Nosh Pit

BuiltBurger is Closing

This week is your last chance to enjoy the Pioneer Square shop’s distinctive patties.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Nov 28, 2011 at 10:20AM 0 Comments

BuiltBurger photo by Geoffrey Smith.

A few phone calls to BuiltBurger last week were met with hesitant “no comment” responses, but today the Pioneer Square burger joint sent out an email confirming the sad news: BuiltBurger is closing. According to the email from owners David and Rebecca Makuen, “We are re-locating to the East Coast to start a new chapter. We have decided to ‘pause’ the BuiltBurger brand.”

The final burgers will be sold on Friday, December 2. BuiltBurger began as a patty wholesaler and opened its Pioneer Square shop in late 2010. The big draw: fixings ground right into the meat, as well as some tasty potato beignets. Make your way there this week to bid a sad adieu to its decadent wares.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Closings, Seattle Restaurant Closings, Burgers

Sorting Through Street Food at Mobile Food Rodeo

Notes on the state of our mobile fare.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 20, 2011 at 01:09PM 4 Comments

Food trucks at Mobile Food Rodeo

Photo: Mobilefoodrodeo.com

First, the disclosure: Seattle Met was among the sponsors of last Saturday’s Mobile Food Rodeo, an event at which I was one of many judges dispatched to weigh in on the “Wagon Awards.” The awards honored the best dishes served up on Seattle streets.

But I am not here to promote the event. Rather, I wanted to share some things I observed while sampling about 25 dishes made by trucks from Seattle and Portland.

Second, the background: My coworker Chris Werner is a street foods enthusiast, and he has been so thorough and punctilious in his coverage of mobile foods that I have hitherto left the sampling up to him, busying myself with things like cocktails and brick-and-mortar eateries. This meant that I had only tried a few of the 20-odd trucks on hand this weekend.

Having now been exposed to most of our mobile offerings, here are some of my takeaway observations:

1. The best food trucks are doing something idiosyncratic—meaning easily identifiable as theirs and theirs alone—and doing that thing well. A paradigm of the model is Street Donuts, which serves up baby dough rings with toppings like a dusting of Nerds candies or roasted peanuts, and curry sauce. Even if you find donuts as unexciting as I do, you will notice right away that the Street Donuts cooks are masters of their craft. These little donuts melt in your mouth and the flavors sing out clearly. For me, this was the surprise hit of the bunch.

In contrast, the several trucks dishing up hamburgers were hard to distinguish from one another, and none could stand up to what’s served out of Skillet’s airstream trailer. It’s simply one of the best burgers you’ll find anywhere.

2. When judging street food, wear elastic pants and don’t make dinner plans.

3. Is Parfait the best ice cream in town? I’m thinking it might be.

4. Watching Trophy Cupcakes and Party owner Jennifer Shea judge a cupcake is an experience every person should have.

5. Finally, based on what I experienced, here’s a list of not-to-be-missed mobile-food dishes around Seattle:

-Picadillo (Cuban-style hash) from Lee Scott’s new truck Snout and Co. It’s ground beef with chopped tomatoes, green olives, bell peppers, raisins, and spices. This is served on rice and then a big-old plantain chip is stuck into the bowl. A glorious, soul-warming dish and a tailgater’s dream come true.

-The duck confit on puffy flatbread from Big Food Mobile. This is an inspiring example of great food served up in the most casual of circumstances.

-A burger and a side of poutine from Skillet. But we knew this, right?

-An oyster po boy from Where Ya At Matt. At the Mobile Food Rodeo, Matt Lewis presented gumbo as his signature dish, but it is the po boy that is his crowning achievement, in my opinion.

-Curry-covered donuts from Street Donuts.

Anything I missed?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Street Food, Seattle Food Events, Mobile Food Rodeo

The Future of Lunchbox Lab

What is the plan for the SLU hamburger joint following the loss of founder Scott Simpson?

