Burger Hunter: BRIO
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.
With great energy and confidence we head North to the lovely town of Andover, MN. BRIO is an established coffee house that does small batch at a very high level and them there fresh grounds might not even be their best game. They have a sneaky great chef that’s pastry trained and in it to win it with her foodie game. I had my best ever grilled cheese sandwich here. I’m talking the one-that-changed-everything-kinda-best-ever. On to The Sleepy Swine, which is their burger on the menu. It’s on a torta roll which is just a better name for ciabatta. But there it is, now that I said it, we all know how good that is as a bun—mediocre at best. All uphill from here tho. The meat grind is a mix of lamb and bacon. Fantastic flavor and nothing dominates. Hard to do with them two. Juicy. The blue cheese is very forward like it’s had four drinks. Works well with the garden tho. Fozzy Bear tomatoes. That’s what we call the big ones. Delicious and far out exotic with the tzatziki sauce helping everything be so fierce. It’s reaching a bit but it all works out great. Each bite rendering a blast of different flavors. Good complexity. Coffee is a must. Big ups on that lamb and bacon grind. They are bff’s.
Scorecard: Flavor: 8.3 Presentation: 8 Originality: 9
BRIO, 15190 Bluebird Street NW Suite #100, Andover; briotwincities.com