Local Burger
82 Main Street, Railroad Square
Keene, NH
I will let you all in on a secret, no matter how hard I might try and hide it by making it sound like i know my stuff about fancy foods and tons of homemade things, deep down, like every all american man, i am a burger guy. i know, shock right? Now when i go out for a burger, though I shamefully admit i have a weakness for a burger king bacon double cheeseburger, most of the time, i would rather go somewhere, abit upper scale, or that is atleast actually made of beef. And though that quest has taken me to many a local burger joint, its only recently taken me to a place, literally called, Local Burger. No, seriously thats its name, and i personally think its brilliant.
Located in the heart of Railroad Square in Keene, New Hampshire, is the second location for, what i am assuming is an attempt to expand into a regional chain, with their flagship location being located in downtown Northampton Mass. Local Burger is trying to be, as best i can tell, a somewhat more organic option to those that would wanna go to a higher end burger place like a Five Guys or one of those other higher end chains that are starting to spread out all over the united states. Local boasts locally raised grass fed beef as one of their choices of burger you can get, as well as one from the upper end of the Angus grading scale, though between you and me, i still kind of think the angus grading scale is nothing more then a marketing buzz term, but I digress, they also offer a turkey burger if you're not into beef, as well as a portabello mushroom made burger, and an all beef hot dog, cuz, why not? From these few choices, you can build your burger, or turkey burger or hot dog, or mushroom they're making to think for some reason is a burger even though it will always be nothing more then a horrible horrible mushroom all its life, sadly each topping you add costs a small amount to put on, which i assume is where they "get ya" as people say. but to be fair they do offer a pretty good amount of toppings for a small place, and they aren't all that badly priced per extra, but honestly, I don't like the idea of having to pay afew cents extra for barbecue sauce on my burger when Ketchup is free on the tables, that seems kind of redundant to me.
One of the saving graces of Local Burger though, is their "House Favorites" which is where i am assuming most of their orders come from, as well as their sides, I will get into the sides in alittle bit, but for now, lets have a look at the "House Favorites", again, its a small number of choices, but honestly, they're pretty damn amazing, atleast what we had on our trip in, there is "The Westhampton Burger", which is basically a bacon cheeseburger but with barbecue sauce on the bottom and ranch dressing on the top, in a surprising turn, they've brought the St. Louis staple of the "Juicy Lucy" here, for those that don't know what that is, its a double cheeseburger, fused into one, with the cheese in the middle, its tricky to make because the cheese must be perfectly melted so it oozes when you bite into it, the company's signature burger the "local burger" which is a double bacon cheeseburger with mushrooms and red peppers, both me and my mother who accompanied me on this visit are deathly allergic to mushrooms, so we kind of avoided that and the "amherst burger", which is a portabello mushroom burger, others include the "farmhouse turkey burger", which is a turkey burger with cheese, bacon, and some creation called honey dijon maple mayo, which sounds just amazingly good all things considered, a teriyaki burger which is a regular burger but with a spice of pineapple and teriyaki sauce, a southwestern burger which is just cheese and chili peppers, and because why not give us a curveball, a hot dog coated in Cap'n Crunch cereal and fried, then covered in buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing, because, you know, when you aim at college kids in a college town, hang over food is a must.
For our burgers, I had the westhampton burger, medium rare as a burger should be, the bacon was awesomely cooked, the burger was perfectly seasoned, the roll was even nice and hearty, I like when a place puts that kind of detail into their work, a bun is important even if most don't think its just there, it shows the care they put into putting together their menu, which is always a plus with me, the burger was seasoned great, my guess is salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder on each side as it cooks, honestly it was one of the best burgers I've had in months. My mother, who joined me on this adventure into foodery had the Juicy Lucy, having seen it many times on various tv shows and feeling happy the weekly special wasn't a kangaroo burger (I'll explain later), she got hers with just pickles and a tomato, cuz well thats how she was feeling like rolling today I guess, honestly, watching the cheese ooze out of that stuffed burger and pool in the basket it came in, truly was a thing of beauty, I was actually kind of jealous, well till she broke off a bit and told me i had to try it, this was my first experience with the juicy lucy, and it surely will not be my last, something about the mixing of the burger and the cheese being cooked inside the meat that just makes it so much better, honestly if you ever get a chance to try this thing, do not pass it up, you will regret it.