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 03, 2011 at 08:00AM 4 Comments

Lunchbox Lab will be around “for many years to come” says owner John Schmidt.

Photo: Facebook

Over the past few months, I’ve been asked a lot if I knew what might happen to Lunchbox Laboratory in light of the tragic death of its founder, Scott Simpson, in March. I did not. So I thought it was time to check in.

The truth is, even before the loss of Simpson, the hamburger joint’s future never felt fully secure. From the moment it opened at its original Ballard location, Lunchbox enjoyed the devotion of a carnivorous customer base that sung its praises at a fever pitch. But as popular as it was, many derided the restaurant for unpredictable hours, inconsistent food, and unsanitary conditions. Since the move to South Lake Union, management has been working to maintain regular hours, a more consistent product, and clean conditions, says John Schmidt. Schmidt and his partners took over ownership and management at the time of the relocation.

“There have been numerous changes implemented to strengthen what was…a struggling business model,” says Schmidt, owner of Neighborhood Grills. “The changes are big and small, but all in the name of providing the best gourmet burgers and hand-dipped shakes in the nation.”

And despite the loss of Simpson and the diminished involvement of cofounder Allegra Waggener (now working “in an advisory role” for the restaurant), Schmidt says he and his partners expect Lunchbox “to be around for many years to come.”

While the focus for the moment is on “refining the overall experience of our guest,” future expansion shouldn’t be ruled out. As Schmidt told the Seattle Times’ Nancy Leson back in December: “Growth is what we’re about.”

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, South Lake Union

Critic Watch: Uneeda ’Nother Review of Uneeda Burger?

You got it! Three local critics weigh in on one burger joint.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 25, 2011 at 08:26AM 0 Comments

Photo: Lucas Anderson

The waffle fries at Uneeda Burger are “terrific,” says Providence Cicero.

Right, so. Not as many articles here as we had with Revel, but three local reviews of Scott Staples’ Fremont burger joint, Uneeda Burger, give us plenty to compare.

Let’s begin at the beginning with The Stranger’s Lindy West, who went to Uneeda back in February and ordered one each of the regular burger (made with Painted Hills beef) and the Waygu burger, a $4 upgrade.

Then she blind-tasted them to see if she could tell the difference.

First of all, let me say that both burgers were excellent. Nothing wrong with relatively well-off suburban cows. Painted Hills, A+. HOWEVER. The Wagyu burger was a revelation. I mean literally like the book of Revelation, like eight flaming man-goats descended on fiery Segways and beat me in the face with their righteous swords of deliciousness….The Wagyu patty was soft without being insubstantial, drippier, darker, and beefier than its counterpart. The Wagyu burger made you forget that ketchup exists. Seriously, it was so good. If my mother were a cow, I would still eat this hamburger. If I were a hamburger, I would eat this hamburger. If I were this hamburger, I would eat myself.

Three months later, Uneeda got a write-up in the Seattle Weekly from newcomer Hanna Raskin.

Much space was given over to an interview with Staples regarding concept and execution, and some was spent describing the presence of kids at Uneeda burger (“The adults responsible for the infants within don’t needa burger; they needa babysitter”). But there was plenty about the food too. Raskin’s advice: order your burger nude.

It’s a shame more customers don’t treat themselves to Uneeda’s naked burger, as the subtle, drippy meat is too easily eclipsed by the strong flavors of ingredients that are more bistro than ballpark. A burger seasoned with ritzy-sounding black-truffle salt and trimmed with deeply sautéed button mushrooms, shallots, and Gruyère tastes like a solidified French onion soup. And woe to the customers who waste their Wagyu dollars on a burger smeared with a vinegary, Lexington-style barbecue sauce and capped with a wig of faintly greasy fried onions. It’s not a bad sandwich, but it relegates beef to a nonspeaking role.

