Went to lunch at Bill's Jumbo Burgers and this dawned on me as a good topic. As a rule, I'm telling you up front these should be locally owned/operated places and generally not chains, as opposed to McDonald's and Red Robin. I'm looking for local places . . . you can get that kind of chain stuff anywhere. Plus, if you post it I'll make fun of you.
My list:
1) Bill's Jumbo Burgers; Xanthus and Admiral. Funky little wooden building. Weird fundamentalist stuff on the walls. Really damn good. Has always been really damn good.
2) Weber's; Brookside. This place doesn't get enough love. Root beer is really the draw (get the root beer freeze). The comination of great root beer and burgers makes it #2.
3) JJ's; 6th and Peoria. Weird as hell. Overpriced. Doesn't keep normal hours. Don't call it a hamburger, whatever you do. Gourmet ribeye burgers are great.
4) Claude's; Brookside. They finally got rid of the "we grind our own meat" sign a few years back. Always got a laugh out of that since they are across the street from a funeral home. Anywho, nothin' wrong with this place at all. Good prices, too. Got food poisoning there once, so it's lower on my list than the quality indicates.
5) (My curveball) The Mediterranean burger at Wild Fork; feta and other good Greek stuff on pita. I thought my lady was nuts when ordered this. Now I live for it.
6) Green bean burger at Brother's Houlighan; weird, but strangely wonderful.
7) Ron's. Ron's used to be an easy #1. But they moved in around the corner from me and I've become a regular. I've decided that their frito chili pie and chicken are better than their burgers. Their burgers are very good, but I'm not sure they are as good as they used to be.
There are others, but I must stop or I'll have to eat something.
FWIW, I'm not ranking the McNellie's burger because I think it's the most overrated thing in this town since Hanson. Nice burger, not remotely worth the hysteria on Wednesday nights.
