Chubby's Burger Shack

The most recent Burger Babes adventure found us in Ft. Worth at Chubby's Burger Shack.  Chubby's has a small inside dining area with a larger patio and accomodates wide range of people, from families with young kids to TCU Horn Frogs, and of course us, the Burger Babes.  And, Chubby's has a wide variety of burgers as well to make all of these people happy.




Chubby Burger in front, onion rings in the middle and Green Chile Burger in the back

According to our waitress, the Bleu Cheese Burger was heavy on the bleu cheese, so I opted for a Chubby Burger with cheese.  The Chubby Burger is 1/3 lb. patty; for the more health conscious burger lovers, you can go for the Not-So-Chubby, at only 1/4 of a pound of beef.  Looking back, that might not have been a bad choice.  My burger was good, but it was a lot!  After about 15 minutes the following burgers arrived:  Cowboy Burger (Chubby Burger topped with BBQ sauce, bacon, pepperjack cheese, and an onion ring), which received rave reviews and the Green Chili Burger (Chubby burger topped with grilled green chilis and pepper jack cheese) with not so rave reviews. 



Cowboy Burger

My Chubby Burger was really good.  It had a great flavor I couldn't quite pinpoint; some kind of sweetness.  The open burger was served in a basket, allowing me to see two squares of melted American cheese.  And that cheese covered almost every inch of the patty.  At first, I was a bit disappointed that the cheese wasn't cheddar, but after taking a bite I was pleasantly surprised and reminded of how yummy melted American can be.  Condiments for your burger can be found just a few feet away at the condiment bar.  Only ketchup had a place at the table.  While not my favorite burger, it is a good burger that will fill you up and leave you feeling happy.

Now let's talk about sides.  Of course, there were the traditional fries.  Chubby's are the perfect size, a bit thicker than McDonald's, soft and wonderfully seasoned.  A sad note...no sweet potato fries.  Most burger places are offering these nowdays, so it seemed odd not to have that choice.  We also ordered onion rings, which were prepared almost like tempura.  Different, but nice.  The fried pickles were prepared in the same manner.  While good, I think I'll stick with the more traditional method of frying sides.  The downside to these tempura-like sides?  Once they get cold, they're not quite as yummy, which means we didn't finish our baskets.


Fried Pickles!



Final decision?  Chubby's has a good burger and it's the kind of place that's pretty fun to hang out at.  It has a neighborly kind of feel and it seemed like many of the customers and staff knew each other well.  If you're on that end of Camp Bowie (which is a really long street, by the way) and you are in the mood for a good burger, it's worth your time.





Strokers Ice House

Better late than never, right?

The October Burger Babes outing took us to Strokers Ice House, which is located on Harry Hines Blvd.  In addition to the Ice House that serves burgers, it's also a biker bar complete with a tattoo parlor.  Strokers is pretty well known, earning the honor of being the best bike hangout in Texas for three years in a row.  Inside you can sit at one of the few tables, or belly up to the bar.  If you're feeling lucky, there are a few pool tables just begging for a game.  But, really, you want to be outside under the spacious tent sitting at either a picnic table or standing around a spool table.  Outside is most definitely the best place to be on a gorgeous October evening, especially once the live music starts up.

There are a few choices when it comes to your burger order, but I tend to stay with the classics in a place like this.  After placing our orders inside at the bar, we ambled back outside and patiently waited for about ten minutes.  At that point we figured our burgers would be done, so we headed back to the bar to pick them up.   

The Strokers cheeseburger is pretty old school.  Nothing fancy, just a fabulously charred burger.  If you're a fan of sides, then this would not be the place for you.  Burgers come with just two sides: 1) a bag of Zax chips and 2) potato salad.  Not that the chips aren't good, but I would much rather have fries or rings.  The potato salad is good.

If you're not a biker, then Strokers might not be on your radar.  But, I will tell you, it's a fun place to hang out, listen to live music, people watch, and enjoy a beautiful Texas evening with friends.  The burger is good and the pace is anything but hurried.  In fact, if you're there for an extended amount of time, you'll probably find yourself heading back inside to load up on unshelled peanuts and popcorn, wondering where the evening has gone to.

Be sure to read The Strokers Dallas Story...it's pretty cool!