The very next day there came a review from The Seattle Times’ Providence Cicero. She bestowed three stars upon Uneeda Burger, complimenting just about everything on the menu. The only hint of negativity came when she mentioned that the line was long. Once.

And Cicero begs to differ with Ms. West on the matter of the Waygu upgrade.

If you don’t mind paying almost twice the price, you can substitute local Wagyu beef, delicious but really not necessary. The Painted Hills beef has great flavor. Every patty, griddled to a careful and consistent medium-rare, blushes a faint pink in the middle. Toasted, butter-slicked buns capture the gushing juice.

In the immortal words of Frank Zappa: “Hey, that sounds delicious.”

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Fremont, Critic Watch

BuiltBurger Opens for Dinner

New month, new hours.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Mar 01, 2011 at 02:45PM 0 Comments

Photo: Photo by Geoffrey Smith / Courtesy BuiltBurger

Dinner is served at BuiltBurger in Pioneer Square.

Probably because Seattleites can’t stop stuffing their faces with beefy ’wiches, Builtburger introduces expanded hours today, March 1. The Pioneer Square boite, which opened in November as a weekday lunch joint, is doing dinner on Thursday til 9 and serving Sundays from 10-4.

Other P Square luncheries, take note—your neighborhood could use more decent evening eats.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Pioneer Square, Lunch

Free Cheeseburgers at Dicks!

It’s January 25. You know what that means.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jan 25, 2011 at 11:21AM 1 Comments

Buy-one-get-one-free burgers all day today at Dick’s.

Check this out, I’m about to save you, like, $1.40.

Yup, it’s that day of the year again. Dick’s is celebrating its 57th birthday. And you know what that means: Buy one cheeseburger, get a second free. This offer is good between 2pm and 6:30 on Tuesday, January 25.

But wait, there’s more: On Friday, January 31, all sodas—regardless of size—will cost you just ten cents. Ten cents! One dime! Do they even make dimes anymore?! What’s with all the exclamation points! I don’t know!

The offer is good at any of the five Dick’s Drive-in locations around town.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Seattle Restaurants, Seattle Food Deals, Dick's Drive-In

Builtburger, Now Building Burgers in Pioneer Square

The first restaurant from the custom-patty company is open.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Nov 10, 2010 at 09:43AM 0 Comments

Builtburger has opened in Pioneer Square.

Fancy-hamburger joint Builtburger has opened at 217 James Street, bringing the first dedicated burger restaurant to the downtown area.

The restaurant is the first from the burger company, which came into life about a year and a half ago as a frozen-patty delivery service.

The burgers are stuffed with cheese, veggies, and meats to delicious effect. Builtburger is also offering beer and wine, and, for dessert, cupcakes from Trophy.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Seattle Restaurant Openings

Vote, Get Free Fries at The Counter

The burger joint rewards the democratically inclined.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Nov 02, 2010 at 09:45AM 0 Comments

The Counter in Ballard is giving away free fries Election Day.

It’s a beautiful day for democracy, isn’t it?

To celebrate your right to vote, Ballard burger bar The Counter is giving out free fries. To get in on the deal you have to have voted—which you’ve already taken care of, right?—and purchase one of the 312,120 items off the menu. Then, say “I voted.” And say it with pride.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Ballard, Free Food

Edmonds Gets Dick’s

Seattle’s oldest hamburger chain announces its newest location.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 15, 2010 at 01:49PM 0 Comments

Edmonds is the site of the new Dick’s, the company announced this morning.

Dick’s Drive-In announced this morning that its sixth location will be in Edmonds, a quiet beach community just north of Seattle.

To drum up attention for its new restaurant, Dick’s conducted an online poll this fall; customers voted on the area of town where they’d most like to see it go. North Seattle—which included Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, Edmonds, and South Everett—won.

Read more about this momentous development on the Seattle PI’s website.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Promotions, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Restaurant News, Edmonds

New Gourmet Burger Shop Coming to Downtown Seattle

BuiltBurger’s brick-and-morter aims to open in November.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 14, 2010 at 03:46PM 1 Comments

Builtburger will open its “modern hamburger stand” in early November.