To go with our burgers we figured we would try some of the sides, their sides, like the burgers aren't very large in number, but thats alright, a small menu keeps a kitchen pretty much ontrack, their sides are truly where their uniqueness shines i think, they consist of; Handcut French Fries, Handcut Sweet Potato Fries served with maple mayo, Beer Battered Onion Rings with spicy ketchup, Fried Pickles with ranch dressing, Cap'n Crunch coated chicken tenders with a choice of afew different sauces either on them or to dip in, and buffalo blu cheese fries, which as you can guess are fries, covered in buffalo and blu cheese sauces. To try and get a good feel of the menu, we tried the regular fries, because a burger joint has to have good fries, the fried pickles, because my mother had never had them before, and the cap'n crunch coated chicken tenders with some honey barbecue sauce on the side, because, seriously how can you not try something like that if its on the menu? Its like begging you to try them. The fries were excellent, they weren't to crispy, and they weren't too soggy, they were seasoned perfectly and really were addictive, but they were no where near as addictive as the chicken tenders though, honestly, us here in the New England region are aware of a certain television food show that uses the term "a dish worth driving too", honestly, i would rive the half hour to Keene just for these tenders, i had no idea grounding up Cap'n Crunch cereal and coating fresh cut chicken tenders with it, then frying them would change the texture and the flavoring so much! but it did! in a good way! I honestly would go back just for that one side alone. Sadly through, the fried pickles, I could not say the same for, they have the same problem that i find most places that make their own pickles have, they can't properly give the pickle the several months it needs to fully transform into a pickle, they always leave them for only afew days, which though it gives you a nice crunchy pickle, doesn't really give you much more flavor then one bite, and afterwards all you taste is cucumber, Local Burger's fried pickles are no different, you get enough pickle taste in your first bite to know what you're eating, then you find yourself not really excited to take the next cucumbery bite because its just to bland, added to the fact they coat them weirdly, I at first thought they used the same cereal they use for the hot dog and the chicken, but I was wrong, this stuff tasted like a mix of flour and sand, but mostly sand, it was very mealy, gritty and lacking any kind of seasoning to compliment or enhance the fried pickle within, honestly, I've never been one to take three of something out of a full order then toss it, but we had no choice, both of us agreed they weren't worth it. Lucky though for Local Burger, that the rest of what we tried of theirs was beyond stellar, it was truly a great meal, and honestly, for two specialty burgers and afew sides, and drinks, coming in at alittle under $40.oo total wasn't all that bad in the bigger picture, and more importantly, when we left, we left happy, not feeling too full or bloated or heavy like sometimes happens at places of this type, I think thats a great sign. Another thing i should mention, though we didn't try the weekly special, this week a burger called "The Twisted Sister", which is a burger with peanut butter, jelly, bacon and sriracha hot sauce on it, if you do alittle looking, you'll see that they have some amazing weekly specials, sometimes even using more exotic meats like Kangaroo and Caribou among other crazy things and crazy combinations, the idea of which really makes me wanna go back soon!
Over all, I would say we had an exceptional time, sure there were afew things that weren't all that good, the things i mentioned, and i could maybe nitpick that the drinks are no larger then a medium at best, but you do get unlimited free refills, so i guess that balances it out, and that the cook times seemed abit long, but,we also were their first customers of the day when they opened today, so maybe that needed alittle time to heat the cooking stuff? I could do that, but honestly, i'd be just looking to find things wrong with a place that is truly a hidden jem amist the rest of the food places in the Railroad Square area of Keene, which is not only the heart of downtown Keene, but where the local state college's main campus is located as well, as you can see by my outdoor shots i made sure to include, the location is killer, right on a main road, you've got a giant common area right next door that during the summer, well on days that aren't raining, are filled with anything from street performers to weird protesters, they also have outdoor seating right there along the main drag under those beautiful trees, seriously there are to many things perfect about this place, honestly if you can, you should take a drive up to Keene and have a look, though i will admit, parking is a pain, but if you don't mind a walk down an old timey main street full of shops and places to eat, there are many parking lots and parking garages along the way, so, make a day of it if you aren't from the area, honestly you wouldn't regret it one bit.
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Chris
