Wolfe Burgers: "The Ultimate Burger"

Wolfe Burgers has appeared several times on this blog over the years. I don't like the place nearly as much as I did several years ago, but it's still quite good. The condiment bar is still there, allowing you to customize your burger in any number of ways, and I know that two people can always fill up on food (and end up taking plenty of leftover fries home) and get change back from a twenty.

The other night I stopped in, not in the mood for my usual order at Wolfe Burgers - the turkey burger. There was a display advertising something called "The Ultimate Burger." I got excited. The proliferation of gourmet burger joints in Los Angeles over the last few years has elevated the game; when you hear of something called an Ultimate Burger, most likely it's not merely bacon and blue cheese, it's probably something exotic. I wondered what this would be. Wolfe Burgers has great onion rings, maybe they make a burger piled high with them? The owners are Greek, could it be a lamb burger, maybe with feta cheese and tzatziki sauce?

Turns out it it's just a burger with bacon and blue cheese.

Oh.

At any rate, ordered it and took a seat beneath the flat screen television, admiring the Lakers' latest defensive effort [sic]. There was only one other table occupied and neither person at it was talking; I could hear my burger cooking on the grill. In less than ten minutes it was ready. It certainly looked pretty. I considered adding a sauce but did not. (Normally there is A.1. steak sauce on the condiment bar, but not this time.)

I took my first bite. The bacon was outstanding: perfectly crisp, slightly greasy, with very little unnecessary fat. It was some of the best bacon I have ever had at a burger joint. But there was too much blue cheese on the burger. Now, I like blue cheese, but this stuff was intense and there was so much of it in each bite that it was the only flavor I could taste.

So I scraped off some of it, shook a few drops of olive oil over the blue cheese that was left, and tried again. Much better. I ate the whole thing and turned my attention to the fries, not thinking I would be able to finish them. But I did. I was hungrier than I'd thought.

I don't think I will ever order the "ultimate" burger again. I may try another burger with bacon - something that I'd never done at Wolfe Burgers before - but the blue cheese just isn't necessary. Still, I'm glad I tried this burger. I was in a burger mood and it hit the spot.

As I was exiting, I held the door open for two police officers

"How you doing?" one of them asked.

"Good," I said. "Very good."