RECON: MY BROTHER'S BAR

Denver, CO

Recently the Canuck and I had the chance to go to Denver for the weekend to visit some pals. Day One we walked from Coors Field, through town and across the river in the rain, to My Brother's Bar. It's an old joint, with lacquered wood tables that slope, dark wood walls covered in signage and framed photos, and rounded wood chairs that my grandmother has in her kitchen from the 60's. It was crowded and cozy with all the regulars hiding from the rain, but we got a seat right away. The menus were photocopies of a handwritten menu that I doubt has ever been altered.

We ordered a couple pitchers to start off and two fries and rings combos.  They come out in paper trays on these awesome condiment containers from the 60's. You can add pickles, fresh onions, mustard, ketchup, jalapeños etc to your fries and burgers. The fries were standard- as expected. The onion rings were fantastic. When you bit into them, the onion didn't come sliding out the whole thing and they were perfectly crunchy. 

A couple of us ordered the Ralphie (can't pass up bison!) and a few chose the JCB.  I of course added bacon, and it was an excellent decision. The burgs come out wrapped in paper - no plates. I think the BRCB means Bacon Ralphie Cheese Burger.  

I unwrapped mine and it looked gooey and amazing, but I added some onions, pickles, mayo, mustard and ketchup in keeping with the classic flavors of the American Cheese, bison and bacon.

This is a true, classic American cheeseburger. Excellent grill flavor, tender meat, crunchy bacon. The onions and pickles cut through the richness of the cheese and sesame bun. It would be fair to say it was kind of like eating a bit of history. If you are in Denver, I highly recommend stopping at My Brother's Bar to grab a cheeseburger and a beer!

RECON: MR. BARTLEY'S BURGERS

Cambridge, MA


Sadly, Cojo went back to California before I did, but Murph and I carried on and went to Mr. Bartley's.  Bartley's has been a part of Cambridge for around 50 years.  The restaurant has family style seating and the walls look like a frat house. It's chaos, and all in good fun. If you know me, you know I don't like strangers, but Murph loves to talk to strangers and she struck up a conversation with the father and son duo seated uncomfortably close to us. (She's so brave!) All their burgers are named after pop culture phenomenons and politicians. I chose the Joe Biden burger, and Murph went with the Bill Clinton. Joe Biden comes with American cheese, bacon and BBQ sauce; Bill comes with BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese. (There's a sex joke in there somewhere...)

Murph got sweet potato fries and I got onion rings so we could mix and match. They didn't provide anything but ketchup, and we all know a proper dipping sauce is key or I'm not interested, so our waitress brought out a blue cheese dressing which was the perfect companion for the fried treasures. She did warn me this dipping sauce would cost extra- Bartley's is a little pricier than Flat Patties, but I think you're paying for the name and heritage as well. The sides come piled next to the burgers, the burgs are probably 3-5 inches high, and they stack the sides as high, if not higher. It is 100% too much food.

It was delicious: rich, salty, filling.  We were starving, my blood sugar was super low and we probably waited 30-40 minutes for the burgs to come out, but we scarfed them down in half that time.  We were so gung-ho at first and then your brain tells you you're full, but you keep eating because its tasty, and then your brain threatens you, "If you eat one more bite I will make you puke." And your tongue is like, "Fuck you, Brain." It's a bitter battle. Your stomach is the real victim, it doesn't have a voice.  

If you go to Boston, or if you're an Asian over-achieving tourist checking out Harvard, don't miss Mr. Bartley's.  You would be doing your tongue a disservice to skip the politically charged fare.

Recon: NO NAME SALOON

Park City, UT


I flew into Park City for the Sundance Film Festival with a nicely sized posse and after our long journey and fantastically chauffeured suburban ride into town, we needed some hearty food.  We marched straight over to our old, get-drunk-in-the-afternoon-stand-by favorite, the No Name Saloon and binged on the local fare.  We started with mozzarella sticks, french fries and onion rings, which we scarfed down before they could be photographed (we were starving!) but trust me when I say they were delicious.

