Hand Coding

I stopped by Super Target on the way home from the gym last night and, by the time I got back to the apartment, it was almost 10pm. I didn’t feel like making dinner at that point, so I asked Mike whether he had already eaten dinner (he hadn’t) and suggested that we head off to Quizno’s (there’s one less than a mile from here). My recollection was that Quizno’s closed at 10:30, so it looked like we had enough time.

But, we got there and quickly realized that their closing time was actually 10:00 (doh!). But, Humperdinks was just across the street, so we decided to give that a try (out of curiosity, what other restaurants are open past 10pm in the Lovers & Greenville area?).

Humperdinks has its own brewery and we both wanted to make use of that. Their “Total Disorder Porter” caught my eye and we both ordered one. It was also the special of the day, which was a pleasant surprise. While it wasn’t quite at the level of a Fuller’s Porter, it still very well done (and if it were sold in stores, I’d probably buy it from time to time).

Both Mike and I had a hard time deciding on the menu, but I settled on a Border Burger (a 1/2 pound burger with guacamole, bacon, Pepperjack cheese, jalapeños and salsa) while Mike went for a Ranch Chicken sandwich (a chicken sandiwch with Monterey Jack, ranch dressing, bacon strips, lettuce and tomato).

I noticed on the menu that the Humperdinks Melt was actually served on rye bread (along with Swiss cheese). And considering how ordinary most buns are, I got to thinking that perhaps the Border Burger might be even better on rye. And even though I’ve had a Border Burger previously, I wasn’t sure about those “spicy jalapeños”. So, when I ordered the burger, I asked whether I could get it on rye (and without jalapeños). The server didn’t seem to mind that substitution.

Once the food arrived, I was pleased that the rye bread was thickly cut (about half an inch) and toasted as well. Border Burgers are already tasty, but the rye bread just made it even better. The slight tartness of the rye along with the salsa and guacamole was a great combination.

It helped that the beer was the day’s special ($3.50 for 20oz or so), but the burger was still $9. It was delicious, but I’m still not sure if it was worth $9 (maybe $7-8 would have been more fair). So, once again, rye saves the day. Now if only they’d make a rye pizza :).

The DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was held at The Meridian Room this month. And, though The Meridian Room’s source code is slightly atrocious (generated by Dreamweaver), I like their site design — the photographs scattered throughout are better than I would expect for this type of site.

Of course, their full menu and drinks list are online. Earlier in the day, I selected the Bleu Cheese Burger along with Spaten Franziskener (on draught!). Unfortunately, upon arriving, I realized that their website was out of date since I couldn’t find the Spaten on the paper menu. So, I ordered my burger and went with a Newcastle instead.

The burger arrived shortly, along with a heaping portion of fries. All of it was steaming and very hot (a good sign, for sure). I added a dab of ketchup to the burger (as usual) but, after tasting the fries, decided that they only needed a dash of salt & pepper.

The burger itself was above par and very good. It’s likely among the top five burgers I’ve had here in Dallas. The blue cheese wasn’t just sprinked on top, but melted — so, it must have been added while still on the grill. Melted or otherwise, they probably could have fit more blue cheese on there. I would have preferred just a touch more (that is to say, as much blue cheese could be crammed on there).

The only letdown with the burger was the bun. The menu listed it as a honey-wheat bun and I could taste the honey and the wheat (no surprise there). But, the bun was not only a bit tall — the top bun may have even been a little taller than the 1/2 lb patty — but the honey flavor was too intense such that the bun resembled a distant cousin of a Cinnabon. The bun wasn’t super-sweet, but it was more sweet than it should have been.

The shoestring fries — presented in a heaping pile next to the burger — were great. Too often, other restaurants overcook their fries into hard sticks; but these were pleasantly pliable. They were steaming and still moist with oil, so they absorbed the salt & pepper easily. Fries don’t get much better than this, and they were probably the best fries I’ve had in Dallas.

The service at The Meridian Room was also very good. Not a moment after finishing a glass, a server appeared and asked whether I would like another beverage. With such attentive service, I had three beers there (I more often go through two beers at other Cocktail Events). Rest assused, I tipped them well for such service.

From when I first saw their quaint website, I had a good feeling about The Meridian Room. And, it didn’t let me down. I had a good time, and I would look forward to going there again.

I enjoyed many of the restaurants in Austin while I was in town for SXSW, but I particularly enjoyed Katz’s. I went there a couple times and, as an all-night deli, it fit in well with our schedules.

I had a cheeseburger one evening, but only after ensuing that I could get it with blue cheese ;). The burger arrived quickly and they weren’t stingy with the blue cheese — there was about a cue-ball sized mound of crumbled blue cheese on the side.

