Rok:Brgr

It's about time I was able to give someone a glowing review.

I've been looking for a certain kind of restaurant for a while: a small place that specializes in burgers, going beyond the typical fast food fare without feeling the need to diversify, and playing classic rock in the background. Rok:Brgr comes so close to this.

The staff was amazingly friendly before I even walked in the door. It almost caught me off guard because as you can see from my previous posts, that's almost a rarity in this town.

It was lunchtime on a Saturday. I had plenty of time to grab a bite for lunch before heading off to work myself. There were already a good number of people eating, but there was plenty of space at the bar. One bartender was on duty, and she had a good enough handle on things to give us few prompt attention.

Rok:Brgr has a large food menu and a smaller drink menu, both leather bound and printed to resemble something out of the old west. They specialize in bourbon and beers, but along the back wall of the bar is an extensive display of vodkas, rums, and tequilas. One drink in particular caught my eye, which was listed first and included bacon-infused bourbon. I didn't try it, though. Perhaps another time.

I started with an order of rum and coke. I usually don't drink before I go to work, but considering I had a good three hours to walk around a burn it off with a full meal in my stomach, I decided it wouldn't hurt. The drink turned out to be small anyway:

This is where I decided that, once and for all, I prefer a darker rum in this drink. But that's not the bartender's fault.

Flipping through the food menu, my eyes settled almost immediately on the Black & Bleu burger: bleu cheese crumbles, bacon, and caramelized onions on a 10oz hamburger patty. All of my favorite things to put on a burger. I ordered it without hesitation, and it looked as fantastic as it sounded:

It took me a minute or two to figure out just how I would get a bit out of this thing, which was just too tall for my mouth. I imagine I looked quite silly then. But once I did, the burger was worth it. It was easily one of the best burgers I ever had, and it didn't last for very long. Some of the blue cheese softened up in the process, falling out with some caramelized onions and mixing together on the place. That was probably the best part.

Not bad for a lunch. My burger was one of the more expensive on the menu, to be fair. Many of the others were around 10 dollars. They're a little pricey, but worth it. The bubbly bartender definitely got her 20% tip, and I'll be going back at least to try that bacon bourbon drink.