Finally, a gourmet burger joint that’s not in Ballard or Fremont!

I just learned from David Makuen, owner of BuiltBurger, that the company is opening its first permanent location at 217 James Street this fall.

For the last 18 months, BuiltBurger has been delivery only (well, it was a pop-up in Ballard for a minute there, but other than that). They bring frozen patties to your door; you cook them up yourself. The beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, and veggie burgers come in 10 “proprietary blends”—one is stuffed with bacon and bleu cheese, another has chorizo, peppers, and cotija cheese, and so on.

The restaurant, which Makuen described as a “modern hamburger stand,” will serve these fancy burgs on custom buns; customers will order at the counter where they can choose from beer, wine, and soft drinks. Makuen, who cofounded the company with his wife Rebecca, says he chose the edge-of-Pioneer Square location—once Guajillo’s Mexican restaurant—after noting a lack of upscale burger options to service the downtown lunch crowd. (He’s right, there isn’t a good burger option there.)

Look for BuiltBurger to open in early November.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Restaurant News

John Howie Steak’s Triple By-Pass Burger Offends Gabriel Claycamp

And he’s not afraid to UPCAP about it.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 11, 2010 at 09:23AM 3 Comments

Name this burger and you can get six for you and your friends.

When last we saw Gabriel Claycamp, he was leaving the Swinery Part II in characteristically dramatic fashion.

Since then the controversial chef has opened Alchemy in the Kitchen, a cooking school slash consulting business slash “non restaurant.”

And on the website for this new business, he has a blog. And on this blog, well, he has decided to call out Chef John Howie, he of Steak and Seastar fame, as a “hack.”

Why go after Howie? Claycamp got offended after reading about a recent PR campaign in which Howie invited diners to come up with a new name for the burger his restaurant was calling the “Triple By-Pass.” As it turns out, that name had already been trademarked by the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona. Heart Attack got litigious; Steak came up with a naming campaign.

I got a press release about it on October 5. According to it, the burger is the creation of Mark Hipkiss, executive chef at Steak. From the release (upcaps preserved): “Hipkiss, in perhaps a supreme moment of culinary insanity, sandwiched a 12-ounce prime chuck burger, tempura fried Kurobuta bacon and ONION RINGS between two grilled cheese sandwiches oozing with Tillamook cheddar and Swiss cheese. This comes, of course, accompanied by a generous portion of crispy fries.”

The person who comes up with the extreme burger’s new name receives, in return, “a party of six,” which includes six of the burgers plus six beers. (Want to enter? See contest details here.)

Claycamp—who himself served six-ounce burgers topped with bacon at the Swinery, not to mention bacon hotdogs—calls the sandwich “the single most disgusting thing I have seen outside of a 7-11 or a KFC.” He does some expressive upcapping himself in the post; read it here.

Over the top or awesomely delicious? What do you think of the yet-to-be-renamed burger?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, Chef Drama, Gabriel Claycamp, Extreme Eating,

Fremont Gets Another Burger Joint

The owners of Zoe and Quinn’s enter the burger biz.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 07, 2010 at 02:20PM 0 Comments

Uneeda ’nother hamburger joint, Fremont? You got it.

Scott and Heather Staples, the couple behind popular dining spots Restaurant Zoe and Quinn’s, are planning a new burger joint on Fremont Avenue.

The story broke over two weeks ago, but the Staples waited until the Seattle Times’ Nancy Leson got back from special assignment to reveal all the juicy (get it?) details. It seems there will be beer taps and wine and milkshakes made with Empire ice cream.

Uneeda burger is set to open in a few months.

Question: What do new upscale burger joints have against any part of Seattle that is not Ballard or Fremont?

Add a Comment »

Tags: Hamburgers, New Seattle Restaurants, Fremont