The Friendly Stop

                The Friendly Stop has been a favorite gathering spot in Glendale for years. Located at 685 Congress Rd., at the corner of Springfield Pike, the Friendly Stop is the epitome of a local pub. With the walls covered in old, unique and foreign license plates and the room filled with locals and regulars, this is the kind of place people enjoy stopping in and having a bite of some darn good pub grub.

Josh

                Well, with the end of school looming and then the SATs and ACTs on back to back Saturdays in a couple of weeks, Josh really hasn’t had time to keep up with his burger postings. That’s the shot of the burger he had. Maybe at some point he’ll be able to come back and post here; that is if he remembers enough about the restaurant.

Mark

                I started eating lunch at the Friendly Stop back when I was teaching classes at Southern Ohio College. It was nearby and funky and offered a filling meal at a great price. Little has changed with the restaurant though I haven’t been inside for lunch in about a decade.

                From their basic menu I chose Adam’s Double C.D. Deluxe which has two of their 1/3 pound freshly made all beef burger patties stacked high on a soft bun. I added American cheese and ran it through the part of the garden that included pickles, lettuce, tomato and mayo. I added my own mustard.

                Just as I remembered the burger came out dripping juices from the flat top grill and so tall I couldn’t wrap my whole mouth around it. For my first bite I settled for a nice, solitary hunk of meat. There was something about that first bite that disappointed me. My taste buds didn’t ring up the same rich beef flavor I remember having at the Friendly Stop years ago. Don’t get me wrong, the burger was good just not worthy of being touted as one of the best burgers in the city. It tasted fresh, it was properly cooked but it just didn’t have that full meaty, beefy flavor I was expecting.

                With the second bite I managed to squeeze the burger down enough to get the whole experience. This time with bun, lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle and mustard adding an assist to the fresh cheese, the burger seemed to come alive. The juices were dripping just a bit with the bun soaking up most of them and the juice was where the flavor was. That’s what was missing in that first bite.

                I’m a firm believer that any meal that is properly thought out and prepared should be enjoyed as a whole and not judged on one bite or one piece. This more than held true for my burger at the Friendly Stop. That solitary bite of meat seemed lacking while that second (and third and each subsequent) bite combined all of the intended flavors into a delectable burger.

                The juices that contributed so much to the flavor of this burger dripped a little bit on the first couple of bites but were mostly soaked up by the bun. The bun became so saturated with them that by the time I got to the last few bites the bottom piece was little more than a thumb sized piece of bread that kept me from holding onto the meat patty. That’s how I like them.

                Knowing how huge my burger was going to be I settled for the plate of chips. They were fresh but pretty standard. I did nosh on a couple of Josh’s fries and they were thick crinkle cuts that were perfectly done; crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

                While this isn’t my favorite burger in town, you owe yourself a favor to stop in if you are anywhere near Glendale around lunch or dinner or if you’re just in the mood.