Bottlecap Alley Icehouse Grill

Bottlecap Alley Icehouse Grill has two locations, Grapevine and Keller.  The other night, four of us braved Grapevine construction to check out the Grapevine location.  A friend had raved about its sides and they have a wide selection of burgers, so it seemed like a good place to add to the list.

I ordered the Mushroom Swiss Burger and it arrived rather quickly, despite the busy night. 

Out of the four of us, none of us were highly impressed with our burgers.  It seems that our bar on fabulous burgers continues to get higher and higher.  I think mine might have had the most flavor, thanks to the Swiss cheese and the plentiful sauteed mushrooms.  The patty was juicy, but lacked seasoning.  The bun seemed to be your typical Mrs. Baird's white bun; maybe a bit fluffier, but again, nothing that made it stand out.  And that seemed to be the general consensus.  The burgers at Bottlecap Alley are pretty generic.  Nothing really makes it special.  In fact, the comment was made that if you're in the area and want a burger, it would be better to drive about 5 more minutes and end up at Kinkaid's.

The sides, on the other hand, are a different story.  We made to sure to order a variety of sides and they were all great.  The fresh cut fries were soft with just the right amount of crunchiness.  The Double Bacon "Ultimate" Cheese Fries were super yummy!  Fresh cut fries covered with bacon, cheddar cheese, and jalapenos served with a side of ranch. 

And we can't leave out the beer battered onion rings.  Also super yummy with a fabulous flavor.

Until next time...

Adair's

If you've lived in Dallas any amount of time, more than likely you've heard of Adair's Saloon.  It's on Commerce, in the heart of Deep Ellum and it's been there since 1963. It's a small dive known for its live music, burgers, and the patrons who sign their name in Sharpie wherever there's some space.  Anytime you talk burgers in Dallas, Adair's usually comes up.  And it is a good burger, but overall, it's not my go-to.

Once you've snagged your seat, you place your order at the bar.  Choices at Adair's are pretty basic: hamburger, cheeseburger, and a couple of other options if you're not in the mood for a burger (What?!?!).  For sides you can pick french fries (duh!), chips, or even popcorn or peanuts.

You know the burgers are fresh and that it's a small kitchen since it takes about 15 - 20 minutes to get your burger and fries when it's not busy.  And the presentation is anything but fancy...something so pleasing and comforting about a burger wrapped in that red and white checkered paper. 

It's no lie.  The cheeseburger at Adair's is great.  The thick and juicy patty is cooked well and served on a no frills white bun.  Not that big of a fan of the shredded lettuce, but it's manageable.  The burger comes with mustard, but you have to add your own ketchup.  Definitely an old school burger that will hit the spot.

As you know, while we are the Burger Babes, the sides that come with our burgers are just as important.  And even if french fries are the only option, that's something we can live with...if they're good.  I am so sad to say that Adair's gets a failing mark on this part of the meal.  Although they looked like they had been cooked just right, they tasted like they had been fried in some really old oil.  Even the ketchup didn't help.  Again, so sad.  Coupled with the lackluster fries was the not so pleasant aroma that intensified the further back into the bar you walked.  So I can't really even recommend stopping by Adair's if you happen to be in the neighborhood and you're looking for a burger.  There are just too many other fabulous options on the same block.  I think the exception would be if there's a band playing that you really want to see, or if you really love Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Because the fries had been so disappointing and a couple of us were still hungry, we walked across the street the Twisted Root.  Thanks to Tina for getting us the Fried Ride.


Straight Cut Fries, Sweet Potato Chips, Fried Onion Strings, Quincy’s Fried Pickles, and Fried Green Beans, partnered with peppercorn and chipotle ranch.

 And although we didn't actually eat a burger this time, the Burger Babes have visited the Twisted Root Burger Co.in the past and we can confidently recommend any of the burger choices

Until next month...

Stackhouse

Stackhouse Burgers is one of Dallas' newest burger joints and quite possibly one of the best.  Located in an newly renovated bungalow on Gaston Avenue, close to the Baylor School of Dentistry, Stackhouse knows burgers and customer service.

We arrived around 7:00 and we were some of the first customers of the evening, but by the time we left a little after 9:00, the place had filled up and there were even a couple of brave souls sitting upstairs on the patio.  At Stackhouse, you place your order at the bar, grab a number, and find a seat.  Burgers are simple here.  You order a single or a double, both of which come with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a pickle (made in house) all on a toasted custom-made brioche bun.  (I love burgers on brioche buns!)  Then you just decide what you want to stack on your burger; mushrooms, grilled onions, chili, avocado, fried egg, and bacon are some of the choices, not to mention at least six different kinds of cheese.  I ordered a single with a slice of cheddar and a slice of swiss with a side of onion rings.  Probably the most popular burger of the night was the house special, a chorizo hamburger complete with monterrey jack cheese, a grilled poblano pepper, and fried egg.

After about a 10 minute wait, our burgers arrived and we were ALL very excited about our burgers.  Very delicious!  In fact, Anita claims that her chorizo burger was the best she's ever had and Stackhouse broke Esther's top five.  That, my friends, is very high praise.  The patty is incredibly good, full of flavor, and cooked to perfection.  Apparently one of the owners has a great connection and you won't find a patty like it anywhere else.    The veggies were fresh...yea for red onions on burgers and homemade, super thin pickles.  The only downside to my burger was that the tomato was so fresh and juicy that my bottom bun was a bit soggy.  But, I was able to plow through it.  And isn't it a sign of a great burger if there are juices running down your arms and you need multiple napkins?

