Blue Goose Sports Cafe

                Located in the heart of the Sharonville Loop, the Blue Goose Sports Café proclaims itself a family friendly restaurant and sports bar. With a well-rounded menu and about 20 flat screen TVs situated all over the place, it’s impossible not to have access to a favorite sporting event. High dark ceilings may help to keep the sound levels a bit loud but the low lighting helps provide an intimate feeling. Located at 11060 Reading Rd. (making the parking situation quite difficult) and on the web at www.bluegoosesportscafe.com, the Blue Goose is a true neighborhood pub with a warm and friendly atmosphere.

Josh

                With the school year coming to an end, Josh is busy wrapping things up as well as prepping for the upcoming SAT and ACT exams. So while he was able to go and enjoy the foot at blue Goose Sports Café, he hasn’t had the time as yet to write up his review. If he gets round to it we’ll just edit it in and let all of you know. For his part he had the Classic Cheeseburger along with his usual garden of lettuce and tomato and ketchup and mustard for condiments. Along with the burger was a side of fries.

 Mark

                I’ve noted before that I’m a firm believer that a burger is more than just beef. It has to be taken as a collection of everything, from bun to garden to cheese and condiments. With that in mind, yes I suppose my outlook on a burger is that the whole is greater than the components. For me a tasty piece of beef can be dragged down by a stale or flaky bun, or from wilted lettuce or an unripe tomato. It takes all of the components working together to build a top notch burger.

                I was hoping for such a top notch burger when we stopped into The Blue Goose during the recent Sharonville Chamber of Commerce car show (check out some posts on our car blog at www.turnerbudds-carblog.blogspot.com).

                Noted for some of their appetizer options as well as The Big Goose one-half pound Angus burger I opted for the one-third pound Angus beef Classic cheeseburger. I chose lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, mayo and mustard to help adorn my burger.

                The first thing I noticed on my first bite was the bun. Unlike a lot of buns that are nothing more than something to keep your fingers clean while eating the burger, this one added a nice flavor to that first bite. I later asked our server and she told me that the Goose uses Klosterman buns. I thought it tasted familiar. Klosterman makes the kind of buns any guy would want to gently squeeze and then slap his meat between.

                The next thing that hit me on that first bite was the crunch of lettuce and how flavorful the tomato was. Those two flavors mingled and danced across my taste buds. This was the first day of May and produce isn’t supposed to be this crisp. But the folks at the Goose have found the right place to buy and it really enhances the burger.

                Again I asked our server who informed me that they were using Roma tomatoes. Roma tomatoes? Now I grow my own tomatoes in a little garden behind our house. And one of my favorites is the Roma. We always use the Roma more for cooking. It makes great sauces, particularly a tasty marinara and really beefs up a salsa. But I had never considered slicing it up and putting it on a burger. I mentally log that one for future reference.

                As I bit through the burger, the condiments added their own touch of flavor. At this point I was delighted with the symphony of taste that was building from this burger.

                Alas, that all ended. After the first bite it dawned on me, I hadn’t tasted the burger or the cheese. To confirm this I took another bite, then another. Nope, no real flavor from either burger or cheese.

                Advertised as a third pound all Angus beef patty, to look at it you get the feeling that it wasn’t formed by hand and probably wasn’t fresh but had most likely been frozen at some point. The lack of flavor was very disheartening. Especially when you consider that this was one of the more expensive burger joints we had encountered. The burger itself was nearly $8 and while I settled for the standard potato chips, Josh opted to be charged extra for an order of fries.

                The good atmosphere and fast and friendly service just weren’t enough to overcome the lack of flavor from the beef. Add to that the high prices and while the Blue Goose is an OK local pub, I wouldn’t go out of my way to make a return trip.