Two new restaurants have opened their doors in Atlanta last week: Chuy’s, a Mexican Restaurant, and Smashburger opened its Kennesaw location. With locations in the Southeast and as far west as Texas, Chuy’s finally made it too Atlanta last week. Actually, it is rather close to the Dunwoody area. The thirty-year old chain offers goofy decor and while no two are exactly alike, they all boast an Elivs Shrine.

Skip the guacamole in favor of the special house made cheese dip (pictured at the top). Called, Queso Compuesto, it comes with seasoned ground sirloin and pico de gallo. Chicken dominates most of the menu, and the house special dish is the Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom. What makes these chicken enchiladas special is the Boom Boom sauce that covers it. Beware – it isn’t for those that don’t like hot and spicy.

If you like seafood, go for the Baja tacos. With your choice of fish or shrimp, these are very flavorful, although they were a bit on the salty side. We chose the fried shrimp and these jumbo shrimp were delicious. We also sampled a steak burrito that was bursting with flavor too. While all in our group agreed it was tasty we had had the same sentiment – it’s no Uncle Julio’s.

Smashburger already has several other locations in Atlanta (Buckhead, Alpharetta and Johns Creek) and opened its latest in Kennesaw off of Barrett Parkway. The chain is a quick service or fast casual restaurant. Patrons order at the counter and the food is brought to their table.

Smashburger offers fresh ground beef burgers or chicken burgers. Guests can choose from Smashburger combos or create their own. Prices start at around $4.99 for a small burger and go up to $6.99 for the large. Sides range from $2-3.

I got the large smash, which is a large burger. I would have preferred them to make it a double patty vs. one large patty which hangs over the bun. I also thought the burger was rather dry. The ingredients – lettuce, tomato, and jalapenos all tasted very fresh. For sides, the veggie fries (beans and asparagus) were quite tasty, albeit very salty. And although I usually favor sweet potato fries over regular fries, I liked the regular better because I thought it went well with the rosemary and olive oil drizzle on top. They also offer a special burger that compliments each city. For Atlanta they offer a peach topped burger, of course!

Disclosure: The meals provided for these reviews were complimentary.

Me, SeanEatsAtlanta, ATL_Events, BurgerandBrew along with some other Tweeps, met up at the Counter Burger in Roswell on a recent Tuesday. Having no idea if five people or twenty-five people were going to show up I called ahead and they told me they don’t take reservations, but they’d accommodate us when we arrived. We asked for a table of ten and were seated shortly after arriving. The group grew to a total of fourteen, but it wasn’t a problem adding a couple people to our table.

The four mini burgers and beers are pre-selected by the restaurant but change up every couple of months. So, there’s no worry about selecting toppings, which, if you’ve seen the Counter Burger’s menu you’d understand. It is a clipboard with a pencil for you to choose your toppings. I liked simply pointing at the signage and saying “I want that.” It was easy ordering for our large group. And I was impressed that they got the food out relatively quickly, although we did have to wait a while for the beers to come out.

The Burgers were a:
Greek burger with olives and feta
Burger with roasted red peppers and teriyaki-soy sauce
Caprese Burger with mozzarella cheese, tomato and pesto sauce
Burger topped with fried onions and hot sauce

The Beers were:
Heavy Seas
Fat Tire
Sweetwater 420
Palm

I was pretty impressed with the quality of all toppings – they were tasty and plentiful. While I enjoyed all the burgers, the Caprese-Pesto was my favorite with the Fried onion topped-hot sauce burger being my second favorite. Several of us noticed that while we asked for our burgers to be medium, they ended up pretty well done (not dried out mind you), but I suspect it is quite difficult to make those tiny burgers anything but well done. The burgers and brews rotate every couple of months, so there’s definitely variety.

Loved the beers and thought they all paired quite nicely with the burgers. Everyone was very pleased with their meal, and we all remarked what a deal this is. Oh, and loved how our server split up our checks without even asking, even down to the orders of fries we all shared. Great place for a group.

http://www.thecounterburger.com

The Southern Chicken Burger is a 1/3 lb chicken breast. It doesn’t sound all that big but it was huge! The chicken burger is panko breaded and pan fried. It is then topped with Pineapple Chipotle Salsa and served on on Texas Toast and a side of peach BBQ sauce.

I liked the Chipotle Salsa and the Peach BBQ sauce, but I thought it needed something a little creamier, so I spread some ranch dressing on top which made it much better. The ranch dressing was left over from the fried pickles we started our meal with. Really enjoyed those as well.

Oh, and what would a burger be without fries, right? So, we got the half and half order (half Sweet Potato and half Regular fries). So yummy. I love those thin and crispy type of fries. It was a huge portion and even with two of us sharing an order, we barely made a dent in them. If you’d like to try the Southern Pan Fried Chicken Burger, it is on the menu at the Counter Burger for the month of June and July.