I had trouble piling on all the blue cheese, but I was only too pleased to have such a problem. The patty was moderately thick and warm (though it could have been a touch hotter). Upon taking a bite, I was delivered a massive blue-cheese-and-beef sensation. It was incredibly delicious and among the top three burgers I’ve ever had.

On another occasion, I was in more of a sandwich mood and I went with a turkey club (with avocado, natch). The turkey was succulent and piled high, and the bacon — an often overlooked component — was well cooked with a satisfying crunch.

It was a tasty sandwich, decidedly above-average as club sandwiches go, but the bread didn’t seem to live up to its potential. It was wheat, I believe (a good thing), but it tended to slightly dry out my mouth. Usually, mayo or other condiments in the sandwich would counteract this effect, but not so much this time.

And, just last night, I went after the DFWBlogs / H-Town Blogs Cocktail Event. I wasn’t counting on fitting in a proper dinner that evening, so I had a few protein bars earlier in the evening (Zone bars, specifically).

Nonetheless, I was a tad peckish by the time we arrived (which was close to midnight, if I recall). On previous visits to Katz’s, I had eyed their dessert menu but I hadn’t had room — but now was my chance.

At first, their ice cream / brownie caught my eye, but it had both vanilla and chocoalte ice cream. Not being a fan of chocolate ice cream, I crossed that off my list. Though I don’t like chocolate ice cream, I’m still a raging choco-fiend in general — so, I went in search of other chocolatey items.

Quickly, I narrowed it down to two chocolate cakes: “Chocolate Eruption” & “Death by Chocolate”. A food’s texture lends to its enjoyment for me, but that’s where both of those fell a bit short…

The Chocolate Eruption was described as chocolate-cream cake with nuts and chocolate shavings, while the Death by Chocolate was made up of white & dark chocolate mousses. Chocolate can be delicious in many forms, but I never had much of a hankering for squishy chocolate (well, except for ganache, I suppose). Really, a chocolate cake would have been perfect.

Of the two, I settled on the Chocolate Eruption; I figured that the crunch of the nuts would play well off the soft chocolate cream. The slice arrived and, though it was tasty — I had no trouble finishing it — the creaminess was almost overwhelming. Of course it was probably no creamier than most other chocolate-cream cakes, but that evening I had a yearning for a Real Cake cake which this slice didn’t entirely fulfill.

With so many good dishes, Katz’s is probably one of my favorite restaurants in Austin. I look forward to eating there again next year.

On Thursday, we celebrated Never Day at Ben’s Half Yard House (GuideLive review). Bryan organized it, but it was Lyn’s choice (and a great choice it was).

I hadn’t previously thought of Ben’s as a “birthday venue”, but it couldn’t have been better. As always, Ben’s was reasonably lit (not a dark cave like some bars and restaurants) and the music wasn’t so loud as to impede conversation.

The service, too, was better than I would have expected — our server cheerfully arranged for separate checks for each of the dozen-or-so people in our party.

Ben’s has an impressive bar (42 beers on tap!), but the food stood out as well. I’m not normally a fan of cheeseburgers (American cheese? bleh), but I ordered one of their cheeseburgers once I realized that they were available with blue cheese.

Some restaurants sprinkle on the blue cheese, but this burger had a gooey hunk of blue cheese paste that engulfed the top of the patty (and I mean “paste” in a good way). The burger was fairly hot with pleasantly crumbly beef. And, the blue cheese worked so well — they really didn’t skimp on the blue cheese, and its flavor shone through. The bun was above average, though still just a white-flour bun (I keep wondering when rye buns will catch on, HHOS).

Along with the burger, I ordered one of their signature half yards, with Fullers ESB. I was originally going for Fullers Porter (as it’s currently rated #4 among reasonably available beers), but they had run out of that. Still, the ESB was dark and very delicious.

I had good conversation, and a great time. Ben’s is quickly becoming one of my favorite bar-restaurants in the area.

This month’s DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was held at Lakewood Landing:

This upscale dive is roomy enough so patrons can be seen, but cozy enough to remain discreet. You'll find a totally swank jukebox, pool table and random live acts during the week. To keep you sober, the kitchen serves chicken fried steaks, burgers, fries, and amazingly enough — veggie burgers. […]

I was encouraged by the mention of hamburgers, as a good hamburger is still one of my favorties. This user-review at Digital City confirmed that:

Extremely tasty burgers (I highly recomend adding blue cheese to this item) and wings so hot, I blame them for my first stomach ulcer. Irresistable nonetheless. […]

As toppings go, blue cheese is my favorite for burgers. So, upon arriving, I was sure to order a burger with blue cheese (and a Bass). When taking my order, the server gave me the option of mayo and/or mustard, and I opted for “a little mayo”.

