Title: March 26, 2013
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

Park Burger
4218 Park Blvd., Oakland, CA
http://www.parkburgeroakland.com/menu.html#top
Review date: March 2013

I'm a burger lover. Carlos likes them, but seldom loves them away from home. We make expensive burgers at home – half organic beef, half ground bison, seasoned with a mix of oyster sauce, Chinese dark soy, garlic and coarse-ground black pepper. But after the superlative burger at Vault 164/San Mateo two weeks ago, he's been in more of a "burger mood" so I was happy to take advantage of it.

Park Burger opened in January 2013 and has gotten some decent reviews. Our friend Barbara recommended it to us, so we picked it for lunch. This is a small rectangular space, oddly laid out so that the regular two-top tables are jammed close together from front door to order counter. Opposite is a long bar-height table with bar stools. The seating areas are separated by a wide center aisle. There is a single four-top table in the prime spot by a window, although the two-tops can always be pushed together to make one big table for groups. 

Orders are taken at a counter past the tables, almost to the back. People dining in receive a plastic "street sign" on a stand that indicates one's order, which is brought over by the staff. The menu is the now-popular and detestable "signboard over the ordering counter". This ensures a backup if more than three people arrive at the same time but none of them have memorized the menu. 

Everyone has to stand in front of the counter with their heads tilted back, reading every description under five categories printed across 8' of wall space. The paper menus are unhelpfully placed beside the cash register, instead of near the front door. We came early in the week before noon, so have no idea whether this system works well when it's crowded at peak times.

I ordered the Drury, with Swiss cheese and mushrooms. Carlos ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger with Gruyere. Both were requested as doubles, with the standard lettuce/tomato/garlic aioli. I ordered a side of regular fries, Carlos ordered a cup of the Pabst Blue Chili. 

I have to say here I was surprised at the use of Pabst in the chili. My mother used to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in the 1950's, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone drink it in Northern California. It turns out that Pabst has become a "hipster" beer – it was a Gold Medal winner at the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. Pabst is now based in Los Angeles, and was cleverly marketed to bike messengers and skateboarders in a behind-the-scenes, spend-little-or-no-advertising-money campaign. It's considered one of the great "raised from the dead" stories of American business (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_39/b4196062862199.htm). 

The chili tasted like Hormel's no-bean chili, somewhat sweeter to offset a slightly bigger jalapeno kick. It's a no-bean chili, thickened with flour. It's good, but not the best we've ever had, due to the excessive sweetness. It may be that the Pabst contributes to that, as this lager has always had a sweet taste to it. Yanni's/Penngrove still takes first place in our hearts when it comes to chili.

The burger is the usual ground beef mix, something of a letdown after the super-tasty chuck/brisket mix at Vault 164/San Mateo. It was cooked well-done, although the cashier didn't ask us how we wanted our burgers, so I don't know if we could have gotten them our preferred medium-rare. They are formed into round patties slightly larger than sliders, a little thicker than usual at about 1/2".

Park Burger is proud of using a local butcher, Marin Sun Farms organic beef, for their burger. It's great that they grind it daily in-house, but it would be better if they'd salt their ground beef before forming it into patties, rather than as they're cooking. The patties end up being salted irregularly, to their detriment. 

They're also loosely packed, meaning that they fall apart easily. This is done to keep them tender – grass-fed, range-raised beef tends to be chewy – but if you order a double burger, as Carlos and I both did, we can guarantee as you eat, one or both of the patties will begin to fall apart as you're eating. The beef has good flavor, and the patties are thick enough that next time we wouldn't bother ordering a double.

The toasted brioche bun is tasty and holds together, although the top bun is the glossy dome-shape that again, has become widely popular although it just means more bread. The brioche is good, maybe a little salty. Both cheeses were thin sliced and almost tasteless, as were the sautéed mushrooms.  

But the fries are terrible, some of the worst in memory. They're battered and double-fried, but so irregularly cut in length and thickness that they can't be fried evenly. The bigger fries don't develop the desirable light fluffy interiors, but the many mini-cuts come out too crispy, like those canned potato sticks from the 1970's. 

Because the menu is essentially simple – hot dogs, burgers, a few salads, standard sides – it's important that execution go hand-in-hand with quality. Park Burger cares enough to make orders only as they're placed, leading to a slight wait as the grill cooks work through the queue. But although a fine burger, it's not a great one. And those sub-par sides bring the rating down. 

This is a tasty basic burger with a good bun. If you're in the mood for only that, it's worth the stop-in. With a basic burger, getting the addition of house pickled onions sounds enticing. We have to say the fries and the chili aren't to our liking, so we'd skip 'em. 

However, even a great burger, like the ones made by Duck Club/Lafayette and Vault 164/San Mateo, aren't worth a special drive. Propinquity is almost as important in the urge for a burger as is the quality of the beef/bun. When the mood hits, you want it now, not next week or next month. We're near Park Burger, and we'll look forward to trying Flipside on Lakeshore Ave. to compare these two.

Sodas are the Fanta/Barq's brands. Their iced tea is dispensed from the same machine, and is sweetened raspberry tea. 

Two people, lunch: two burgers, two extra patties, two beverages, one side was approximately $39.