence of science...you ask an impertinent question and you're on your way to a pertinent answer." -- Fox Mulder, S1E4, "Conduit"
Permalink
Gar Lipow Posted 3:59 pm
14 Dec 2008
What is worse newspapers occasionally cover Mafia killings. I hope John always has a fainting couch handy to support him in a life filled with unbearably offensive references.
Permalink
biodiversivist Posted 4:02 pm
14 Dec 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
Bob Wallace Posted 4:25 pm
14 Dec 2008
Permalink
Pangolin Posted 10:27 pm
14 Dec 2008
Put the Carbon Back
Permalink
amazingdrx Posted 11:38 pm
14 Dec 2008
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
Permalink
Tom Philpott Posted 12:47 am
15 Dec 2008
Victual Reality
Permalink
Whiskerfish Posted 1:24 am
15 Dec 2008
http://tinyurl.com/6lp2ru
Watch it and get over wasting space on parochial stuff that most of us will never afford.
Whiskerfish
Permalink
spaceshaper Posted 5:32 am
15 Dec 2008
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Permalink
mihan Posted 6:27 am
17 Dec 2008
Permalink
David Roberts Posted 6:31 am
17 Dec 2008
grist.org
Permalink