"BURGERS HAVE BECOME A REAL BORE. IT'S JUST MINCE ON TOAST." - A.A. GILL
Viewing entries tagged
french
This is not a burger.
Well, it is. In the sense that it is a sandwich. There is visible surprise from patrons who order it for the first time, with Amazonian levels of rocket leaf foliage spewing from an oval bun that looks like the love-child of a dinner roll and French stick.
We wouldn’t *dream* of eating French in NYC though. There’s just no point. I remember passing Bourdain’s place in a cab and audibly scoffing at its kitschy faux-Frenchy exterior as it flashed past. It looked ridiculous. I’m sure all of the dishes are well-executed, but contextually it's not what NYC is to us.
“You’ve got to do something pretty remarkable for the hyper-connected SF populous to notice you…”
Straight off the plane after a delayed flight, we dump the bags at the hotel, hail a cab and head straight for Roam Artisan Burgers which sits more or less in the middle of Union Street. The next time you’re in San Francisco, I recommend you do exactly the same thing because Roam has my top burger of 2011. It’s called the French and Fries, and here it is:
A luxurious combo of creamy California avocado, dijon mustard, melted gruyere and watercress with a few truffle-oiled parmesan fries poking out just for the sheer hell of it. This thing was a fucking revelation. Roam aren’t scared to shift from burger tradition and introduce a few unorthodox ingredient combinations, and frankly they nail it every time. You’ve got to do something pretty remarkable for the hyper-connected SF populous to notice you (and form the consequent, ever-present queue out the door) and Roam have done that with laid-back aplomb.
Each burger is put together with genuine care, and all the individual ingredients are the best they can be. The bun is firm but squidgy, the patties are flawlessly cooked and the meat flavour is never masked by the addition of various homemade sauces.
To gush further, all of Roam’s speciality burgers cost eight bucks each.
Eight dollars.
It’s so unfair.
I’ve not had anything as confidently brilliant as the F&F anywhere else this year.
For the sake of comparison, we tried the Heritage burger. It’s a slightly more traditional bacon cheeseburger, albeit with fontina cheese instead of Swiss or American. It was also effortlessly competent.
A quick mention must also go to the ‘Fry-fecta’, a selection of all three types of fries: russet potato, sweet potato and courgette with onion. Supermodel looks, salty more-ishness and not a hint of grease anywhere to be found. Sharing them almost broke out into a fight. Heaven as starch.
I cannot stress enough how much of an SF must Roam is.
EIGHT FUCKING DOLLARS!
