Blogs

Here’s a bacon cheeseburger from the new Five Guys Burger & Fries chain location at 24004 Southwest Freeway in Rosenberg.

I got mine with mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and jalapeños and paid $5.59.

The standard issue burger at Five Guys Burgers & Fries is a double patty sandwich for $4.39 -- a single patty version is called a “little burger” and it goes for $3.19. The patties weigh a little under a quarter pound.

Ricky Craig has just opened Hubcap Grill (1111 Prairie, 713-223-5885), with a little financial backing from his dad. "I did this for my son," says Richard Craig of Craiganale's Italian Deli Café, which has long been a favorite spot downtown for homemade Italian food. "You know, I had to get him off my payroll some time."

The onion rings at Cheeburger Cheeburger were fried fresh to order in pure peanut oil. (So were the hand cut fries.)

You can get a monster basket of rings that feeds four to five people for five bucks. You can also get a big “Basket of Both” which includes fries and rings for five dollars. Pictured here is the “half basket” of the combo--it set me back four dollars.

The rings were hot and crunchy with a tart (buttermilk?) batter flavor. They weren’t as impressive as the monster onion rings you get at Del Frisco or Flemings, or as iconic as Tookie’s rings, but they were pretty good for burger chain rings.

This impressive half-pound burger came from Cheeburger Cheeburger, a new “gourmet hamburger” chain location in the Vintage Park Shopping Center off Louetta. We ordered ours cooked medium (they don’t allow medium-rare) with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayo, pickles, onions and jalapeños. The completed sandwich was held together with an olive-adorned toothpick. The thick, rounded patty came out pink in the middle and wonderfully juicy.

The Cowboy Burger at JR’s Bar-B-Que, 6810 Bingle, is a free-form half-pounder topped with bacon, Monterrey Jack, and mushrooms on Texas toast. At $7.50 it’s the top of the line at JR’s Bar-B-Que, which advertises the “Best Burgers on Bingle.” (If you know of a better burger on Bingle, please let us know.)

While I was attempting to photograph the sandwich, the restaurant’s manager, a young man with a blond crewcut, came outside and confronted me. “Can I ask what you’re doing?” he asked angrily.

Greetings from the Official Cheeseburger Capital of Texas. -- Robb Walsh

Up at the Humble Cafe, they call this monster a “Humble Burger.” The patty is a whopping ten ounces of hand-formed ground beef. The square buns are made from dense, sweet bread and well-toasted to stand up to the juicy meat. Lettuce, tomato and purple onion are standard; mustard and mayo are provided on the side.

The sandwich comes with unpeeled, hand-cut crispy fries and a whole dill pickle for $7. For $8.50, you can upgrade to a bacon cheeseburger with cheddar or a patty melt with sautéed onions and melted Swiss on toasted rye. -- Robb Walsh

Humble Cafe, 200 E. Main St. in Humble, 281-319-0200

The last time I ate a Krystal hamburger was in my freshman year at UT. There was a Krystal across the street from my off-campus dorm. The place was open 24 hours and I dimly remember stumbling in there while slightly inebriated at three in the morning and stuffing my face.

Founded in Chattanooga in 1932, Krystal has always served the same sort of tiny burgers that White Castle made famous under the name of “sliders.” The Krystal chain went bankrupt in the late 1990s. After the bankruptcy, the new owners reinvented the brand.

These days they are mining the 24/7 hours and their reputation as the White Castle of the South to appeal to the Harold and Kumar set. Check out their Facebook page and their Web site. All new locations, including the one in Houston, offer free Wifi.

I stopped by Adrian’s Burger Bar in the 5th Ward this weekend with the intention of eating one of Adrian Cooper’s amazing one-pound burgers. I was saddened to see that Adrian’s has closed its doors.

The old burger joint down the street from Wheatley High School was a neighborhood institution. Adrian’s grandmother ran a bar called Vivian’s that also made burgers for Wheatley High School students years ago.

Adrian’s Burger Bar and its awesome burger won Best Burger Joint in 2003 and Best Vintage Burger in 2005 in the Houston Press Best of Houston Awards. The 5th Ward is going to miss this place. – Robb Walsh

Okay, there is such a thing as too much meat. But when the burger patty is thick, it’s possible for the grill cook to make it a little pink in the middle, so it comes out wonderfully juicy. Such was the case with the subject of this week’s Café section review: the hand-formed hamburger at a rural convenience store in Washington called the 105 Grocery & Deli.

I could only finish half of the double meat, double cheese pictured here. I estimate that each patty was over half a pound. But it was the best half a burger I have put in my mouth in recent memory. -- Robb Walsh

Has anybody noticed that the formerly spectacular burger at Hruska’s Grocery & Bakery in Ellinger has slipped a little?

I stop at Hruska’s almost every time I drive between Houston and Austin by way of I-10 and Highway 71. I think it's almost exactly half way. At breakfast time, I either get kolaches or sausage and cheese klobasniky (pigs in a blanket). And at lunch or dinner time, I always get the burger.