The burger arrived shortly, and it was good. The meat was hot and loosely packed (just how I like it). The crumbled blue cheese was sprinkled across the patty; it added a pleasant blue-cheese nature to the burger, though the burger may have been even better with just a touch more blue cheese ;).

The only disappointment in the burger was the bun — it was very McDonald’s-like, as it was just a fluffy white-flour bun. The bun was like a week ending to an otherwise-exciting movie — had they put some more effort into a whole-wheat (or even rye) bun, the burger as a whole could have been elevated to the next level. (Though the bun was a bit of a disappointment, the burger a whole was still very recommendable.)

Lakewood Landing, as a cocktail-event location, worked well. As it was just a Wednesday (as always), the place wasn’t that crowded. And, with the sheer number of bloggers present, it seemed like half the customers were bloggers. So, it was very easy to have conversations, as you could run into another blogger with another step in any direction.

Ed K warned earlier me that Lakewood Landing was quite a smokers-hangout. However, the ambient smoke wasn’t much of a problem that evening (though it may be on weekends). All the same, my clothes still had the aroma of cigarettes by the end of the evening.

I had a good time, and I’d certainly come back to the Lakewood Landing if the Cocktail Event were held there again sometime. All the same, it’s not-quite-a-sports-bar and not-quite-a-restaurant so I’d probably elect to go somewhere else if I were looking for either of those genres (err, do restaurants have gentres?). Best of all, it came up in conversation that Peter may have some front-end web coding available (woo!).

I went to Humperdinks with Jason and Julie this evening. I ordered a Border Burger, while Jason ordered a Cajun Burger (rather spicy, but in a good way, so he says) and Julie had chicken-fried steak (no surprise there). The Border Burger consisted of:

Border Burger
All-beef [1/2 pound] patty, covered in guacamole, with bacon, Pepperjack cheese, spicy jalapeños and fresh salsa on our bun with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. 8.99

Before ordering, I was slightly concerned that the “spicy jalapeños” might end up being too spicy, but our server assured me that the burger had only a medium-heat to it. As it turns out, that was a good assessment — it had some spiceness, but not too much or too little.

I’ve been disappointed by some burgers elsewhere, but this one was very good. The meat was hot and almost crumbly (but not at all spongey). The guacamole and salsa were piled high along with the bacon atop the patty. Sometimes patties with many condiments have the pitfall of becoming too slippery for their buns, but this one faithfully remained within the confines of its bun.

In the end, the burger was good and I wouldn’t hesitate in ordering one again sometime. However, $9-hamburgers are probably not sensible sustenance for unemployed web developers :(.

This month’s DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was at the Stoneleigh P. The GuideLive description specifically mentioned their “super burgers”, so I figured I’d try those.

Oddly enough, their menu advertises “No fries! No ketchup! No pickles!”. That impressed me a little bit, as their hamburgers would have to be very good to stand on their own like that. However, they weren’t.

Sans ketchup, sans pickles, it’s pretty much just meat on a bun (with some mayo). It was like eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, only without the jelly. To be fair, my “Ranchero Deluxe” included chipotle mayonaise, but it was more like mayo with diced tomatoes — or, as Gary put it, the mayo closely resembled McDonald’s special sauce ;).

Per the menu, the Ranchero Deluxe was touted as an 8 oz burger. I know my 1/2 pound burgers, and this one didn’t seem to live up to that. I wouldn’t think they would lie on their menu, but it still didn’t seem to be a full half-pound.

Other than the hamburger debacle, I enjoyed the evening. They had Sam Adams on tap, and that’s always a good thing. And, the decor was delightfully kooky (including obsolete arcade games that no one played, as if they were around just for decoration).

Last night, I went to the Slashdot Meetup for Dallas. It was held at the Dave & Buster’s just down Walnut Hill (not the one near Walnut Hill and 75).

The plan, from e-mail discussions with people from the last Slashdot Meetup was to meet at Dave & Buster’s, but then to go somewhere (cheaper) from there.

It was scheduled to start at 7pm, and I actually got there around 7:07pm (oops). I was concerned that maybe the group had left for the new-restaurant without me, but they hadn’t. Oddly enough, instead of the about-ten people from last time, there were just three people this time around (myself included).

We waited in the entrance-area just in case there were any more late-comers. By around 7:30pm, I suggested that we head-out to the new-restaurant. For some reason, one guy (Dave, I think his name was) was reluctant to do so. I believe his words were “I’d be real hesitant to leave, in case anyone were to still show up”.

