THD | Eat the world
Despite it being officially warm outside, and knowing that I can’t hide underneath several layers of clothing, I decided burger “market research” would be an excellent idea. That being said, I am so epically stuffed that meat and cheese are practically coming out of my ears. I have successfully eaten around 20 burgers (and went on about 3 juice cleanses) in the past few weeks, all in the name of one of my favorite foods. I can go a minute without eating a burger again, maybe. My summer bod is ready to make a breakthrough for real.
As before, I’ve done the research, so you don’t have to. I searched far and wide, and I found the best. Here are my picks for the top 5 burgers in Atlanta, in order from “this is wonderfully tasty” to “I’ve fallen in love with a burger, is that weird?”.
If you like the taste of beef in its purest form, the burger from Miller Union is for you. Grass-fed meat scraps from their featured steaks are freshly ground, seasoned just enough, and placed on top of a buttered and toasted sesame seed bun with shredded lettuce, red onion, sharp cheddar cheese, and homemade ketchup and aioli (fancy talk for mayo). A few things sold me on this burger. Usually, I’m a double patty with American cheese kinda girl, but this burger tastes so incredibly clean, I almost feel healthy eating it. The cheddar cheese is somehow perfectly melty and not oily, and their ketchup is amazing. They use a special blend of spices, including smoked paprika and cinnamon, to make it, which adds amazing flavor to both the burgers and fries. The best part? I had just enough room to eat three ice cream sandwiches afterwards. Individual results may vary.
Cheddar cheese is not the best melting cheese, but when you turn cheddar into pimento cheese, magical unicorn things happen. All of a sudden, you actually taste sharp cheddar and not oily, separated cheese. Best part? You don’t need to melt it. In fact, it’s better not to. At Kaleidoscope Bistro and Pub in Brookhaven, they’re making some of the best wonderfully sharp pimento cheese around. And yes, they’re piling it high on their signature burger. This burger has everything; sharp, pimento cheese, slightly melted from the heat of the burger, tangy and sweet green tomato relish and pickles, and crunchy slaw. I recommend going in and getting everything with pimento cheese on their menu. Yes, I do that, and no, I’m not ashamed.
The Iberian Pig burger almost didn’t make the list because I was so stuffed with tapas the last time I ate it, I could barely see let alone recall anything about the last 90 minutes of my life. Round of applause for my boyfriend for bringing me back there to try it, because now I can’t live without it. What you see pictured above is a (perfectly medium rare) Wagyu beef burger, topped with succulent pork belly, buttery tetilla cheese, pickled veg and garlic aioli, all inside a buttered and toasted brioche bun. Sweet, sweet decadence. Once again, this burger has everything. And to boot, it’s not even a double-stack. I barely recognize myself anymore…
“That’s Frederick Krog, for whom the street and market are named. Also, rhymes with bread.” Fred’s Meat and Bread is an adorable and always-packed stall in Krog Street Market, opened up by none other than the brain-children behind The General Muir. At Fred’s , they are serving up several mouth-watering items, but mostly notably the double-stack burgers, with and without bacon. Now we can talk about the white elephant in the room. Why isn’t Holeman and Finch and Bocado listed in the top 5? Because Fred’s double-stack with American cheese and pickles is just as delicious, it’s more consistent, and it’s less expensive. Fred’s burgers prove that you don’t need to eat at a fancy restaurant and overpay for a basic double-stack. Now, on to the grand burger finale…
I ate this burger for the first time the other night. Immediately, I slipped into a food coma, or experienced what is more aptly known as “The Itis”. I laughed to myself while people sitting around me looked awkwardly in my general direction, but I didn’t care. I had never felt so satisfied after eating a burger in my entire life. In fact, I can barely concentrate on writing a description for this burger right now because I want it so badly. Damn all of my friends and colleagues that recommended it to me, because I could literally eat it every day if it wouldn’t kill me.
This, my friends, is the Diner Burger, no bacon, at The Albert. The meat? Double patty, seared on a flat top. The cheese? Yellow American that literally melts into and around the beef. The toppings? A generous helping of mustard and mayo, a duo of thinly sliced raw and sautéed onions, and pickles. It’s juicy. It’s messy as hell. And it’s just plain amazing. This is the stuff burger dreams are made of.
Now that I’ve eaten all of the burgers in Atlanta, I won’t need to guess where to go when I have a craving, and neither will you. That’s it for this week’s top 5. Now it’s your turn to go out and show these burger-making restaurants some love for doing such a phenomenal job. It’s up to us to separate the good eats from the bad and show recognition and appreciation where it’s due. Now, I’m whisking myself away to NYC, where I have more, outrageous market research to do. What will be featured on the next top 5? Yo no sé… guess you’ll have to wait and sí. ?