Between our group of seven, we got the following sides: sweet potato fries, onion rings, and french fries.  And these were some of the best sides we've had.  The onion rings were thinly sliced and breaded.  This means you get a lot of them and better yet, you can eat a lot because there's not too much breading. The sweet potato fries were thinly cut and pretty tasty.  But the blue ribbon winner?  Fresh cut french fries that go through a lengthy process before even making it to the fryer.  And if they don't pass muster, they get thrown out and the process starts all over.

Obviously, the Burger Babes fully enjoyed our meal.  (Did I mention that Stackhouse has sweet tea and it was just about perfect?)  But in addition to our meal, we were also highly impressed with the customer service.  One of the owners, Randy Kienast, took the time to sit down and talk with us.  He was intrigued by our group (who isn't?) and wanted to know other burger places we had been and what we thought were some of the best burgers in town.    And when we told him, he wanted to know what we liked so much about those places.  He said he knew that we knew burgers when we rattled off all of our top places.  And he was incredibly open to our two suggestions (fried pickles and a sampler of sides).

Yes, Dallas has a ton of burger places, but Stackhouse definitely has one of the very best and it is well worth your time to visit.

Click here for an interview with Randy Kienast.

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!

Patty Shack

The always fabulous Groupon has led me to another burger joint, this time in Grand Prairie.  Patty Shack is on Avenue K, right off of 360.  It is a small, neighborhood hangout kind of place.  It's the kind of place where you seat yourself and the staff can be very attentive because of its small size.  Our drinks were never empty and a couple of different manager-types checked on us throughout the evening.

This wasn't an official BB outing.  More of a reconn mission with my friend Mandy.  The turn around time to get our order was the average wait time, probably about 10 mniutes.  Mandy ordered the Chowboy (BBQ sauce and cheddar, topped with relish and shack sticks) and I ordered the Shackadelic (bacon, swiss, and mushrooms).  Here's the twist with burgers at the Patty Shack.  They do the mix-in thing.  Instead of my burger being topped with Swiss cheese, bacon, and mushrooms, it is all mixed into the 1/3 lb. fresh sirloin patty.  Even though I had seen the section "Build Your Own Dang Burger," for some reason it didn't click with me, so I was a bit disappointed when my burger arrived.  It's just one of those things.  You know, you're expecting one thing, and something else comes along.  The first couple of bites were fabulous.  As the menu says, the flat top grill is definitely well-seasoned.  But, about halfway through, I was done.  Not that it wasn't a good burger, it just wasn't my kind of burger.  And there were a couple of other logistical things.  I don't understand shredded lettuce on a burger.  It falls out and makes a mess.  And, while I appreciate a hearty patty, I don't want it to be measurably larger than the bun.  That just makes for a burger that falls apart.  I'm already pretty likely to make a mess all by myself, so I don't need any help in how the burger is constructed.



Shackadelic!


We ordered sweet tater fries and seasoned curly fries.  Both were very solid and good, although not unlike the fries you would find in other places.  Now, Mandy's burger came topped with Shack Sticks, breaded jalapeno and onion slivers; she gave those two thumbs up!  Totally missed seeing the fried pickles on the menu.  That would be a definite on the next visit.

 My overall impression of the Patty Shack?  A good neighborhood burger joint with a friendly staff and a lot of choice when it comes to building your burger.  The sides are good and you will definitely leave not hungry.  With its proximity to the Ballpark and Cowboy Stadium, it would be a great before or after the game pitstop.  Not sure that I'll add it to the Burger Babes list, although I would encourage everyone to try it out if they are in the Grand Prairie/Arlington area.



Chowboy



Village Burger Bar.

This month we went to the Village Burger Bar in West Village.  We got there early enough to grab some seats at the bar.  Luckily, a table on the patio opened up right as we placed our order, so we headed outside to enjoy a gorgeous evening and some people watching with our burgers. At VB Bar, you grab your own seat and then walk up to the bar when you're ready to place your order. 

Having frequented Village Burger earlier in my youth, I knew the thing to order was the Blue Burger.  Just listen to this line up: bacon, avocado, blue cheese crumbles, baby greens & dressing.  How can that not be good fabulous?  It took about 15 minutes for our small group to receive our burgers, but a burger at VB is definitely worth the wait.

Isn't this just beautiful?  Look at the thickness of that patty!  And can you see the top bun glisten with a touch of butter?   I think avocado and bacon makes just about anything better, but it does put this burger over the top.  Super creamy avocado and numerous strips of bacon piled together for a flavorful crunch.  If you're a fan of blue cheese, you know that to order a blue cheese burger can sometimes be a dicey move.  I've had burgers where I had to scrape half of the blue cheese off and it was still too powerful.  But this Blue Burger is just right.  Crumbles sprinkled on top of the patty, right next to that bacon and avocado.  Now that's flavor!


If you know anything about the Village Burger, you know that they have some of the best fries anywhere in Dallas.  We all ordered different kinds to share, which is the Burger Babe way.  You won't go wrong with either the fries flavored with truffle oil or the sweet potato fries, seasoned with a touch of honey. The onion rings are pretty good too.  They make those super thick ones with a fantastic crunch.  I couldn't figure out the seasoning, but it did give those onion rings a bit of a bite.

The Village Burger Bar does have one of the best blue cheese burgers around and overall, it's in my top 10 burger joints.  Add that to a great patio with a laid back atmosphere where you can hang with good friends deep into the night, and you just can't go wrong.