Nosh Pit

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.

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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?

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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?

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Tags: Hamburgers, New Seattle Restaurants, Fremont

North Seattle Is About to Get a Whole Lot Beefier

Dick’s, Seattle’s perennial favorite burger joint, expands north.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Sep 21, 2010 at 02:12PM 0 Comments

The new Dick’s will open in north Seattle.

Gussied-up burgers have had their haute moment. So have the novelty spin-offs. But if there’s one beefwich that will never fall out of favor with Seattleites, it’s the Dick’s Deluxe.

Seattleites love them their Dick’s. Take a gander at our Taste of the Town series and you see that the greasy spoon is an oft-mentioned favorite of the people profiled. When Dick’s execs polled the public on where to open a new location—their first in 36 years—the local chain pulled in more than 115,000 votes. Talk about fulfilling your civic duties.

The company announced Monday that the majority of those votes went toward planting Dick’s #6 in northern Seattle, which could mean anywhere from Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, and Lynnwood to Edmonds or South Everett. (To help you visualize: the idea is to keep the new location within a 20-mile radius of the original Dick’s in Wallingford.) North Seattle represented 46 percent of the votes, south Seattle 28, and the Eastside 26 percent.

Exciting news for northenders, but they’ll have to wait awhile before getting their burgers-and-fries fix close to home. Dick’s VP Jim Spady doesn’t expect the joint will open until 2011, or even as late as 2012.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Seattle Restaurant Openings

Forecast for Tomorrow: Burgers with 100% Chance of Beer

Whole Foods turns 30 and you’re invited to hoist one in its honor.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Sep 17, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

And did we mention…Seattle Met is one of the sponsors?

Come to the big tent at Whole Foods Interbay tomorrow (Saturday, Sept 18) from noon to 3pm for its Beer ‘n’ Burgers Birthday Bash.

For $15 you can taste local beers and sample sliders from chefs competing for the Best Burger title. (Pssst: We have it on good authority that among them will be chefs from Pike Brewing and Maritime Pacific Brewing Company. Do they call burger makers chefs? Come find out.) Oh, and there’ll be cake.

Bring canned food for Northwest Harvest to round out the happy feelings…and get your advance tickets here.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Beer, Benefit, Whole Foods, Interbay

Where Will the New Dick’s Go?

Seattle’s classic burger joint is opening a new restaurant, and it wants customers to weigh in on the location.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 31, 2010 at 10:43AM 3 Comments

King5.Com reported yesterday evening that Dick’s Drive-In, Seattle’s favorite drive thru-in hamburger joint, has plans to open a new restaurant. (Dick’s Vice-President Jim Spady, son of Dick, first announced the news on a KIRO radio show, though King 5 makes no mention of that. Bad King 5.)

This is the first time in 36 years that the chain will open a new location.

If you want to offer your input as to which Seattle neighborhood the restaurant should move into, there is a poll for that purpose on the company website.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Seattle Restaurant Openings

Another Burger Joint Comes to Ballard

Seattle Burger Co celebrates its grand opening on Wednesday, March 10, but you can try one of the bargain-priced burgers today.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 02, 2010 at 01:19PM 2 Comments

Nine days ago Ballard’s newest burger joint, the Seattle Burger Co, opened softly at 2008 NW 56th Street. Today owner William Wen reports the restaurant has “ironed out the kinks” and is ready for its grand opening next Wednesday, March 10.

In a neighborhood replete with burger joints, Wen says his burgers stand out not only for quality ingredients like Tillamook cheese and ground chuck from Oregon, but also their “aggressive” low prices. Those prices range from $3.85 to $6.59 for beef, veggie, and chicken burgers augmented with lettuce and tomato, peppered bacon, wasabi mayo and sweet teriyaki sauce, and other such edible accoutrements.

Seattle Burger Co also serves shakes, floats, fries, and onion rings. Stop by and see how it compares to the likes of Zak’s, The Counter, Lunchbox Lab, and all the others.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Cheap Eats, Ballard

Locavore’s Delight: Sustainable Dinners at Ray’s Boathouse

Monthly multi-course meals show off the tasty wares of nearby food purveyors.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 26, 2010 at 02:42PM 0 Comments

They eat grass, you eat good beef.
Photo: skagitriverranch.com

It’s hard to argue with sustainably raised shellfish and grassfed local beef. And so we are liking the 2010 series from Ray’s Boathouse. Each month the restaurant hosts a dinner featuring food grown and raised sustainably in the Northwest. On March 4 from 6-8pm, it’s a five-course meal that includes oysters, scallops, mussels, and clams from Taylor Shellfish, Little Skookum, and Penn Cove.

Cost is $65—drinks, tax, and tip not included. Reservations at 206-789-3770, ext 3.

Meat more your bag? Sign up for a pig and beef extravaganza with humanely raised beasts from Skagit River Ranch in the Skagit Valley. It’s on April 3 and costs $60 sans beverage, but there is a pairing option with wines from Woodinville’s DiStefano Winery: a flight of three wines is $20. Call Ray’s for details.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Restaurants, Locavore News, Special Dinners, Oysters