The Burgers We Love…
…the burgers we leave
Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on May 26, 2009 at 12:00PM
3 Comments
Today Seattle Met unveils its cover story on Seattle’s best burgers—a great read (supplied by the entire edit staff) that, like Playboy, no one will actually read.
Because who’s kidding who: It’s all about the flesh, as in the luscious fresh-ground half-pounder with bacon that photographer Hank Drew and stylist Tyler Rebman so seductively captured on the cover. That one’s from Spring Hill, a distinguished West Seattle culinary destination that people don’t associate with burgers at all.
We think they will now.
Featured alongside Spring Hill are a dozen other burger joints: the expected (Red Mill Burgers), the unexpected (Voila! Bistrot), the peripatetic (Skillet Street Food), and more.
Notable as what’s listed, it turns out, is what isn’t. The piece has been out all of one day and already, fans of Lunchbox Laboratory, Ballard’s artery-hardening high holy temple of excess, are, ahem, weighing in.
“I love the latest issue with the burger story!” writes one reader. “But I can’t believe there’s no mention of Lunchbox Laboratory! I know it’s a tough call with so many good burgers in Seattle, but I have almost seen a grown man cry when he realized that Lunchbox Laboratory had already closed its doors for the evening and he missed his chance for burger heaven.”
Sigh. We spent an editorial meeting going ‘round and ’round on whether to include this cult fave, as chronicled in boss Katherine Koberg’s Editor’s Note. Ultimately, the nays had it.
You may disagree. (We wish you would…then vote in our on-line best burger contest.) Because, judging from the lines out front, a whole lotta eaters love the Lunchbox.
And get this: Just this morning word landed in my inbox of a new burger joint scheduled to open this fall at Ballard Blocks, a development which at Ballard Way and 15th is just down the steet from Lunchbox Lab.
The idea at The Counter Custom Built Burgers is build it yourself: You choose the meat, the cheese, the toppings, even the buns. Sound like a certain Laboratory you know?
Oh dear…maybe we were wrong after all.
I was thrilled to see Zippy’s listed #1 burger joint. Everything you read about the burgers is true – delicious and daydream-worthy! But what I don’t get are the tired jokes about Highland Park as nowhere-ville. Get over it North Seattle – we Highland Parkers have really cool stuff going on. In the vicinity of Zippy’s: South Seattle Community College, the Seattle public school hidden gem Sanislo Elementary and some top notch city parks…..all this and only 15 mins to downtown (something that Woodinville’s Teddy’s probably can’t claim). Hmmn…funny….no mention of the commute in that review.
I still recall walking up to a table outside at Lunchbox Lab and finding the umbrella caked with dirt, the table itself grubby with grease and dirt. Ewwwww.
It seems the only thing people love more fiercely than their favorite burger is their favorite neighborhood. As for Lunchbox Lab, buysomewindex—-I too have been less than enamored, but more because of the food than the setting. The grease quotient on my visits has been pretty intense. I voted no on the office poll.