Burger Hunter: Barbette
It’s everyone’s favorite Secrets of the City feature! The only one people ever mention. We’re basically an empty vessel for Mike S.’s burger hunting exploits and that’s just fine. Check out all The Burger Hunter’s meaty exploits at the #GreatAmericanBurgerHunter tag on Instagram and at @BurgerHunterUSA on the twitter.
Now that your hot laps around Bde Maka Ska are almost over it’s time to head inside to one of your old favorites—or one of my new favorites. Embarrassingly this is my virgin voyage to the beautiful Barbette. It’s true! How did it happen! It’s obvi got street cred amongst the foodie scene, but I’m traveling past the glorious mussels and steak straight to crushtown. The Royale with Cheese is your flame grilled quintessential quality burger. Not many restaurants do flame and fine beef. Barbette does. They use Limousin cattle and local. The texture is the big winner here . . . Char marks on the outer and the chew just slides into your DM’s. The bun is toasted, sized right, flakey and soft. Now the cheese is comte and brings a flavor portfolio that one should consider more often. Kinda nutty and earthy and somewhat sweet. Sounds like Uptown or France to me. Either way its melt factor is hundo p and the report card says “works well with others”. Tasty AH. All upper mouth. There’s an onion marmalade that’s flanking and a light spread of Grey Poupon. It’s balanced quite well. Comes with a fresh salad, which means you had a salad for lunch. Things are working out nicely. This burger is simply exotic. Not a ton going on but what is, is just perfy. To think that this killer restaurant has been marinating here since the Cafe Weird days is a bit bizarre. Pretty pretty happy I finally went. Go eat Lake Street.
Scorecard: Flavor: 8.8 Presentation: 9 Originality: 8
Barbette, 1600 W. Lake St, MPLS; barbette.com