850 Mansell Road, Roswell, GA 30076
678 461 9661
www.thecounterburger.com

Cool Whip: A delicious blend of sugar, wax, and condom lube.
Ok, so the most common ingredients are water and air. No problem. But did you know there isn’t any actual cream in Cool Whip? The next ingredient on the list of High Fructose corn syrup, which we all know isn’t good for us.

As I said, there isn’t any actual cream in Cool Whip, but it needs to feel like there is. So, the cheap way to duplicate the texture is by using semi-solidified plant oils, which if not produced properly can turn into trans fat. Sorbitan Monostearate is a synthetic was that helps Cool Whip from turning into a liquid and is also used as a hemorrhoid cream. Xanthan and Guar Gums help give it fluffiness.

And last, but not least: Polysorbate 60.Polysorbates are made by mixing ethylene oxide (a precursor to antifreeze) with a sugar alcohol derivative. The result can be a detergent, an emulsifier, or, in the case of polysorbate 60, a major ingredient in some sexual lubricants. Nice.

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Ammonia Hamburgers Anyone?
So, there’s a South Dakota company called Beef Products Inc., which makes a hamburger filler product that ends up in 70 percent of burgers in the United States. The company, Beef Products buys the cheapest, fattiest leftovers from the slaughterhouse floor. These are chock full of pathogens like E.coli 0157, etc. It then injects a substance with ammonia to kill the pathogens.

Some in the industry call this “pink slime” and it is why you can buy a burger at your local fast food joint for a buck. And it’s so full of ammonia that it will kill pathogens in the ground beef it’s mixed with, or so they say. Test results from Beef Products actually revealed that pink slime can actually add to the pathogen cocktail.

So what companies actually buy this? Cargrill, McDonald’s, Burger King and most likely your kids’ public school cafeteria. And if it doesn’t really work all the well, why do companies continue to buy it? It’s cheap – bottom line.

Our National School Lunch Program, says that students must be fed lunch for $2.68 per day, of which 2/3 must go to labor and overhead, leaving less than $1 for actual food and nutrition. No wonder the lunch program keeps pink slime in business—buying 3.5 million pounds last year alone.

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The Burger Club Seating area

So, I met up with another foodie to check it out on a recent weekday. At 11:45 the restaurant was mostly empty but just after noon, the place had filled up, with customers eager to taste their unique overpriced, abysmal burgers. And the overall feel is that the Burger Club is very kid-centric with the cartoon network on several TVs and an entire wall for kids to color on. Seems like a very awkward place to come sip on martinis in the evening as they brag about on their menu.

Our server was pleasant, cheerful and very helpful. She even made sure to put our milkshake in to go cups, since we ordered them at the end of the meal. The best thing about the Burger Club seems to be the servers, not the food or the atmosphere.

Glancing at the menu, I thought about building my own burger, but thought better of it when I noticed that with a base price of $7.50 for a basic burger, by the time I added my cheese, veggies and meat, I’d suddenly be over $9 without even a side as they are NOT included in the build your burger list. Sides are around $3.

Moving on to the Specialty burgers that do come with a side, I was tempted to play it safe and order the Gastropub burger, a regular burger with bacon, red onion marmalade and roquefort cheese. But I thought better of it and went for something out of the ordinary and ordered the Georgia burger with a fried green tomato, goat cheese and fried peaches. For my side, I could have ordered tater tots, fries, potato salad, mac and cheese or some other perennial favorites, but ultimately chose fries, which tasted just like Arby’s curly fries.

The Burger Club Georgia Burger

As far as high end burgers go, this one was terrible. I ordered the burger medium (slightly pink center) however once it was delivered there was no pink to be found, it was well done. And my dining companion ordered medium rare (his came out well done too). The burger was completely dried out. Even a well done burger can be somewhat juicy but this one wasn’t at all. I kept using ketchup to add moisture to the burger so I could stand to eat it.

I really wanted to find some redeeming quality in the food. So, I turned to the toppings. But truth be told, the toppings aren’t anything to get yourself worked up about either. I didn’t feel like they (goat cheese, peaches, fried green tomato) complemented each other particularly well, not to mention that most of the toppings fall out when you pick up the burger. I ended having to eat mine with a knife and fork to get a bite with all of the toppings in a mouthful. And even then it was just an extremely bland tasting burger.

At this point, I decided my spirits could be lifted with a milkshake. Out of chocolate, vanilla or peach we chose peach to share. After a couple of sips all I could taste was vanilla. I was about to flag down our server to tell her we got the wrong one when, the tiniest bit of peach landed on my taste bud. Ah, so they crush up some peach bits and throw it into a vanilla shake. Not exactly what I was expecting and I certainly didn’t think it would be halfway through my milkshake that I’d finally taste the peach. I’m just glad I didn’t pay for the leaded (with alcohol) then I really would have felt screwed by the cost.

I find that if your base (in this case it is the burger) isn’t done right then all the nice, fancy toppings in the world aren’t going to make it better, which sadly seems to be the case at the Burger Club. There are too many other places in Atlanta to go get a great burger, save your money and go elsewhere.

4300 Paces Ferry Rd NW
Atlanta, GA 30339
Website