We ordered buffalo burgers, which are- yes- made out of buffalo meat.  Apparently the buffalo is not endangered like I thought.  Or maybe I just ate an endangered animal.  Let's go with not endangered for conscience reasons.  I opted for bleu cheese and bacon.  Murph, Court and Kate went for the classic Saloon burger- one with cheddar, and one with grilled onions.  No Name serves all their burgers with lettuce and tomato, and their home made potato chips.  (George Michael ordered a wrap, so not really worth mentioning...)

We needed so much diet coke the waitress finally just brought over a pitcher.  I went with a hefeweizen.  Hey, I was on vacation and I was going to have alcohol with every meal even if it killed me.  I thought the burger was great.  Meat was tender with great flavor, grilled to medium, with a nice char on the outside.  Bleu cheese wasn't overwhelming.  Could have used more bacon, or a better way of organizing the bacon to ensure bacon in every bite.  I made my usual spread of ketchup, mustard and mayo- which was also an excellent dip for the chips.  They serve salsa with their potato chips which must be a Utah thing, because salsa is for tortilla chips, dip is for potato chips.  Duh.

No Name is a great place to take a breather at Sundance; the food will fill you up and they have a massive bar.  Decor is all western, and vintage advertising, with plenty of tables, one long bar and good sized restrooms.  It gets crowded, so that is an important plus.  Definitely stop in here if you're in Park City, but don't try to be dainty about what you order, go for the jugular and you won't be disappointed.

Recon: DADDY-O'S

San Diego, CA


The Friday after Thanksgiving, instead of eating turkey leftovers, my dad and I visited San Diego's newest burger joint, Daddy-O's, over on Point Loma Blvd.  He had recently gone with a friend, so I knew when I came down for the holiday I'd be sampling the new fare.  

The decor is red, black and white with diamond plate on the walls and rat fink pieces all around. It reminded me of that song in Grease when they build the grease lightening car. I stole this phrase from the Daddy-O's website, because its accurate and I always enjoy an excessive use of adjectives, its a "hot rod, honky tonk, rockabilly, retro diner."  Thank you for summing it up so well. They have booths, regular tables, and a few bar tables.  Various TV's had football, and Fuel TV on, while the kids section had cartoons.  Don't let the thought of a kids section scare you off. I can assure you the nosier and more crowded this place is, the better an  atmosphere it will have.


We started with a chocolate malt, because why the hell not? You could taste the malt flavor nicely, but I wish they had made it with chocolate ice cream, not vanilla with chocolate syrup. (Is that common in restaurants?)  We ordered the Frings to get started. I loved the onion rings, they were crisp with good flavor. Fries were crinkle cut, and both had a lemon pepper seasoning sprinkled on. The onion rings were definitely better than the fries due to the salt/crisp factor. They bring out dip cups, but the condiments are on the table so you get to make your own sauce, which I love. They also have a ROLL of paper towels on the table.  These people KNOW the mess a big juicy burger can cause and they are prepared.  

I ordered the Honky Tonk burger, which is angus beef, caramelized onions, fried onions, american cheese, lettuce, tomato and bacon.  The two onion textures were perfection.  The fried onions and bacon gave just enough crunch and salt to balance out the tomato and caramelized onions. It's a big patty with great flavor, and it got messy mostly because of the size of the thing, not because it fell apart. They stacked their ingredients well to minimize sog from the caramelized onions. My dad ordered The Hemi, which is two 1/4lb angus beef patties, red onion, bacon, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato.  Appropriately named. He enjoyed it immensely. Previously he had the Gonzo, which has caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese, but when I went to order that one he told me the cheese was a little on the strong side, so if you're not into a manly cheese on your burg, I'd go another route. I couldn't finish my burger, but I ate the rest of it when I came home from bars at 2am and it held up well.  So have part of it for lunch, the rest of it for second dinner.  

I want to try The Greaser. And then I want to build my own. Customer service was fantastic; very attentive. And I was pleased to discover they offer a 'uniform discount' which applies to military servicemen and women, among others.  So, if you have a busy morning, you're hard at work and you wear yourself out and are in desperate need of a solid meal (or you're not hungry, but you're an emotional eater and just feel like gorging) head over to Daddy-O's and fill up!