Mac's Industrial Burger Bar AAR

We hit Mac's Industrial Burger Bar in Nordeast this Monday, and were largely not disappointed! We scored the best since the infamous outing to Sweeney's back in January. People universally loved the Fried Plate of Death and the cheap menu. Parking, mediocre service and less than awesome ambiance took it down a notch. One quotable came from Mr Engberg with the following:

Parking confusion was annoying, driving around the block in Nord'east with all the non-euclidean corners and one-ways is not my favorite pastime. Speaking of non-euclidean, I have to agree with Clint, a showdown with alternate universe el-presidente would have kicked ass. And probably freed their world from his tyranny over the Coleslaw of the Month Club. El Jefe whooping wholesale ass on PBR hipsters would have been acceptable as well. ;-)

Here's a breakdown of the scoring:

Burger - 3.42
Sides - 4.25
Beer - 4.17
Service - 3.25
Ambiance - 2.83
Value - 4.50

Overall score - 3.74

Salut Bar American - AAR

Here's the After Action Report for Salut in St Paul. In general there was agreement that the service and patio ambiance were nice, but disappointment at the small beer selection, the quality of the burgers (oh oh!) and the overall pricing. Honerable mention goes to the fries with bernaise sauce. Here's how the scoring broke down:

Burger: 3
Sides: 3.3
Beer: 2.3
Service: 3.67
Ambiance: 4
Value: 2.67

Overall score: 3.15

Revised 2H 2010 Schedule

OK -

The great summer weather, and 2 consecutive great patio moments got me thinking...we need to make the most of the summer! I've been doing some more research on yelp, and also have dropped 1 tavern and added another (swapped out the Town Talk Diner, and swapped in Mac's Industrial) So, I've re-arranged somethings, and here's the updated schedule:


July 19 - Salut Bar American (on Grand Ave in St Paul)
August 16 - Mac's Industrial
Sept 20 - Shamrocks Grill & Pub
Oct 18 - Bulldog Uptown
Nov 15 - The Cardinal (note, this is on the Hiawatha rail line; 38th Ave Stop)
Dec 20 - 112 Eatery

Stub & Herb's

The gang hit Stub & Herb's in June as was not disappointed! We had beautiful weather, and opted to sit on the patio behind the pub proper. We were uniformly impressed with both the variety of beers and the quality service. Burgers were well received too. Here's a breakdown of the scores:

Burger: 3.62
Sides: 3.5
Beer: 4.25
Service: 4
Ambiance: 3.25
Value: 3.5

Overall score: 3.68

Note - this finally break's St Paul's stranglehold on the top half of the ratings. Stub & Herb's falls somewhere between the Groveland Tap and the Blue Door on the burger-o-meter.

Happy B-Day BOTM Club!! Rankings Thus Far...

We've finally hit the 12 month mark! Below are a year's worth of scores. The reigning champ continues to the The Nook, while Matt's Bar is our cellar dweller! Here's to another delicious year!

The Nook - 4.25
Sweeney's - 4.21
Blue Door Pub - 3.88
Groveland Tap - 3.67
The Happy Gnome - 3.5
American Burger - Bar 3.41
5-8 Club - 3.3
Herkimer Pub - 3.13
Ike's 3.04 -
Burger Jones - 3.03
Bulldog NE - 2.81
Matt's Bar - 2.38

Interesting to see that the top 6 taverns are all in St Paul, and the bottom 6 are all in Minneapolis. You may have the lakes, but we got the burgers

:-)

Catch Up Time!!

OK -

Sorry for the hiatus. We've had spotty voting, and that's led to spotty postings. I'm going to be bringing back the old-school ballots for our June outing! Here's our backlog of (averaged) voting:

March - American Burger Bar

Burger - 4.5
Sides - 3
Beer - 3
Service - 3.5
Ambiance - 3.5
Value - 3

Overall Score - 3.41

May - Burger Jones

Burger - 4.5
Sides - 3
Beer - 3
Service - 3.5
Ambiance - 3.5
Value - 3

Overall - 3.03

June - The Happy Gnome

Burger - 2.8
Sides - 3.2
Beer - 5
Service - 3
Ambiance - 4.2
Value - 5.8

Overall - 3.5

TwinCitiesBurger.com

One of the guys I work with sent this my way. Here's a like-minded BurgerMan who's also on a quest for burger-perfection. Check it out!

www.twincitiesburger.com

One man - going it alone. Truly, an inspiration for all of us.