Firstly, I thought it was a bit odd that he thought more people may be showing up, even though it was 7:30pm at that point. Secondly, though, I thought it was especially odd that he used the phrasing “real hesitant” instead of the more straight-forward “I would prefer…”.

The three of us had no interest in the arcades, but agreed that some food would be good. So, we found a table for ourselves. Chad (the non-Dave guy of the three) had some chicken nuggets before coming to the Meetup, so he just ordered a Bass. As it turned out, Dave and I also ordered a Bass each.

For food, Dave ordered a Double-Double Cheesburger-Cheeseburger (or something equally cheesily named) which was described as having two beef patties and a slice of American cheese on each. I ordered their Cheese Buster Burger — esentially the single-patty version of Dave’s order. As written in the menu, it included American cheese, which I generally despise (I consider American cheese to be the Microsoft of cheeses).

I asked our waitress whether I could get a different cheese, and she confirmed that I could get jack, swiss, blue cheese, and a few others. I elected for the blue cheese (especially as it was crumbled blue cheese). I asked whether the burger came with fries and, sure enough, it did. I’m trying to reduce (though not eliminate) my carb intake, so I asked whether I could substitute the fries for something else; but all the alternatives were high-carb items as well (rice, baked potato, and so on). So, I just stuck with the fries with the compromise that I’d eat about half of them.

Our food arrived shortly, and my blue cheese was conveniently on-the-side in a small aluminum shot-sized cup. From there, I proceeded to dump all of it onto the patty, along with the tomato slice that was also on the side. With a dollop of ketchup, my burger was compete.

I wish I could say that it was a great burger, but it actually wasn’t. Unlike an ideal burger with loosely packed ground-beef, this burger was very dense. It was almost as if the chef-droid in the kitchen had been flattening and compressing my burger with his spatula at every opportunity. On top of that, the burger wasn’t all that hot either. A good burger should just be on the cusp of burning one’s mouth, but this one was merely extra-warm.

Don’t get me wrong — the burger was tasty enough such that I would accept it if someone were to buy one for me. However, I don’t think I’d order one again from Dave & Buster’s.

The DFWBlogs Cocktail Event for August was held at the Tipperary Inn on Live Oak St. It’s an Irish-style pub, and the interior bars were even made in Dublin and shipped over (!).

Being that it was a Wednesday evening, it wasn’t very crowded — which I thought was a good thing. With fewer people, it’s easiler to have conversations with other people. Still, the sound still easily reflected off the many flat surfaces such as all the polished wood. But, that was only a minor issue (especially comapred to sitting next to the large glass windows at The Hurricane Grill).

I ordered a bacon-cheddar burger and a Kelly’s Cider. The burger had a good amount of meat to it, probably 1/3 lb or more. Pleasantly, it also had that char-taste that comes from a properly flame-grilled burger (mmm). The burger was $8. And, it was very good. But, was it $8-good? I don’t know about that. Maybe $7-good ;).

The fries were “very warm” but not quite “hot”. And, they were crispy-style fries with almost a crunch to the outer skin. I don’t see that fry-style much these days, and it was a nice change of pace.

Before I ordered the burger, I selected my drink. When I asked our waitress what they had on tap, she rattled off an impressively long list of beverages. I heard “Newcastle” among them — definitely one of my favorites — but my ears perked up at the mention of “cider”. I didn’t even hear what brand of cider it was, but I knew that it was one that I hadn’t previously tried.

It turns out that the cider was Kelly’s Irish Hard Cider (an Irish brand, no surprise there). As I write this, I’m having difficulty putting into words the delicousness of Kelly’s Cider… It was full of distinct apple flavor, but not oversweetened, so it remained very dry and crisp. It was fantastically delicious and highly refreshing.

Though Savanna Dry (only available in South Africa, as far as I know) is still officially my favorite cider, Kelly’s now takes the crown as my favorite-cider-actually-available-in-North-America.

I had lunch at Fuddruckers with some old co-workers. I hadn’t been to Fuddruckers before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew they had hamburgers, but that was about the extent of my knowledge.

I soon discovered that they have many sizes of burgers and specialty burgers as well. I finally settled on the 1/2 pound version of their Southwest Burger — consisting of guacamole, bacon and monterey jack cheese. Really, as soon as I read “guacamole”, I knew that this burger was for me (I’m a real sucker for avocado).

The made-to-order burger was hot and very tasty. And, I hadn’t had burger with guacamole before, but I look forward to having many more :).