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brgr

*DISCLAIMER: FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER AT YINZ HUNGRY WE HAVE A GUEST BLOGGER! BLAKE TARR IS GOING TO GIVE HIS OPINIONS ON A RECENT TRIP TO BRGR. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY BLAKE TARR DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF YINZ HUNGRY… SO WITHOUT ANY FURTHER DELAY, INTRODUCING BLAKE TARR…*
Oh the burger revolution, with the ongoing advent of Foodie culture, there has been a movement to the appreciation of food to degrees unseen before; your typical hot dog can becomes a work of art which belongs in an art gallery instead of your large intestine. Thus you can purchase a gourmet burger, I repeat gourmet burgers, the concept really boggles my mind! Burgers are meant to be delicious, simple and delicious. An unhealthy guilty pleasure where a man can relive his prehistoric roots and engulf an animal that has roamed the purple mountain majesties above the fruited plains! Taking a burger to fine dining just strikes me as generally wrong; if a chain smoking waitress named sue with a blue apron isn’t asking me “Would you like fries sugar?” I feel I am missing something!

With that being said back to BRGR, I went into the establishment after work and the first think I noticed looking at the decor was I felt underdressed! Again, I just came from work so when business casual is underdressed for a burger joint let’s just say it gave me pause. The inside of the establishment resembled an apartment of a hipster and yuppie cohabiting a new york loft. If this seems like the location that you want to ingest grade A angus beef go right ahead, I was still looking for Sue to come around. The inside: trendy, elegant, refined (everything a burger should not be) We got offered to sit on the rooftop which the host said was beautiful, again when I am attempting to ingest butchered cow, beautiful isn’t exactly what I am intending.

When reaching upstairs, they had a nice rooftop enclosure which was heated, since the day was slightly chilly. There was no dedicated bartender upstairs so if you wanted a beer on draft you could only order one downstairs (Alcoholic Milkshakes, and Beer Bottles were offered upstairs). Burger with no draft beer, I was about to throw a shoe at the wonderful waitress. Sitting down and calming myself I noticed this seemed like a comfortable place to eat a burger, not as stuffy and metro as downstairs. I ordered a chocolate covered cherry spiked milkshake, which had cherry vodka, cherries and grated dark chocolate, I gotta say not bad! You tasted every flavor present, and definitely tasted the vodka. It was a nice novelty, maybe this place would start to grow on me. We ordered fries, which had Parmesan cheese and herbs on top and they were quite tasty, we added the truffle cheese whiz which was a delicious dipping sauce! (Warning: As you know I am lactose intolerant, so after ingesting the milkshake and cheese fries I began to second guess my dining options, but the food was so tasty, it was something I was willing to pay for!)

Now what you are curious about, the burger. first and foremost, my expectations were a place that you could build your own burger, this was not the case. For a place that specializes in burgers the options are relatively limited. 6 angus beef burgers, 1 salmon burger, 1 turkey burger, 1 veggie burger, 1 pork burger, 1 kobe beef burger, and a few other options. No substitutions is written in big bold letters! Even at Wendy’s I can have it my way! A burger place where I can’t customize my order, oh no BRGR we have a problem ( and where are the vowels in the name, I understand the general rules of the English language!)

I orderd the Shroomz Angus Burger cooked medium, that is what I received! The burger itself was cooked perfectly, the flavors were sadly one note, a tasty burger yes, was I transported to anywhere other than a rooftop in East Liberty, no! No flavor really came out at me, the brie cheese, the mushrooms, the carmelized onions, the mustard aioli. Not bad, flavors were muddled, you could say harmonized if you want, I will say it was just a good burger. The only criticism with the burger was the bun. Soft and delicious but my bun started to fall apart a bit upon tooth destruction of my burger. I would have liked a more hearty bun.

BRGR (where are the freaking vowels!) service was nice and quick, we had a nice conversation with one of our waitresses, but alas, I don’t think I will be returning, while it was a ok time, paying for gourmet prices for an OK time is simply not ok. In Pittsburgh there are a plethora of gourmet burger joints (Burgatory, The Pittsburgh Burger Company, Fat Heads) sadly BRGR you don’t cut the mustard….