How to Build the Perfect Burger
A great burger is bigger than the sum of its parts. But some outstanding parts deserve to be recognized. In a perfect world, we would assemble the quintessential Dallas burger using the best of what we tasted.
TOP BUN:
LETTUCE:
One romaine-crazed judge downgraded every burger with iceberg. Another preferred the crunch of thick slabs of iceberg. Thanks to Joe Willy’s for fulfilling all of the judges’ leafy obsessions.
TOMATO:
A thick slice of cold tomato is great on a salad, but it’s bad for a burger because it brings down the temperature. My perfect burger has no tomato. However, if you must say “tomato,” Lee Harvey’s uses thinly sliced romas.
CHEESE:
Hot, bubbling, and oozing over the side is what we like. The bun at Stan’s Blue Note is covered with a thick layer of cheddar. We loved the mini-grilled cheese effect created by a cheese-crusted rim. It’s like two great sandwiches in one.
MEAT:
A true burger comes from freshly ground meat. No ifs, ands, or preformed butts. Nobody comes close to Wingfield’s, where grill master Richard Wingfield lines his half-pound patties across the griddle and buries them under a mass of metal presses. Honorable mention: Angry Dog
PICKLES:
The key to pickle success lies in the equal distribution across the meat. Three little chips hastily piled on top of the patty don’t cut the mustard. I need wall-to-wall dill. Hole in the Wall pickles their burger just right.
ONION:
White onions on a burger are better than red. No argument. And diced over thin-sliced. At Club Schmitz the onions are diced nice, white, and polite.
BOTTOM BUN:
JG’s treats a burger bun the way a burger bun should be treated: slathered with butter and grilled to toasty perfection. The added flavor and crunch create a taste sensation over and below the meat—a sure cure for soggy bun syndrome.
